Budfrog

Don't know about the US but over here some TV channels are being totally irresponsible by screening such programs as 'Booze Britain' which glorify the complete abuse of alcohol by young people.

I am normally against regulation of what people are allowed to watch having the opinion that if you don't like a program there is always the off button but on these shows there is no mention of the long term effects of alcohol abuse only the images of young men and women drinking themselves senseless in as short a time as possible.

Just as with smoking the UK Govt couldn't really give a XXXX as the tax revenue is just too fat a cheque to turn down. And they wonder why the alcohol related deathrate has doubled in 10 years !!!! Give it another 10 and there will be an epidemic.

It's enough to drive you to ... another cup of tea

Golfman

In the US, the only alcohol advertising allowed on TV is for beer. It sure is enticing. Large-breasted women, with that "come hither" look on their faces. If I was a young boy looking at that, I'd be salivating. There's no doubt I'd be drinking just as soon as I could, thinking that once I start drinking, the girls will be swarming all over me.

I'm glad I didn't see these when I was young. I would have been so disappointed when the women didn't just naturally gravitate to me. Now they don't gravitate to me because I'm just too old. At least I'm a sober 56 years old.

Yours in sobriety,
Ed

TorontoGuy28

Here is a crazy thing, I am from Ontario, Canada eh , and the only stores that are allowed to sell alcohol in my province are government owned and operated.... They create a HUGE profit for them each year. I know, my brother used to work at their corporate office in finance. It's sad to see how our own government takes advantage of people who are alcoholic... You do see a lot of ads to "stop smoking", funded by them, but you NEVER see an ad to stop drinking or even anything that talks to potential problems... Why would they shoot themselves in the foot, right ? Money is money.

Anyway, heavy drinking in @ my work is also widely accepted... Us corporate types like to let loose once in a while... My boss is an admitted alcoholic, and the two guys levels above demonstrated that behaviour on a few nights out we had last summer.... To top things off, our president went to rehab last year for 6 weeks... The dude smelled like booze everytime I was in a meeting with him...

I am doing what's best for me, and that is staying sober... One day at a time.

Talluleh

TorontoGuy, in my industry alcoholism is far too common as well, liquid lunches and the like although it has gotten better in the last few years. At my last company the president was (is) an alcoholic. Very very sad to see a man with a company that has so much potential but gets so hammered around clients and he's about to lose his empire.

TorontoGuy28

Scary how many people are what we consider "functioning alcoholics"... It's just a matter of time before they lose it all....

How are you making out these days Talluleh ? Visit any AA rooms in TO ?

Talluleh

I am doing well but it's not Friday yet and that is starting to scare the hell out of me. I haven't been to a meeting because I'm finding all kinds of reasons not to go, but know in my gut that I'm only fooling myself. I actually am not right in TO but on the outskirts (think southwest) so should look for a meeting closer to me. Should really do that now.

Thanks for asking! How are you?

TorontoGuy28

I think I posted this for you before : www.aatoronto.org

Once I read somewhere that "bored mind, is a devil's playground"... For me, the "devil" is booze... Key is to make plans for those times you used to drink...

I am doing good at my end, thanks.. Currently @ the office, reading and posting during my free time...

thisisme

I agree. The UK is in bad shape.
I wonder though if you have seen the BBC doc "Rain in my Heart".
At least some good comes out of UK TV.

thisisme

I dunno Golfman, you kinda look like Mel and that's hot.

Budfrog

Too right ... only heard last week that a cleaner at my place of work has died. Nice guy, quiet and some might say a bit simple. Thing was what I took for lack of confidence was really him coming down from heavy vodka sessions, normally out of it every weekend.

I was so sad that nobody even told me he was in hospital. Only 46 years of age and he died with his stomach the size of a pregnant woman ... I have thought about his sad end daily for the past week even though I didn't know him that well.

Talluleh

Budfrog, that is just so sad. Another good reason to stay off the booze. My mom finally quit after many many years because a friend of hers passed away due to drinking, he was at least 10 years younger than she was. Scared her sober.

Hush007

[QUOTE=Talluleh;1229600]I am doing well but it's not Friday yet and that is starting to scare the hell out of me. QUOTE]


Tell me about it.

GettinSober

Tall + Hush,

Friday really is just another day. Remember it is the alcoholism that is telling you that 'weekends are meant to be fun and that fun = alcohol'. Once you realise that this voice is an enemy you don't listen to it anymore (like you wouldn't to any other enemy).

I'm only 4 days sober myself since my last slip so I'm no expert and this Friday will be my first in this sobriety period too but I'm absolutely determined to stay off the booze.

I got to 17 days not so long ago and I can't describe how good it felt - how clear my mind was and how proud I was of myself for changing my ways. I need (not want) - I NEED to feel that way again and for much, much longer. A boozy night in the town centre of the UK with drunk feral youths all milling around for a fight or a f**k (that's the way it is over here) doesn't appeal at all.

I'm for a night in with my guitar (which I'm trying to learn - I'm rubbish by the way but if I put as much time into it as I did into drinking I'll be Jimmy Hendrix before long!)

Erriksen

Oddly enough Friday and Saturday nights would more often than not be the nights I wouldn't drink. Needless to say I was plastered from Sunday to Thursday.

I've never thought too much about 'Booze Britain' glamorising alcohol in any way. I often watch it and think how glad I am I don't behave like that any more. It's a great advert for sobriety when you see the shape of some of those people at the end of the night.

Other progammes seem filled with alcohol. The soaps seem to be the worst for this. I hate to see this much emphasis on drinking but sadly it's an accurate portrayal of life in the UK.

collinsmi

Well, they say there's no making a normal drinker out of an alcoholic, so maybe it works the other way too. I'm with you Erriksen, while I don't get to watch "Booze Britain" here in the states, I've lived "Booze Mike" long enough to not ever want to get in that condition again (so long as I keep fulfilling a few simple requirements).

Hush and Talluleh, a lot of AA groups will get together after the meeting, have coffee and socialize. Good way to get to know people and not have a drink at the same time.

ay100

Ia m from Istanbul but I lived in UK (London) over a decade. What I observed was that booze is very much integrated in the social activities in UK. The best and funniest adverts are for Beer Drinking. Tv channels show lots of programs, series where people constantly drink. Remember those pub scenes in Eastenders. You go to any sports match there is booze, you go to dogs and horses there is booze and British really drink more than the average person.

I was a lager lout when I lived there. I elieve environment has some effect on people.

Budfrog

I agree that the state most people get into on 'Booze Britain' is enough to put most sane people off alcohol for life however it is presented in a manner that almost promotes that type of behaviour, if you follow me. The presenters never actually broach the subject of alcohol addiction or the damage done by binge drinking apart from the incidents that happen on screen which normally involve copious ammounts of vomit and incidental injuries caused through falling.

I still actually find some of the adverts entertaining ... Guiness, Smirnoff Ice and the new Bud adver with the rubber floor.

Pilgrim

Everytime I come to a site where someone is writing, they all leave. I am starting to feel a bit paranoid!

Anyway, what I was going to say is that I totally agree with you! We do it in NZ too. If you don't play rugby and drink beer, you are not a real man. A smoker is the devil but a drunk is completely ok. If I had known I would have to go through this hell or die, I would never have started. Our young ones should have the choice from the start.

Also, our military almosts breeds alcoholics. What is a base without at least three messes? It is completely normal (or used to be) to have 4 or 5 beers at lunch. After work, another 5 or 6 then wine with dinner and then another few. Most ex military people have a drinking problem with various levels of severity. Saying no was not playing by the rules.

I feel under so much pressure to carry on drinking. Thanks for your post.

NoelleR

Don't know where my head's been at; I've been meaning to post here for quite a bit, but, hey Golfman.....

"In the US, the only alcohol advertising allowed on TV is for beer." ...?????... allowed? actually it was a self-imposed, voluntary, ban by the liquor industry itself.....BUT....

Where you been, guy? Liquor ads have been back on TV for some time now, going back to 1996 when Seagrams started (with a small ad on a small cable sports channel, and then on an ABC affiliate.....and here we are today with a whole bunch)....even today, I've see ads for many, to name a few: Jack Daniels; Bailey's Irish Cream; Bacardi (guy y cola?); Tanqueray (Tony asking, "Are you ready to tanqueray?"); Seagrams Captain Morgans Spiced Rum (luv that pirate lol).....

Personally, none of the ads ever made me drink.....guess I was too old to be swayed by silly adverts, but they've been around.

NoelleR

P.S. I grew up in the late 40's/50's when liquor ads were not on either radio (since 1936) or TV (since 1948)....so I didn't see any to get me on my road to alcoholism, but on that road I did travel.....guess I've got no excuse to fall back on, except...........I'm an alcoholic.......... (o:

o2bserene

When I was a kid watching TV, guys like Frank, Dean, Jerry, Rock and the like were all walking around with glasses of scotch on the rocks and all the movies had happy endings ... Every time I walked around with a vodka on the rocks it went like this "and then Diane got drunk and f'd it all up!"

Life is not like TV -- ads or movies!

Di