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Risky
Business: The Gamble
Alcohol is a gamble. The more you drink, the higher the stakes are.
Have you ever noticed the more you drink, the better you feel about
yourself? You might feel confident and free, but in reality you are
a mess. When you drink, you have to take the good with the bad.
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| When
you drink, you have to accept that: |
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Alcohol might make you lose your inhibitions
That might put you in a bad position, where your safety is at risk
with unplanned sex,
pregnancy, drugs.
• Drinking
might make you feel more confident
You might feel braver than normal, making you vulnerable to dangers
like being beaten, raped or robbed, especially if you are alone at
night.
• Alcohol
makes you feel good and happy
The good feeling you get from alcohol will pass if you get sick. Alcohol
is a poison and alcohol
poisoning is no joke. Big drinking sessions are potentially fatal
if your blood alcohol level shuts down parts of your brain.
• Drinking might allow you to
escape your worries and stress
For the moment, but it could add to them by exposing you to hangovers,
missed classes, falling grades, lack of cash, relationship problems
and a greater feeling of lost control.
When you gamble with alcohol, it's not only yourself that you are
putting at risk.
• Alcohol is often involved in
accidents such as falls, drowning's, and house fires.
• Other people such as your friends, family, the police and
hospitals may be affected.
• Lost inhibitions
may make you do things you wouldn't normally do, like: pick fights
with your friends, go with someone who you didn't want to, get talked
into committing crimes or driving drunk, or saying things you didn't
mean to say.
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| Long-term
risks |
Over
time, alcohol can do pretty bad things to your
body. Dependence on alcohol can be both physical and psychological.
• Physical dependence happens when your body becomes
so used to coping with alcohol in its system that it suffers withdrawal
when you are not drinking.
• Psychological dependence
is when alcohol gets into your head and becomes the most important
thing in your life. It's pretty sad. |
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