While describing and even celebrating some of the many benefits of drinking wine, beer and spirits (hard liquor) in moderation, Richard Thatcher's Thinkin' Drinkin' also shares an abundance of ideas and scientific evidence that, when taken together, add up to a cautionary tale about careless drinking. The book is informed by Thatcher's own troubled, early, and long-sustained experience with alcohol and his subsequent success at getting the problem under control. In addition, he brings a wealth of professional expertise to his writing task. Dr. Thatcher draws upon various aspects of that accumulated knowledge to inform and provide guidance to help teens and young adults establish enjoyable, safe, worry-free approaches to drinking. These approaches can be readily adapted to any healthy lifestyle and can become good habits that last a lifetime. The author firmly believes that, if widely adopted, those "good habits" will save an enormous amount of heartache, emotional and physical injury, and many thousands of lives.

Thinkin' Drinkin'

From the Teen Years Forward: A Rational, Safe, Worry-Free Approach to Lifetime Alcohol Use or AbstinenceBy Richard W. Thatcher

Balboa Press

Copyright © 2011 Richard W. Thatcher
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4525-4279-9

Contents

Chapter 1 The Purpose of this Little Book With the Silly Sounding Title..................................................................................1Chapter 2 'No Angel, Me!' Some Thoughts About My Stinkin' Drinkin' Past..................................................................................8Chapter 3 The Benefits of Drink..........................................................................................................................22Chapter 4 Volume of Alcohol Consumed and Drunkenness.....................................................................................................40Chapter 5 The Stinkin' Consequences of Careless Drinking.................................................................................................47Chapter 6 Types of Stinkin' Drinkin'.....................................................................................................................67Chapter 7 Being Young, Foolish and 'Getting Wasted'......................................................................................................84Chapter 8 Risk Factors for Becoming an Alcoholic.........................................................................................................99Chapter 9 'Freeze-framing,' then Changing, Automatic Thoughts (The Foundation of the Thinkin' Drinkin' Strategy).........................................111Chapter 10 Thinkin'-Not-Drinkin' (Liberating Strategies for Alcoholics, Potential Alcoholics, and Others Who Simply Shouldn't Drink).....................120Chapter 11 The Thinkin' Drinkin' Strategy for Potential Problem Drinkers (ie, Most of You)...............................................................148Chapter 12 A Concrete Strategy for Sensibly (and Safely) Managing a Typical Drinking Session.............................................................175Chapter 13 Reinforcing Thinkin' Drinkin' By Finding More Satisfying Alternatives.........................................................................185Chapter 14 Afterward.....................................................................................................................................197References...............................................................................................................................................203Appendix.................................................................................................................................................211About the Author.........................................................................................................................................215

Chapter One

The Purpose of this Little Book With the Silly Sounding Title

This book has been prepared for you if you are a teenager or young adult who thinks that getting "wasted" on booze is a hoot—and getting drunk is a "blast."

If you are in the same age group and you think that spending time with friends on a regular basis while "getting into the sauce" but just getting a little "tipsy" might become part of your lifestyle, then the book is also for you.

The book is also offered up to those of you who haven't yet given much thought to how you should approach drinking – probably most of you - but, when the subject comes up, you recognize that it probably makes sense to give the matter some serious attention.

In North America, social scientists now apply the terms "youth" and even "adolescence" to not only teens but to anyone who falls between the early teens and the early thirties. The reasoning is that, for most young people in the United States and Canada today, the road to self-support is much longer than the one their parents travelled. In fact, this change has spawned a new term, specifically, "emerging adulthood." The term — emerging adulthood — has been coined in response to the extended length of time it now takes to settle into a full-time occupation, establish a career, and sever financial and residential dependency on parents; it refers to those of you in the early twenties to early or even mid-thirties.

So, in terms of age, my target group is pretty wide-ranging. It includes the "emerging adult." I do expect, however, that the age range of my most common readership is going to fall between fifteen and twenty-four years old—and for the younger segment of that range, the book's contents will most often be passed on through searching parents, concerned teachers, substance abuse educators, guidance counsellors, and, occasionally, by friends who are avid readers in general.

I also recognize that people do start drinking at many different ages and, for this reason, the book is intended for all age groups with members who are now or will soon be confronted with critical decisions about the nature and quality of their own drinking practices.

The book is also for youth of all sexual orientations, including females, males, bisexuals, gays, lesbians, the transgendered, and the "rainbow vanguard," by which I refer to the most sexually open-minded of young people. Drinking to excess is all too often an escape from the pain and complications caused by the prejudice of mainstream sexuality. Those with an alternative lifestyle of intimacy have every reason to carefully consider how drinking fits into their lives.

Our society has come a long way in gaining a civilized understanding of alternative expressions of sexuality but it has a very long way to go and, on that path, cruelty remains a very familiar part of life for gays, lesbians and transsexuals—even for those with bisexual preferences. The psychological burdens of being stigmatized, experiencing painful comments and, sometimes, bullying, can lead to an overwhelming sense of isolation. In reaction to that marginalization members of sexual minorities are often tempted to turn to overly frequent drinking patterns or drinking binges as an escape. Unfortunately, both are unhealthy choices and, at times, very dangerous forms of relief, leading to alcohol dependency or unfortunate, even tragic, incidents. So, if you are a member of one of these minorities, having a solid handle on your drinking practices is extremely important, maybe even a life saver.

In the book, I don't give special emphasis to sexual minorities but it will become obvious as you read on that the background material and the sensible drinking (or abstinence) strategies described in the book apply equally to you. It is left to each of you to personalize both your reflections on the various topics covered and your own adoption and modification of the strategies proposed to meet your distinctive, personal needs.

The Growth of Female Drinking

It is also worth noting that getting drunk during adolescence used to be far more common for males than females. That situation has apparently changed substantially in recent years. A study published in September 2001 by the Society for the Study of Addiction to Alcohol and Other Drugs surveyed college and university students under age 25 years old in the United States and Canada. The researchers, who were on the faculty of several prestigious American and Canadian universities, including Harvard, found that girls were even more likely than their male...