
Alcohol and risks to self and others
Alcohol and risks to the body
Over time, drinking heavily can result in high blood pressure, liver damage, heart disease and has been connected to stomach and breast cancer. In the short-term, drinking too much in a single session can result in alcoholic poisoning leading to a coma or death. Many of the young people we spoke to did not seem to be very concerned about the health consequences of drinking heavily but Harry did mention a few:
- Sex:
- Male
- Background:
- Full-time student, single. White British. Harry is on treatment and recovering from psychosis. He blames cannabis/skunk for his illness. He said that his parents have been very supportive throughout this episode.
Bekky commented that when people start drinking they do some rather strange and unpredictable things and don’t remember it the next day.
- Age at interview:
- 26
- Sex:
- Male
- Background:
- Jamie lives with his girlfriend, works for an electrical engineering company, and is studying to be an electrical engineer. Jamie thinks that children should be taught, at an early age, by their parents and teachers about the dangers of drinking too much alcohol. Ethnic background: White.
- Less inhibited
- More likely to take risks
- Slower in terms of senses, reactions and thought processes
These effects can make people more likely to:
- Have sex that they later regretted
- To get injured (in road accidents for example)
- To get into arguments or fights or to become more vulnerable to attacks
- To take other personal risks (drug-taking for example) that they wouldn’t when sober.
Young people also talked about the importance of looking after one another when drinking.
Sex whilst drunk
Young women talked about the risks involved in having sex when they had been drinking alcohol. This could include having sex without a condom, having sex with a complete stranger and/or sex that they later regretted. Lauren’s friend got pregnant after having unprotected sex when she was drunk and ended up having an abortion. Jamie pointed out that young men are also at risk when they have sex with someone they don’t know.
- Age at interview:
- 17
- Sex:
- Female
- Background:
- Leah lives on her own with her four-and-a-half month old daughter. She gave up drugs after becoming a mother, and only occasionally binge drinks, but never with her daughter. Ethnic background' White British.
- Age at interview:
- 26
- Sex:
- Female
- Background:
- Michelle, a university graduate, lives with her daughter and partner. She is a creche worker. Ethnic background: White British.
Disappointed, I remember it at the time I thought‘oh this was not, not how it should be’ and, it actually made me feel quite sad and like I say like I started to get a bit of a reputation and then if I would go to school people would know about it like through different boys or different people they know, because I went to a girls school, we obviously used to break out of the girls school to go and see the boys at like the schools nearby and stuff and, it’s, it just, it’s all turned quite sour in, like after I lost my virginity because, you know, before then everyone’s really nice to you, everyone’s like sort of kind of got a bit of respect for you, although they haven’t because they are help, you know they are helping you drink and they are helping you take drugs and you are, you are a lot younger than them, they haven’t in a responsible kind of way, but it did it got a lot, my sort of relationships got a lot worse after I lost my virginity because it was like these people that was hanging around they didn’t have, you know, the boyfriend had turned, all of a sudden, you know, he was out the next night with another girl doing it, the same, and, whereas he had not been like that before and, just, yeah just general sort of, depression at school for everyone knowing about it and having a reputation that early and being called names that early it’s quite adifficult thing to get to move on from.
- Age at interview:
- 26
- Sex:
- Male
- Background:
- Jamie lives with his girlfriend, works for an electrical engineering company, and is studying to be an electrical engineer. Jamie thinks that children should be taught, at an early age, by their parents and teachers about the dangers of drinking too much alcohol. Ethnic background: White.
Or what if she got pregnant? And these are the, all the things that they don’t seem to think about.
Under the influence of alcohol or drugs, people can lose (or reduce) their balance, awareness and judgement.
- Age at interview:
- 26
- Sex:
- Male
- Background:
- Jamie lives with his girlfriend, works for an electrical engineering company, and is studying to be an electrical engineer. Jamie thinks that children should be taught, at an early age, by their parents and teachers about the dangers of drinking too much alcohol. Ethnic background: White.
Yeah that week, that one week there were, there were a lot of people being ill, one of our friends fell down steps in a club and smashed his tooth out, one of his front teeth out, there were lots of those kind of scenarios happening where people were not in a good way through alcohol.
Ben knows people who drive when they’ve been drinking. He has cycled when he’s been drinking but wouldn’t drive because his father has always been very strict about drink driving. Raphael told us that he’s been drunk enough to fall over but would never drive when drunk because he is ‘not a risk taker with other people’s lives.’
- Age at interview:
- 19
- Sex:
- Female
- Background:
- Emma is a first year university student and is on a University sports team. Heavy drinking every week is part of team building. She tries to be responsible by knowing her limits with alcohol. Ethnic background: White British.
Young people were concerned that being extremely drunk could make them likely to become the target of an attack or mugging. The danger of getting into a fight, or having to deal with other people’s aggressive behaviour was mentioned by several of the young people we talked to. Lauren felt ashamed to admit that she had got into a fight when she was drunk on vodka as a teenager. The police had given her a caution and told her parents. Lauren had concluded that vodka makes her violent and wine makes her sleepy, so she has decided to stick to lager which just makes her feel happy. Peter and Daniel, who had both realised they had a problem with alcohol, said that anything could have happened while they were drunk and out of control.
- Age at interview:
- 27
- Sex:
- Male
- Background:
- Peter works full time in publicity. He is single and has one child. White British.
R' Yeah, yeah.
- Age at interview:
- 17
- Sex:
- Female
- Background:
- Leah lives on her own with her four-and-a-half month old daughter. She gave up drugs after becoming a mother, and only occasionally binge drinks, but never with her daughter. Ethnic background' White British.
- Age at interview:
- 24
- Sex:
- Female
- Background:
- Stefanie lives with her partner and works full time in the film and television industry. She felt a lot of pressure from others in school to take drugs, but has always avoided it. At school she was warned against drugs but not alcohol. Ethnic background: White British.
- Age at interview:
- 20
- Sex:
- Female
- Background:
- Mary Ann lives with her son and wants to work with children. Ethnic background: White British.
[Affirmative noise] paralytic, para, absolutely steaming.
- Age at interview:
- 23
- Sex:
- Female
- Background:
- Stephanie has a partner and goes to college part time. Shewants to get a qualification in counselling. She thinks that many people drink for the 'wrong' reasons like getting over a breaking up, or trying to forget a problem. Ethnic background: White British
One of the other consequences of drinking is that people can lose their judgement about how much alcohol and drugs they can handle. Hugh and Alex have only ever taken drugs when they’ve been drinking, they said that they would never take drugs when sober.
- Age at interview:
- 20
- Sex:
- Male
- Background:
- Hugh is a first year university student who found that drinking at university was very different from drinking as a teenager. Ben is a first year university student who changed his drinking habits from school, through his gap year and at university. Alex is a first year university student. He drank as a teenager to build his confidence. His drinking habits changed when he started university.
- Age at interview:
- 26
- Sex:
- Male
- Background:
- Jamie lives with his girlfriend, works for an electrical engineering company, and is studying to be an electrical engineer. Jamie thinks that children should be taught, at an early age, by their parents and teachers about the dangers of drinking too much alcohol. Ethnic background: White.
Young people sometimes said that they went out drinking with a group of friends who would all look out for each other. If someone got drunk another person in the group would make sure that they got home safely. Emily and Hugh both said that they go out with friends who they know they can trust. Alex went to a festival with some friends and started drinking at 8 in the morning. By the time the bands came on at 1pm he was completely out of it – he was sick, passed out, missed the whole thing and the day was ruined. He thinks he was lucky that he was with friends who looked after him otherwise he thinks he would have had his phone and money stolen.
- Age at interview:
- 23
- Sex:
- Female
- Background:
- Kayleigh is married and lives with her husband and their two small children. She worked full-time until a couple of years ago but now she describes herself as a 'stays at home mum'. She is involved in the activities of her local YWCA [now Platform 51] and her children attend their creche. Ethnic background: British.
And I remember like I was drinking there and then, then I went home and I got a taxi home, and I was lucky that the taxi driver was a, like a nice guy because I, I wouldn’t say I had passed out but I was, I don’t remember the taxi ride, sort of coming in and out, you know, because when you’re drunk I think you almost fall asleep. And I got to the point where I sort of looked at the meter and I said, “Oh I’m going to have to get out because I don’t have enough money.” But luckily enough like the driver was like, “It doesn’t matter about the money, you know, you’ve got to make sure you get home safe.” And I, that’s I think is quite a rarity because there’s, that at the time I mean being sort of sixteen, seventeen you don’t think about well that taxi driver could have took you anywhere, could have done anything to you, you could have been let out on the street and anything could have happened, because you just think about having the good time, you don’t think about getting home. But lucky enough , you know, I got home safely.
- Age at interview:
- 19
- Sex:
- Female
- Background:
- Emma is a first year university student and is on a University sports team. Heavy drinking every week is part of team building. She tries to be responsible by knowing her limits with alcohol. Ethnic background: White British.
Okay well I personally am quite a talkative person, and I laugh a lot at anything and everything and I think that’s exaggerated when I’ve been drinking, I’m quite confident but [xxxxx] everyone gets more confident, so I’m talkative, I’m loud, I’m chatty , I think but I mean some of the guys get quite aggressive, or grumpy, or irritating I mean they’re close friends so, yeah love them to bits but some of them do, are very annoying drunk people and in a club guys get more aggressive, a fight can be started very easily and usually everyone else, well I don’t know I’ve never been in a club where I felt particularly uncomfortable or in danger, but I think people are more aggressive and a fight can be started more easily when people have been drinking. And my girlfriends there’s the, there’s the crying drunk person, maybe if they’re have had a hard day or if they’ve just broken up with their boyfriend or whatever it is , they, there will be a girl sitting in the corner of the toilets, the girls toilets crying, in a mess, but then it’s almost, it’s almost really nice because then a girl you’ve never met before, you know, you’ll see her crying and you’ll be like, “Are you okay?.” And everyone’s, you know, being really friendly and nice, there’s this general help each other out attitude if you see someone upset or if you see someone too drunk you, you tend to see people helping them or, you know, you go over and you’re like, “Are you okay? Can I do anything?” people, and depending, [mmm] they will each other out if someone’s really upset everyone gets friendlier so that tends to be okay, the guys get, yeah, guys can get more aggressive but funny, I don’t know it’s just, it depends on the day, it depends on the people you’ve got around, and I just get very talkative and loud [laughs].
Last reviewed: July 2018.
Last updated: January 2015.