If you love me, don’t offer me a drink!
Is this the ultimate problem with alcohol? Why do we associate sharing a glass of alcohol with the person we love, when in reality, it is a poisonous, addictive chemical?
It does seem a bit strange doesn’t it? We’re probably all familiar with those old fables about lacing an enemy’s chalice with arsenic. Or a dastardly spy story about secretly depositing poison in the food of an unsuspecting foe. Of course, the expected outcome is a gruesome death of an unwanted adversary.
We are all familiar with the term “poisoned chalice”. So why exactly do we spend so much time and ceremony pouring a delicious glass of alcoholic poison and giving it to the ones we love? A good friend, other family members, or god forbid – or own children?
Alcohol is a poisoned chalice
Yes, the problem with alcohol is that it is literally a poisoned chalice. This is because drinking too much alcohol has been proven to be associated with the onset of many types of cancers, terminal liver disease, early onset of diabetes, as well as increased rate of heart attack and early death.
So if you love me, don’t offer me a drink!
If you love someone, support them to avoid alcohol, especially if they have expressed a desire to do so. Encourage them to cut back. Furthermore, don’t provide social acceptance of drinking too much alcohol in front of your children. The problem with alcohol is that it seems to have completely woven itself into the fabric of society such that we totally accept it.
Why?
I know this subject can be a little confronting, and I know many people stopped reading back at the top. However, for those who may still be interested, there are many good reasons to think differently about the lifestyle choices we make. This includes what we eat, what we drink, and how much we exercise.
It seems everything is bad for us these days
Well, yes and no. Some people seem determined to follow every piece of advice they see in advertisements on television, or promoted on the internet, or pictured at every bus stop or billboard that we drive past. Explain to me how a can of coke helps to get more out of life? How can a sticky burger improve your health? Just because it looks great in an advertisement doesn’t mean it is actually good for us. We need to be able to make decisions about our future health and lifestyle, rather than just blindly trust whatever we see in advertisements.
So why do we think drinking too much alcohol is acceptable?
The problem with alcohol in our society is largely due to social acceptance and cultural conditioning. We accept that alcohol is a normal part of our everyday lives. It’s completely accepted that we share alcohol with our family, our friends and with people we don’t even know. In some cultures we can’t even share a social gathering without alcohol any more. We tell each other that it will be fine. “Oh, we won’t get hooked!” and “We can always stop before it gets out of hand.” And what about “just this once…”
How can I have just one drink of an addictive substance and somehow be expected to stop drinking?
Why do some people feel threatened by this conversation?
I am not taking your drinks away!
I am not forcing anyone to change.
I am not saying you have drinking problems.
I am not your conscience.
I am not suggesting getting help with alcoholism.
Most humans resist change and fight against any suggestion that might have an impact on their status quo. Don’t believe how strongly people resist change? Lets change course for a moment, and discuss a similar, but different subject.
Who loves bacon? 
Everyone loves bacon, but we don’t expect to eat it all day every day. Well we shouldn’t! In case you are not aware, processed meats and high fat foods have been increasingly associated with diseases such as cancer, heart disease and diabetes. Sound familiar?
So even though we may well love to eat lots of these processed foods that are high on flavour, but low on nutrients, we need to be aware of healthier alternatives, and cut back on the amount of these types of foods.
What else is on the hit list?
Free calories from added sugar is the next unhealthy lifestyle choice on the hit list. Sweet foods have sugar added – for no good reason. Soft drinks and even fruit drinks have way too much sugar. That the average person cannot hope to utilize those extra calories during the day, so they get stored as fat.
The Problem with Alcohol
But the problem with alcohol is that it is an addictive chemical that changes the way our brains work. So much so that over a long period of time, our subconscious mind actually believes that alcohol is okay. And that is the problem with alcohol because alcohol is different from unhealthy food and sugary drinks. Furthermore, alcohol is actually changing your brain so that you can’t just stop after one drink. We all know that sometimes despite our best intentions to just have one drink, what actually happens is that our resolve weakens, our will power is broken, and we end up drinking too much alcohol. If you want help to stop drinking, then we can show you how to stop drinking.
On one hand, it is a little difficult to overdose on chocolate cake. This is because you have to stop when you are full! But the problem with alcohol is that enough is never enough. And the pleasurable sensation that we get from drinking just seems to make us keep going until we drink too much until we end up feeling bad.
Alcohol really is a poison chalice
So why do we share poison with our loved ones? Why do we drink with friends? And why do we risk the future of our children by drinking alcohol in front of them? By doing that we’re showing that we welcome alcohol as socially acceptable. All this when we know it is actually a poisonous, mind altering chemical?
Children whose parents drink too much alcohol are likely to grow up and follow the lead of their elder generation. These children are more likely to drink too much alcohol also. Not only is drinking alcohol likely to be seen as socially acceptable, but also the amount of alcohol becomes accepted as the norm. Do beware of the poison chalice being passed onto future generations.
If you have a problem with alcohol, be aware of your own drinking habit, and if you love someone, support them to avoid alcohol also!
