WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT ALCOHOL
BY LINDA MCGRATH-REDMOND
Both alcohol and nicotine are addictive, and both cause millions. YES, millions of deaths annually. Yet while smoking is no longer seen as glamorous but as a killer, it is alcohol that is not only glamorised at every turn, advertised and packaged so beautifully but is a firm fixture at almost every event or family occasion. A m I anti-alcohol? Hell yes! That shit tried to kill me! If I ever allowed it back in my life, I can say with certainty it most definitely would be my end . It has caused me endless pain, shame, depression, and anxiety, and has taken people I loved deeply. I’d be an awful fool not to view it as the dangerously addictive drug that it has been for me and many millions of people worldwide… those of us who got out and managed to escape its clutches and discover a life of freedom and joy on the other side.
If an ex-smoker, recovering from lung cancer, goes out on a mission to spread the message that nicotine is not just addictive, but detrimental to your health, and can kill you, do we shut that person down, ridicule them, call them a buzz killer or a bore, or do we praise them for sharing the message and applaud their bravery? We’ve all seen TV ads from brave souls sharing their stories in the hope that someone somewhere will get the message and be spared the same ordeal. I’ll tell you what we never see on TV; an advertisement showing someone recovering from a lcohol addiction, possibly with cirrhosis of the liver, or heart disease, or one of the many cancers caused by alcohol, or maybe having just lost their job or home or family! Instead, we see the advertisements of the ‘beautiful people having the ti me of their lives, while sipping on an ice-cold beer or a cool glass of chardonnay. If you look really really closely and very quickly, you’ll spot a little line at the bottom telling you to drink ‘responsibly’.
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