 Smashed, Loaded, Blasted, and Bombed: What You Should Know About Alcohol Introduction The world of the adolescent is filled with choices. As teenagers are introduced into adult society and its responsibilities, they are faced with decisions that will shape their future and with choices that affect their present. Along with decisions about education and career paths, teenagers are making choices regarding their social habits. Clear-cut decisions are not easy for today’s adolescent. Parental admonishments, peer pressure, and the strong influences of advertising and the media tend to send mixed messages to the teenager who is trying to decide what is best. This program points out the importance of making the responsible choices about alcohol consumption. It supplies the teenager with information about alcohol, including its effects and social implications. Statistics state that 90 percent of teenagers have tried alcohol at least once by the time they are seniors in high school. This program attempts to help teens through the decision-making process by offering ways to recognize and handle peer pressure while taking a responsible course of action in situations where alcohol is a factor. The emphasis in this program is on the adolescent’s ability to make responsible decisions about alcohol based on intelligence, knowledge and a desire to be true to oneself. It focuses on the need to make straightforward choices with an emphasis on remaining faithful to those choices. The program is divided into three parts: 1. Facts, Myths and Misconceptions --Highlights some of the true and false beliefs that adolescents hold regarding alcohol, particularly in social settings. This part also incorporates national and statewide statistics concerning alcohol abuse. 2. Social Pressures, Smart Choices --Examines the social consequences of alcohol use. Looks at alcohol as an issue in the media and in society. Portrays peer pressures that often accompany drinking situations—parties, group gatherings, etc.—and how to handle them. 3. When Drinking Becomes a Problem… --Explains the difference between problem drinking and alcoholism, the warning signs of alcohol abuse and options available for treatment including programs and counseling. Objectives This program is designed to help adolescents: Make a responsible choice concerning alcohol based on the facts and not on the myths and misconceptions often circulated among teens. Understand the seriousness of alcohol as a substance that is often abused, and the legal and social consequences that follow that abuse. Learn to recognize and handle alcohol-related problems, such as when someone is too drunk to drive or has become ill as a result of drinking too much. Know where and when to go for help, whether for oneself or a friend. Realize that one does not have to succumb to peer pressure, that it is okay to refuse a drink with friends or at a party. Being the “designated driver” is an act of responsibility, not weakness, and shows emotional growth and confidence on the part of the teen who chooses that role. • Part One: Facts, Myths and Misconceptions The first part of the program opens with a party scene, establishing a group of teens enjoying themselves with music growing louder in the background. The camera moves through the crowd and we hear various conversations about alcohol and drinking. The program’s host is introduced and he comments on the scene. He points out that there are many misconceptions about alcohol and its effects. What are the truths about alcohol? The host poses a series of questions to the viewing audience. These questions relate to the acts and myths surrounding alcohol. Students are encouraged to answer the questions as the host pauses to leave time for them to do so before supplying the correct answer. Points addressed include: • Alcohol content, the misconceptions of beer and wine having less alcohol than reputed “hard” liquor. • Alcohol’s effect on the body and mind, how much alcohol can one consume before getting drunk or “feeling it?” • The different effects of alcohol on the body and mind at specific times, such as with or without food, etc. • Review Questions: Part One 1. What do you know about alcohol? Where did you get your information? 2. When did you form your first opinions about drinking? When did you first deal with the issue of alcohol? What role, if any, do you think alcohol plays in your life right now? 3. What facts, myths and misconceptions brought out in this film were new to you? What information surprised you the most? What did you already know or think you knew before you saw this program? • Part Two, Social Pressures, Smart Choices This section incorporates a variety of vignettes to supply adolescents with information and examples concerning society and its attitudes toward alcohol. Through discussions with teens, interviews with experts in the field and discussion-oriented questions conducted by the host, adolescents are given a wide-ranging view of how alcohol affects our life-styles. The teens involved in the discussion cover questions concerning peer pressure—for example, how to say no assertively when a drink is offered—and social acceptance. The experts comment on adolescents’ cultural mores and direct the discussion in ways that allow the teens to come up with helpful suggestions to counteract the possible negative responses from peers when they say no to alcohol. This part of the program also touches on the problems that arise when someone’s judgement becomes clouded by too much alcohol. The experts and host ask teens to consider the consequences of making a bad decision under the influence of alcohol, such as driving while intoxicated or becoming physically intimate with a friend or acquaintance. The program discusses various ways to handle peer pressure and build on the courage of one’s convictions. • Review Questions: Part Two 1. What is society’s view of alcohol? What is your view? How has the media, family or friends influenced your view? 2. What are some of your feelings about people who drink? Those who drink too much? What do you consider “too much?” Do you think it varies from person to person? Can some people hold their liquor better than others? 3. How does advertising depict alcohol and the people who drink it? Do you think it is an accurate portrayal? 4. Discuss the way in which drinking alcohol is considered an acceptable social behavior. 5. How have society’s feelings toward alcohol changed throughout the decades from Prohibition to the present? 6. Do you feel it is important to drink as a part of social gatherings where liquor is available, to be “one of the crowd?” Are you uncomfortable when you’re not joining in? Why or why not? 7. Role-play some ways you might refuse a drink if it was offered to you at a party by a) the host, b) your best friend, c) a cute girl or boy you would like to date. 8. Would you say no to a drink even if it would upset the person who has offered it to you? How would you make them understand why you aren’t drinking? 9. How would you handle a friend who was drunk and wanted to drive home? If a stranger or acquaintance at a party were drunk and heading to his/her car to drive home, would you intervene? If so, how? • Part Three: When Drinking Becomes a Problem… According to surveys done throughout the U.S., there are 3 million “problem” drinkers under the age of 17. This section of the program deals with how to recognize the symptoms of both problem drinking and alcoholism and how to get help. Experts who share their knowledge join the host. A series of questions about how to recognize alcoholism, problem drinking and alcohol-related situations are raised and students are encouraged to answer as many as they can. Other questions relate directly to the adolescents’ opinions on alcohol and its effects. This section outlines the different avenues that can be taken to help problem drinking or alcoholism. A number of programs including Alcoholics Anonymous, Al-a-Teen, counseling and treatments are mentioned as gateways to support and recovery, as well as how a teenage can seek help for a friend or family member. • Review Questions: Part Three 1. What is the difference between alcoholism and problem drinking? 2. What is Alcoholics Anonymous? What is the difference between A.A., Al-a-Teen and Al-a-Non? 3. When do you think it is time to intervene in another’s drinking problem? What do you do? 4. Would you recognize a serious drinking problem in yourself? Where would you go for help? 5. Would a bad hangover stop you from drinking again? Would the negative aspects of alcohol stop you from becoming a regular drinker? 6. Do you think the publicity given to celebrities recovering from substance abuse sends a positive or negative message to the public? How about the teen stars you admire? • Related Activities 1. Have students compile a list of laws related to your state and county regarding alcohol, such as DWI laws, blue laws relating to the sale of liquor, age and I.D. requirements at area clubs and restaurants. Discuss why they exist and then compare the laws in other states. Invite a town police officer or official to talk about pending and current legislation involving alcohol. Do some research into other countries’ laws on alcohol abuse, such as DWI. For example, in Bulgaria and El Salvador, a second DWI offense is one’s last. It is punishable by execution. In Malaya the drunken driver is jailed. If he or she is married, his or her spouse is jailed as well. 2. Ask students to define peer pressure in different situations and then ask them to give examples of how they would handle it (attitudes they would take, words they would use, etc.). 3. Role-playing. Ask students to show how they would: • refuse a drink at a party; • talk to a friend with a serious drinking problem; • discuss with someone in authority (parent, teacher, counselor) their own, and then someone else’s, drinking problem; • make up a lesson plan to teach a class about alcohol. 4. Have students create a “contract for safety” between themselves and their parents stating they will commit themselves, at any time, to pick up their child or arrange other modes of transportation when that teen has been drinking and therefore cannot drive home. 5. Ask students to list ten reactions to this film. What elements were they unaware of before viewing the program? With what situations could they identify? Do they plan to change any of their behaviors in any way after viewing the film? Has their attitude about drinking changed at all? 6. Is using alcohol any different from any other substance, such as marijuana, heroin, cocaine or tobacco? What are the differences or similarities? 7. Enabling means assisting someone with continuing their drinking problem. The students in the program discuss the unwritten contract fully with peers concerning not “snitching” on friends’ behavior—illegal or otherwise. Ask your students how they feel about this “unwritten contract” concerning society in fields like medicine, law or politics. If a colleague was doing something illegal or unethical, should their peers “blow the whistle?” What would the consequences be for either the lawbreaker or the whistle blower? |
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