This week is National Collegiate Alcohol Awareness week on college campuses around the United States. Many students do not consider alcoholism a problem because they are in college. However addiction to alcohol can easily become a lifestyle and can start at a young age. College students that think raging on the weekends is just something to take off the edge from the week should perhaps reconsider their actions.

Alcohol affects every part of our lives, not just what our Saturday nights will be like.

Regular consumption of alcohol can have negative effects on your body over time. Your liver, heart and brain functions can all start having problems due to heavy or regular alcohol consumption. Alcohol liver disease is a disease that is caused by drinking alcohol frequently and heavily. It ranks in the top ten leading causes of death in the United States, yet we still think that there is nothing wrong with partying every weekend.

While the physical effects of alcoholism can be devastating to a person, we tend to think that because we are young we are able to bounce back more easily, or that those diseases will not happen to us. Alcohol can also affect the brain and your learning habits as well, and those are going to have lasting impressions on you right now.

The average A student consumes on average 4.21 drinks per week while a student that is getting Ds and Fs is consuming an average of 9.97 drinks per week, according to the BACCHUS Network, an organization that works to promote advocacy for alcohol awareness.

Alcohol changes the way we use our brains and can change the way we think during our everyday lives. Our memory, critical thinking skills, problem solving, concentration and emotions can all become out of our control while drinking.

People tend to handle things very differently when alcohol is involved.Some people tend to take on different personality styles when they are drunk. For example, if the shy person at the bar gets a little bit of alcohol in them, the next thing you know they are dancing on a table. Some people even say, “Loosen up a bit, have a drink.” This indicates that alcohol changes the way we think. While it is true that one or two drinks might make us handle an awkward social situation better, with too many drinks we can lose control of our emotions.

That brings us to decision making. It is a common conversation of “I can’t believe I drunk texted my ex again.” We make decisions we regret the next day when we have been drinking. Alcohol can change the way a person problem solves, and it can take longer to figure out a solution to a problem. 

We have preached to you many different times about how important it is to be careful and responsible with your consumption of alcohol. While we do think that it is very important, there are still students that are going to party too hard and get hurt either physically or mentally or have their reputation harmed. We are done preaching. The side effects of alcohol are real, and they are going to be a future issue for people who consume alcohol regularly or heavily. The decision to change your future is yours. But don’t say we never told you so.