Rethink that Drink is a social awareness campaign aimed to reduce the negative effects associated with high-risk alcohol use among students.
At NDSCS, students have many choices to make from which Netflix series to watch next to their academic program to study. The choice you have to make about drinking alcohol is no different.
We know that the majority of NDSCS students don’t use alcohol or if they do, are using in low-risk ways. In fact, for those students that choose to use alcohol, the average number of drinks per week is only 2.2! We want you to be prepared to make the best decisions possible so you can be successful at NDSCS and after graduation.
*2020 NDSCS Student Wellness and Perceptions Survey
6 Drinking Myths
Eating
If you think eating will sober you up. It doesn’t. The ONLY thing that will sober you up is TIME.
Eating before a night of drinking is a good thing…here’s why:
- Alcohol gets into the bloodstream through your stomach, so the less that’s in there, the quicker it is going to get to you. You want food in your stomach to slow the absorption of alcohol into the bloodstream. Take note: not greasy, unhealthy food – that will lead to acid reflux making you feel worse!
- Drinking on an empty stomach gets you drunk faster, often to dangerous levels. To college students, this may sound great, but while it shoots your BAC up fast, it also leads to a quick crash. Moreover, drinking before you’ve eaten can take a toll on your liver, kidneys, cardiovascular system and digestive track.
Nothing will speed up the process – not coffee, a shower, bread. It takes roughly one hour for a person to metabolize one standard drink of alcohol.
Tolerance
If you think that tolerance is a good thing… it’s NOT. It increases vulnerability to serious problems.
Tolerance is the lessening of the effectiveness of alcohol after a period of prolonged or heavy use. You will end up spending much more money and consuming many more calories with a higher tolerance.
Never try to match others and be aware of how much you’ve been drinking. Keep track of how much you’ve had and set a limit for yourself. How? Download the ND BAC app on iPhone
Knowing the amount of alcohol in each drink is important too.
It takes about 30 minutes to feel the effects of alcohol, so if your throwing back shots every five minutes, your going to have an uncomfortable night.
Sleep
If you think alcohol will help you sleep. It actually reduces the amount of time your body spends in REM sleep. Leading you to feel more tired.
A drink before bedtime may make it easier to fall asleep given the depressant effects that alcohol has on the CNS, but a booze-filled snoozing session will quickly become disturbed. REM sleep happens about 90 minutes after we fall asleep. It’s the stage of sleep when people are dreaming. Disruptions in REM sleep may cause daytime drowsiness, reduced concentration and actually give you the feeling of jet lag. This will make you feel less rested and actually more tired!
Stress
If you think drinking alcohol reduces stress levels, it can actually lead to alcohol dependence and make anxiety symptoms worse.
Problems occur when stress is constant and people continue to try and deal with its effects by drinking alcohol. Instead of calming anxieties, long-term, heavy drinking can actually work against you, leading to numerous medical and psychological problems and increasing the risk for alcohol dependence.
Things That Help You Reduce Stress
- Exercise
- A hot bath
- Yoga
- Counseling/therapy
Sick
If you think beer before liquor, never been sicker…Liquor before beer, then you’re in the clear. The order and mixture of alcohol will not make you sick. The speed you are drinking WILL make you sick.
- The order you’re having your drinks will not make you sick, but the rate at which you are drinking alcohol will make you sick!
- A standard drink of beer, wine or liquor contain equivalent amounts of alcohol. Alcohol is alcohol and a drink is a drink – your body doesn’t know (or care!) what color or kind the drink is…just how much percentage of pure alcohol is in that drink.
Game
If you think drinking won’t affect your game, think again. It impairs muscle growth, dehydrates the body, prevents muscle recovery, depletes energy and affects memory and nutrition.
- Impairs muscle growth: exercising under the influence increases your likelihood of injury and impedes muscle growth. Long-term alcohol use diminishes your body’s natural protein production that results in a decrease in muscle growth. Dehydrates the body: Alcohol is a potent diuretic that causes dehydration and electrolyte imbalances. This slows muscle recovery and healing. When dehydrated, an athlete is at more risk for cramps, muscle pulls and muscle strains.
- Getting hydrated before, during and after drinking alcohol will help. The best thing you can do? Alternate alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks during the evening to replenish the body immediately. Prevents muscle recovery: Because drinking affects your sleeping patterns, your body’s HGH hormone decreases. HGH helps your body build and repair muscles and alcohol can decrease this by as much as 70%. It can also reduce testosterone levels, which is associated with a decrease in muscle mass leading to impaired performance! Affects memory and nutrition! Alcohol affects the functioning of the hippocampus, which is the part of your brain that is vital to making memories. The majority of memory making happens when you are sleeping – which alcohol disrupts! This causes a reduction in your brains ability to process information.
- Alcohol is not digested, but absorbed in the bloodstream and your body cannot store alcohol for future energy use, like we do with carbs. Alcohol has a ton of calories and alcohol consumption increases fat storage and can adversely affect your percentage of body fat.