The Eternal Hangover

As my car climbed the hill, my heart sunk into my stomach. I parked as far away from my friends as I could and quickly exited the car, not once looking at them. Now it was every man for himself. Emerging into the open air, I suddenly became aware of myself. I could feel my puffy, blood-shot eyes. My palms became slimy. My fingers clinched into a fist and my nails dug into my skin. My sight blurred and my tunnel of vision tried to focus on the front door. Every step seemed more awkward than the last. Eyes pierced me from all sides. I felt naked. My body trembled like a sheep in the midst of wolves.

As I stepped outside, the cold suddenly rushed to me, wrapping me inside of it. The leaves rustled by on the garden path. My first thought was to go back inside, but I decided to be that wonderful father, and make sure that everything is ok. So I kept walking forward, being careful not to trip on the dark, bumpy dirt path. Then I heard the noise again, a faint vooing, like voo voo voo getting louder and softer. I followed the sound, and then all of a sudden, it stopped. I listened really hard, but i couldn’t hear anything anymore. My conscious said to just go back, but my body took another step forward, for what reason, I have no idea. Then my body felt like it was being stretched apart and all i could hear was VOO VOO

“Each year in the U.S., nearly 80,000 people die from alcohol-related causes, making it the third leading preventable cause of death in our country” (Alcohol Facts 1). Alcoholism is a major controversy in the United States, and many debate whether alcoholism is a disease or choice. Accordingly, based on scientific evidence, alcoholism is a disease because it has major long-term effects on the brain, it is an addiction, and it is treated medically.

“Just now.” Taehyung yawned, letting go of Jungkook’s hand to stretch, his husky voice cracking a little from sleep as he let out a satisfied groan. Jungkook watched his body twisting, his shirt riding up to show smooth skin stretching taut over lean muscle, and couldn't help but reach out to touch. He ran his fingertips down Taehyung’s side and brushing them over the softer skin of his lower stomach, watching the muscles jump and flutter beneath his touch. Taehyung lifted his head to glance at him, eyebrow raised, lips stretched to one side in a lazy smirk, before sitting up, lightly, softly grabbing his wandering hand and holding it in place, hooded gaze flirty and teasing. Jungkook sat back and grinned appreciatively as Taehyung ran a

Staring up at the dark ceiling, I lay on my bed, my body aching from yesterday’s fall. I really don’t want to move, my back hurting the most. My mind continues to wander back to the strange book. I was so close to maybe finding a way out of this place and now I’m not. All I had to do was just grab the book, but instead I dropped it.

Cliff sat down next to Jensen watching the other alpha down two whiskey shots in a row. “Slow down alpha, or I’ll be taking you home in about twenty minutes.” Cliff admonished.

According to Olsson et al. (2017), problematic alcohol use is both dangerous and addictive as it affects the brain functions by producing a euphoric effect, such as a sense of happiness and excitement. VicHealth (2017) outline that alcohol is heavily promoted and socially accepted in Australian culture nowadays. As a result, people are misusing alcohol in the course of socialising and celebrating events by binge drinking. This binge drinking culture is becoming a social and economic issue in Australia (Jones, Gordon, & Andrews, 2016; Miller et al., 2016; Dietze,Wright, & Lim, 2016). The National Centre for Education and Training on Addiction (NCETA, 2017) conclude that the recommended level of alcohol is 30 ml for pure alcohol and 425 ml

I gasped for air as I turned the corner on Stanford Street and passed Stony Brook Elementary School. Eight miles. I exerted all the energy left in my body to run up my not-so-steep driveway. My fingers and toes shivered as pins and needles rushed through my body, even though the summer humidity had just arrived for the season. As I reached the top of my driveway, I stumbled into my house. I gripped every object in my path. I knew my muscles had been eating themselves away, as grasping onto the smooth, granite edges of the counter to keep myself stable took my entire body’s corporation. My deteriorating muscles clenched as my powerless strength pushed myself up to stand alongside the counter in the middle of the kitchen. I think I may pass out, again. I held onto the counter as if I held on for my life. I closed my thick eyelids and patiently waited until the feeling past— it always did.

arm. I look down at a stream of blood shooting from my pale arm. The small room tilts as the moniter beeps in accompianment to my accelerating heartbeat.

a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a The first way to help avoid drinking and

The United States has one of the highest legal drinking ages among the developed world, and the entire world overall (McCardell). Yet underage drinking is still prevalent in American drinking culture, and typically indicates an instance of binge drinking and often results in dangerous activity (Hingson, Zha, and Weitzman). Supporters of the current federal policy on the drinking age would suggest that drinking under 21 results in these instances of irresponsible drinking by default. Other developed countries in Europe have lower drinking ages and trends that would suggest otherwise (Rooney). The legal drinking age in the United States should be lowered to at least 18 years old to ensure a safer drinking environment for young people and to

They all potentially binge drink at these ages due to work, stress and socializations. They come home and have a drink, but if you are sitting at home watching tv drinking you don’t really take into account how much you are drinking, so occasionally people binge drink without them even going out or them even knowing. Some people when they were younger saw their parents come home and have a drink so they think that this is the norm to do when they have had a busy day at work. Men’s percentage is higher in these age brackets because they do more laborious work and it is the norm for men to go to the pub after work, whereas women usually want to sit down and relax when they get home or they might have children so have to think about childcare

In the article, Smoking is the leading cause, I learned that “Cigarettes are accountable for 480,00 deaths annually compared to 88,000 a year from alcohol. The enormous gap in the death toll makes it unclear as to why it is legal to smoke at eighteen but not to drink. It is very hypocritical to allow smoking and ban liquor because cigarettes are more harmful than alcohol. This is because “[T]obacco smoke contains a deadly mix of more than 7,000 chemicals. Hundreds are toxic. About 70 are known to cause cancer” which can be found in an article called “Smoked tobacco products”. These toxins are dispensed into the air, polluting it, and affecting the wellbeing of not only the smoker but for anyone around the smoker as well. Alcohol, on the

Furthermore, many scholars argued that heavy drinking may be associated with negative mental and physical health. Evidence demonstrates that exposure to alcohol can cause irreversible brain damage. After reading various research, I determined that age is an important factor in the development of alcohol tolerance, and I also reflected on the outcome it can have on the brain. Marisa M Silveri, an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School carried out a research on separate age groups, and came out with the following results:

Three 10 minute lessons were put together for the Forest Lake SHS students in years 7 and 8. These lessons were taught to three different classes and data was gathered at the end. The purpose of these lessons was to implement a strategy that would reduce the lack of knowledge on binge drinking in the younger years of high school. The aim of this strategy is to acknowledge the inequity of lack of education about binge drinking from younger students and educate them through lessons. Each of the three lessons consisted of questions that the students had to answer which required students to think about what they thought binge drinking is, what are the effects of binge drinking, and what are ways to reduce the risks. At the end of each lesson, feedback