Latest news with #alcoholawareness
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Getting sober while my kids are teenagers is the best parenting decision I've made. I get to be fully present for them.
I stopped drinking about a year and a half ago. It's been a game changer in my relationship with my two teenagers. Being a sober parent shows my kids that we can do hard things without turning to alcohol to cope. I've done a lot of things right while parenting my kids, but I've also made plenty of mistakes. My "babies" are 17 and 15 now, and my greatest parenting achievement just might be that I've always been open with them about my mess-ups. Yelling when I shouldn't have, looking at my phone too much, taking their dad (my husband) for granted — these things all make the list. No parent is perfect, and over the years, I've apologized when necessary and made lots of changes to my parenting style. Still, if there's one regret I still have and one thing I'm glad I course-corrected in my parenting journey, it's my relationship with alcohol. I started drinking in high school and maintained a pretty run-of-the-mill relationship with alcohol throughout college and my 20s. At 28 (and again at 30), I had a baby, and, like so many moms, I turned to my nightly glass (or bottle) of wine to cope with the stress of having two little ones. Surrounded by messages like "rosé all day" and "mommy needs wine," I felt like I was part of a special club that knew the secret to relaxing after a long day of parenting. By the time my kids neared middle school, every part of parenthood felt tied to alcohol, from making sure there was a cooler of beers for the parents at my kids' birthday parties to taking ride shares to "moms' night out" activities because we knew we'd all be drinking. I was sober-curious long before I stopped drinking completely. I knew alcohol was creating problems in my life, like strained friendships, increased anxiety, and spending too much on tipsy, late-night, online shopping splurges. After years of reading quit-lit, listening to sobriety podcasts, and analyzing my relationships with alcohol with friends, I woke up one morning (with a hangover) and decided to stop drinking completely. It's been nearly 600 days since I've had a drink, and I've never looked back. Alcohol disgusts me now, and thoughts of my drinking days fill me with shame. There are plenty of reasons I'll never drink again — one of the biggest being my kids. Since I quit drinking, my daughter went through a tough break-up, and my son was diagnosed with ADHD and autism. There were thousands of smaller moments where my kids needed me to be of sound mind to offer them advice: whether to quit a part-time job, how to handle a disappointing theater audition, and what to say to a close friend during an argument. I'm so glad I was fully present without a wine buzz, so they could trust and confide in me. There have been happy moments, too, that I'll always be grateful I was sober to experience. We've traveled, celebrated holidays, and made beautiful memories together that I'll remember so much more clearly. Like all of my parenting mess-ups, I've spoken candidly with my teens about my choice to live an alcohol-free lifestyle, sharing everything from cautionary, embarrassing drinking stories to insights from my therapy sessions, and how much more manageable things like anxiety and depression feel. [Photo: 4 diet coke] An unexpected perk? My teenagers are incredibly proud of me — I know, because they tell me. Often. And it's something I never tire of hearing. Not only are they proud, but they've told me they're also taking notes on how sobriety has led to my improving my physical and mental health and forging deeper, more intentional friendships. My sobriety is allowing me to model to my teenagers that alcohol isn't a necessity to have fun, be social, or make friends. They're seeing in me an example of what it's like to do hard things and not only succeed, but thrive. Most of all, my kids are seeing that mommy doesn't need to drink just because they exist, a message the media sends kids that sends shivers up and down my spine. Because I choose not to drink, my kids see that stress and tough times are normal parts of life, and that the best way to handle them is to be present and work through them, not numb out with a drink. Read the original article on Business Insider
Medscape
08-05-2025
- Health
- Medscape
Breaking the Silence: Europe Unites Against Alcohol Harm
AMSTERDAM — Today, the EU launched a new coalition of health organizations and experts to advocate for the reduction of alcohol-related illnesses, injuries, and deaths here at the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL) Congress 2025. The European Health Alliance on Alcohol aims to reduce alcohol's impact on health, raise public awareness, and advocate for the implementation of effective policies that save lives. The World Health Organization (WHO) European Region has the heaviest alcohol consumption of all regions in the world, causing a significant reduction in life expectancy, especially among men. Approximately 800,000 lives are lost each year to alcohol. It is also a leading risk factor for disability, a major cause of more than 200 chronic diseases, and a factor in many injuries and mental health disorders. Despite this, cultural and societal narratives around alcohol use are at odds with the clinical evidence, fueling alcohol-related harm. A roundtable event organized yesterday at the congress convened clinicians, policymakers, and a patient with alcohol-related liver disease (ARLD) to challenge some of society's most pervasive narratives about alcohol use and reveal the deeply entrenched ways it shapes health and society. 'This isn't about judgement,' said David Barrett, internal communications and multimedia manager at the WHO, Copenhagen, Denmark, who chaired the event. 'It's about cutting past all of the noise; all of the myths.' Margarida Santos, MD Carina Ferreira-Borges, PhD The discussion featured a cross-sectoral panel including Margarida Santos, MD, general practitioner, Portugal; Hazel Martin, patient with ARLD and BBC journalist, Glasgow, Scotland; Aleksander Krag , MD, PhD, professor and department chair, department of gastroenterology and hepatology, Odense University Hospital, Denmark and secretary general of EASL; Riina Sikkut, member of the Estonian Parliament; and Carina Ferreira-Borges, PhD, regional advisor on alcohol, illicit drugs, and prison health at the WHO Regional Office for Europe. 'I Was the Story' Sharing her experience, Martin reflected on her dual role as reporter and subject of the BBC Panorama episode Binge Drinking and Me . Hazel Martin, BBC journalist 'It's never the goal of a journalist to be the story,' said Martin, speaking candidly about her diagnosis of ARLD at the age of 31 and reflecting on how deeply alcohol is embedded in everyday life. 'I didn't feel like I was drinking any differently than the people around me. And yet I received a diagnosis of fibrosis; alcohol-related liver damage. That was a huge shock.' Martin described the dissonance between what is perceived as normal drinking habits and the clinical reality, with her diagnosis surprising her but also prompting questions about societal understanding of drinking behavior. 'Why are so many people unaware they are at risk? There's this public health message of 'Spread your drinking across the week. Know your units.' But no one really knows what that means,' she said. 'Binge drinking is defined as six drinks in one session [for a female]. That's about two large glasses of wine. Yet so few people recognize when they're doing it,' she explained, adding that so many people she spoke with after making the show were shocked. Santos, who works in the Portuguese primary care system, said that common misperceptions of alcohol use present one of the biggest barriers to reducing harm, and that people often harbor a narrow stereotype of who alcohol harms. 'People think alcohol disorder is only about someone from a low socioeconomic background who drinks daily and visibly gets drunk. But often it's more subtle—and just as harmful.' She admits it can be difficult to discuss alcohol consumption with patients. 'They may say 'a glass with meals' or 'a beer here and there,' without recognizing it may already cross risky thresholds.' More worrying, she stressed, was the communication gap. 'We [health professionals] talk in terms of units and liver damage, but what the public wants to know is if it 'increases my breast cancer probability' and 'how does this impact me?' They don't realize that it makes your work harder or impacts fertility.' Stigma remains a major issue too, she pointed out. 'There's 'sober shaming' at weddings and parties that pressures people into drinking. People ask, 'Why aren't you drinking? Are you pregnant?' That's a cultural issue and it needs to change.' Industry Promotion and Societal Disconnect Santos also sounded the alarm over industry influence in policymaking, pointing out that, in Portugal, major alcohol companies have had direct contact with the health ministry. 'We need to stop normalizing this,' she said. Podcasts and influencers on social media, largely used by teenagers, are also sponsored by the alcohol industry, but no action is taken against this. Santos has her own podcast. 'I find this so upsetting because it would be unthinkable for a person or a podcast to be sponsored by a tobacco company. No one does anything about it. I think it's very cultural.' WHO public health expert, Carina Ferreira-Borges, reflected that people's choices are not made in a vacuum but are shaped by environments saturated with marketing and a culture that infiltrates to the point where clear societal principles become lost. 'It's absurd that profit-driven industries go to schools to teach children how to drink and there is an acceptance that this is okay. How do all of these systems encourage harm while claiming to promote so-called choice?' Santos concurred and called for a reframing of public health communication and investment in health communication strategies that match the scale and savvy of the alcohol industry's campaigns. Debunking the Alcohol Myths: Red Wine Is (Not) Healthy! Turning to systems propagating misinformation that fuel alcohol-related harm as opposed to individual blame, Karg reflected on the persistent myth that moderate alcohol consumption, especially red wine, offers cardiovascular benefits. 'I think it has been a myth that's been around a lot and it's also one that the alcohol industry loves to say. If you look at hundreds of diseases in large datasets, there might be some [outliers] popping up that support this, but the reality is that the more you drink, the higher your risk is, and we need to be careful, because they [the industry] are twisting it,' said Karg, emphasizing the clear dose-response relationship between alcohol use and mortality. The experts called for sharper, more relatable health communication together with robust policies that prioritize public wellbeing over profit. The newly launched European Health Alliance on Alcohol will be highlighting the often-overlooked impacts of alcohol on heart disease, suicide, sleep, and mental health. It aims to strengthen the influence of healthcare professionals on alcohol policy at local, national, and European levels.
