by Elisa Scarton, VicHealth Youth Reporter 2011
It's a Saturday night and that means pre-drinks at a nearby friend's place. After that, it's a trip to a hot city club for some more cocktails, followed by another round of tequila shots and a fifth bourbon and coke.
By the end of the night, Sam is drunk and has to be restrained from vomiting on and fighting with complete strangers. Not fazed, the group crack jokes about this being 'typical Sam behaviour' and everyone agrees to do the exact same thing next weekend.
It's a situation most young Australians are familiar with, but while they see it as harmless fun, experts are growing increasingly concerned about the effects of alcohol, especially on the developing brain.
Brain drain
Between 1993 and 2002, more than 500 Victorians aged between 15 and 24 died from alcohol-attributable injury or disease.
That was the last time the National Drug Research Institute collected data like this, but the organisation's director, Professor Steve Allsop, insists little has changed.
“Alcohol is a tiny molecule that is easily transported around the body, affecting every major and minor organ, and its effects are toxic,” he says.
“It increases you chances of hepatitis, liver cancer, even breast cancer. It hurts your kidneys and presents major cardiovascular risks. It damages every organ.”
But for young people, there's another newly discovered risk – brain damage.
“A decade ago we thought the brain stopped developing at 21, but now we've realised it actually keeps developing until you're 25,” Professor Allsop says.
“As alcohol greatly affects the developing brain, this is bad news for young people. By indulging in occasional heavy drinking, you could be limiting your brain's potential or, as a colleague of mine described it, 'Going from a B- to a C+' without realising it.”
According to the national alcohol guidelines, heavy drinking is anything more than two standard drinks a day to prevent long term consequences or no more than four standard drinks on special occasions to prevent injury in the short term.
To put this in perspective, a typical stubby of full-strength beer or glass of white wine is 1.4 standard drinks. A bottle or can of pre-mixed spirits can be up to 1.5 standard drinks.
That’s why experts say it’s important to always check the label first or, if you're at a club, ask the person serving you.
Drink more than the recommended amount and the guidelines suggest you risk serious short and long term damage to your temporal lobe – the part of the brain that controls memory, emotion, hearing, language and learning.
It's not me, it's you
But young people aren't just risking their health when they drink heavily. In the 2009 National Binge Drinking Survey, almost 90 per cent of 15 to 25-year-olds who had consumed alcohol in the last three months agreed that getting drunk increased their chances of doing something regrettable.
By regrettable, they meant unprotected sex, serious injury, fights, and arguments with friends and family, but the majority insisted none of that would ever happen to them.
“We all understand the risks, but we seem to underestimate them,” Professor Allsop says.
“I call it 'self-serving optimism'. No one sees themselves as a problem drinker, but then you ask them if they've ever drunk and driven or gotten into a row with their family or hurt themselves falling over. These are all signs of problem drinking.
“Young people shouldn't think they're immune to the risks associated with alcohol. You are poisoning your body every time you drink more than the recommended guidelines and the impacts of that will remain with you for the rest of your life..”
And Professor Allsop isn't taking about a hangover. The risk of getting into a serious car accident or catching an STD from under the influence of alcohol is much higher. And in the long-term, alcohol can lead to serious chronic illnesses – even when you’re young.
A recent National Drug Research Institute study found that alcoholic liver disease among 20 to 29-year-olds has drastically increased in the last five years.
It's a disease that was originally thought to comes from decades of heavy drinking, but now doctors say more are more young people are destroying their livers before they're 20 simply by drinking excessively in their teens.
Friendly fire
Stephanie Wallis, 19, doesn't drink often, but says she always gets pressured into drinking too much by her friends.
“If I'm at a party and not driving, I don't mind having a few drinks,” she said. “It's just that when I want to stop, my friends don't and they keep bringing me drinks. I'm not spineless, but I don't want them to think I'm lame so I drink them. Then I feel sick and guilty the next day.”
Manager of VicHealth's alcohol program Brian Vandenberg says peer pressure plays a big part in how much we drink.
“In Australia, drinking is ingrained in our culture. People see you as unsociable, almost 'un-Australian' if you don't indulge and young people find it the hardest to refuse.”
VicHealth has campaigned for health advisory labels to be placed on all alcoholic drinks since 2009. These types of labels were recommended in a recent independent review of food labelling presented to the Federal Government in January this year. Mr Vandenberg says the labels will remind all Australians that alcohol is toxic.
“Alcohol is not an ordinary everyday product. It is not harmless and it shouldn't be regarded as such. Binge drinking shouldn't be an accepted part of life for young or old.”
Unfortunately, it's easy to binge drink without even realising it.
“Six drinks are enough to rapidly reduce your response time and do damage internally, and it's all most people need to become intoxicated enough to do themselves some real harm by, say, crossing the road and getting hit by a car,” he says.
“Be safe and smart, and never drink more than four standard drinks on any one occasion.”
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This article also appears on youthcentral, the Victorian Government's website for young people. www.youthcentral.vic.gov.au