Going from drunk to sober freed up about 70 hours a week for me. How was I gonna fill up those hours without drinking!?!

Everyone knows that drunks can get mean, and too much violence in our communities is caused by alcohol and alcohol abuse. To better understand why alcohol causes such aggression, University Of Kentucky psychologist Peter Giancola did a modeled experiment including a challenging game, vodka and electro shocks, and has confirmed a previously unproven theory of alcohol and aggression.

A University of Minnesota study looking at underage access to alcohol reports that almost one in five young men will buy alcohol for a stranger when approached to do so outside of a liquor store. Although this is illegal, obviously if so many will do this for complete strangers, then the threat of arrest is not much of a deterrent. Education and enforcement are needed, and we need to protect our kids better from such easy access to alcohol.

People who wonder if they may have a problem with alcohol often seek reassurance from consumption guidelines, but as with everything related to use and dependency, nothing is concrete, and what may be safe for one, harmful to another. The best way to know whether your drinking has become problematic is simply to try taking a good long break from alcohol.

While I've always been suspicious of pharmaceutical company health advisories, the recommendations against alcohol consumption with opiate type pain medications should be taken very seriously. The concurrent consumption of alcohol and pharmaceutical pain meds greatly increases the addictiveness of the pills, can increase bodily harm, and ultimately increases the risks of a fatal overdose.

People drinking Red Bull cocktails benefit from stimulant effects of the energy drink that mask many of the perceived depressive effects of the alcohol, and a recent study reports that almost 20% of these same people are not using designated drivers after a night out, and are simply choosing the person who appears least drunk to drive the party home.

I was a drunk…and I had a fat ass. Seriously, I drank heavily for years, and when I look back at pictures of me in my drinking days, I can’t believe that I belong to that pudgy face looking blearily back at me.

Overconfidence has been the end of too many happy recoveries. Don't let it kill yours - remember what those drinking and drugging days were really like.

There is truth to the AA mantra "One day at a time" but sometimes one day, one whole day without drinking or using, feels far too long.

One minute at a time? Sounds silly, but it can work.

Addiction hijacks the mind, and then confirmation bias boots free will right out the door.

It can drive a family crazy trying to understand "why they won't stop...why they can't see what they're doing to themselves..." when surely things like losing a job or a wife are pretty clear indicators of a problem.

Understand confirmation bias and get a sneaky look inside an alcoholic mind - and understand why they never seem to see the problem.

We think of beer as a softer alternative to hard liquor- A softer alternative to liquor accounts for the vast majority of binge drinking in America today...

So, here are the game stats:
 

• 25 million spent on beer ads.
• More than twice as many beer ads than for any other type of product
• 33 million kids watching
• One of the most violent days of the year

Cheaters! About a quarter of drinkers never suffer throuh the indignities of a hangover. No sweaty, achey, nauseus and headached mornings (and afternoons) for them, but oddly enough, these people that don't suffer the morning after also seem less prone to developing an alcohol abuse problem. Oddly enough, it is those of us who sufer terribly from hangovers (gluttens for punishment) that are at a higher risk of alcoholism.

Researchers in the Uk have concluded that people who drinker greater quantities of alcohol within a set duration experience greater intoxication related problems while intoxicated.

Hmm...

OK - actually it's a pretty interesting study that although beginning from a pretty banal premise, may help policy makers reduce the societal impact of binge drinkers.