ME, MYSELF... AND DRINKING

Suitable for Middle School

This video examines the myths and realities of drinking alcohol, discusses why young people drink and show what can happen when they're confronted with situations involving alcohol. (23 min)

Teacher's Guide

Program Objectives

Me, Myself…and Drinking has been designed to:

• present students with accurate, objective information about the mental, physical, and social effects of alcohol;

• help students understand and evaluate the reasons that young people begin to drink;

• enable students to contrast the image of drinking presented in advertisements with reality;

• encourage students to make well-informed and intelligent decisions about drinking.

• Introduction

Although the question of alcohol may not be of immediate concern to all preadolescents, at some point they will have to make several decisions regarding alcohol. Chief among them are whether to drink and, is so, how much and when. The attitudes and habits of family and peer groups, prevailing social attitudes, and current advertising appeals are conditioning and forming the ways in which young people will use alcohol in the future. The increasing use and abuse of alcohol by younger children makes the need for education at the middle-school level all the more urgent. Informed young people will stand a better chance of making sound decisions about alcohol. Instead of becoming victim to personal insecurities and peer pressure, they may be able to distinguish between the compelling social argument for drinking and the very real hazards that alcohol presents.

Me, Myself…and Drinking is designed not only to inform students about alcohol but also to stimulate discussion and self-examination. The program explains what alcohol is and what its effects and dangers are. It also illustrates some of the current social attitudes toward alcohol, the biases of alcohol advertising, the nature of the pressure to drink exerted by peers, and how alcohol, if misused by parents, can affect family life. A series of dramatizations of several problems involving alcohol that students may be facing now or may face in the future will encourage discussion and enable students to express their feelings. Armed with facts and increased self-awareness, students may be able to find satisfactory answers to some of the many confusing problems that alcohol poses.

• Background Information

Although there are many types of alcohol, the only kind that is used in alcoholic beverages is a colorless, flammable liquid known scientifically as ethyl alcohol or ethanol. Plant tissues such as grains, fruits, and vegetables contain small amounts of ethanol. It is produced through fermentation, the process of plant sugar in combination with yeast spores breaking down into ethanol and carbon dioxide.

Another form of alcohol is methanol or methyl alcohol, commonly known as wood alcohol. It is poisonous and should never be swallowed. It is used commercially, most notably in antifreeze. Another poisonous alcohol, which is derived from petroleum is isopropyl, commonly called rubbing alcohol.

Alcohol also affects people in a variety of ways—through the digestive system, the circulatory system, and the nervous system. Most focus is on the nervous system. Alcohol first affects the higher brain centers (these rule behavior, speech, and memory) and slows mental functions. It next hits the motor centers, causing difficulty with movements and vision. In extreme cases of intoxication, coma and/or death result if the depression of systemic functions becomes strong enough to stop breathing and heartbeat.

• Summary of Content

Me, Myself…and Drinking, a two-part video program, is designed to help students understand the effects of alcohol, attitudes toward alcohol, and the many situations in which alcohol may affect their lives.

Although young teens are not legally able to purchase alcohol, they do face situations in which they must make decisions regarding its use. In part one, “Decisions about Drinking,” the on-camera teen narrator, Jenny, talks to students about drinking and the ways it may already be affecting their lives through family and friends.

Four vignettes show viewers situations in which teens are confronted with alcohol. In “The Nightmare,” Jason’s friends ask him to steal beer from his father to take to a party. His anxiety over pleasing his friends—but at risk of disappointing his father—manifests itself in a nightmare Jason has in which he is haunted by the ever-present image of beer. Later, Jason doesn’t show up at the party.

Next, two girls pressure Darlene to drink a beer in “Everybody’s Doing It.” Darlene holds her ground against drinking with them, at the expense of the two friendships.

In “Joshua’s Friends,” a group of teens are leaving a party when they discover the driver they’re to ride with is obviously drunk. After getting control of the car keys, they decide to call for help.

And, finally, Susan learns “Spencer’s Secret” when he tells her his father is too “sick” to drive them to baseball practice. Susan senses something is wrong, but Spencer can’t, or won’t, tell her about it. Then she finds out the father threw a party last night. She makes arrangements to talk to Spencer about it later, and tries to find her own ride to the field.

The second part of the program, “Facts about Drinking,” is hosted by Raymond who discusses some reasons adults drink alcohol: to have a good time, to look romantic, as part of a religious ceremony, or to make toasts with on special occasions. Before making his own decision about using alcohol, he decides to talk to a friend, Dolores Brown, an alcohol counselor.

Dolores outlines the passage of alcohol into the body and into the bloodstream. A drink reaches the brain just two to three minutes after swallowing. When someone drinks more alcohol than their body can process, it sedates the brain and affects memory control, judgment, balance, senses, and vital organs. Too much alcohol can even cause death.

Long-term drinking creates health problems such as cancer of the mouth, cirrhosis of the liver, stomach ulcers, and memory loss. It can also lead to alcoholism.

Raymond learns that drinking-related traffic accidents are the leading cause of death for people his age.

With all these obvious reasons not to drink, why do so many people continue to consume alcohol? For several reasons, Dolores explains, and she shows Raymond some advertisements and TV commercials for alcoholic beverages. The actors look like they’re having a fabulous time drinking. The beverage companies hope you will follow their example. Other influences on whether or not a person will drink come from parents and peers.

Now that Raymond’s equipped with the facts about alcohol, he feels better able to make a decision for himself about drinking.

• Alcohol Questions for Discussion and Review: Decisions about Drinking:

1. Name and explain three instances in you life where you encountered alcohol. The situations can involve your family, friends or just you on your own.

2. In “The Nightmare” Jason was pressured by friends to bring beer to a party. Explain a situation you encountered in which your friends asked you to do something you really didn’t want to do. How did you feel? Did you go along? What happened?

3. In “Everybody’s Doing It” Darlene’s friends wanted her to drink beer with them Why do you think the two friends were drinking? Why was is so important to them that Darlene drink too?

4. Explain what you would do if the driver of the car you are to ride in is obviously drunk. Does it make a difference if the driver is a peer or an adult?

5. What do you think is really wrong with Spencer’s father? In this situation Susan was affected by someone else’s drinking—someone she didn’t even know very well. Can you think how Spencer’s father’s drinking might affect someone else outside their family.

• Alcohol Questions for Discussion and Review: Facts about Drinking:

1. Name four different social situations in which adults might drink alcohol

2. Explain the passage of alcohol through the body after it is swallowed. How long does it take for the alcohol to reach the brain?

3. What happens when a person drinks more alcohol than his body can process?

4. Name four health problems that can occur from long-term drinking.

5. What is the major cause of death for teenagers in the U.S. today?

6. Name three reasons people choose to drink in spite of its many drawbacks.

• Related Activities

1. Have students prepare a classroom display illustrating and describing the physical effects of alcohol

2. Have the class plan and present a program about alcohol to a school assembly. This may be either preceded or followed by a school poll that has been designed to find out how many students have tried alcohol, in what quantities, and why.

3. Have students collect advertisements for alcoholic beverages and analyze them to discover the various approaches, appeals, and techniques used. Then have students evaluate the validity of each type of approach, appeal, or technique.

4. Have the class compile a handbook explaining the services offered by all of the local agencies and organizations that help people with alcohol-related problems.

5. Have students collect newspaper and magazine articles that are concerned with areas related to alcohol use such as accidents, health, laws, and so on, and write reports based on the articles.

6. Have students discuss the following situations:

--Liquor is available at a party where many of the young people are not legally old enough to drink;

--An older brother or sister has been drinking and driving;

--Father has been drinking at a family party an d had to drive home;

--A group of friends decide that they would like to experiment with alcohol and that each of them should get something from home. One person in the group doesn’t want to drink or take liquor from the house. What should he or she do?

7. Have the class arrive at a list of situations in which people who have been drinking too much cause problems. Then have the class from small groups and let each group choose one situation to act out for the rest of the class.

8. Invite a local member of S.A.D.D. (Students Against Driving Drunk) to speak to your class or invite an alcohol counselor in to answer students’ questions.