College Students & Alcohol
College drinking is a big problem amongst young adults ages 18 – 25 regardless of whether they are students or not. The idea of drinking at a “college” party or going to college to “party” is ingrained in the American youth psyche pretty early on in their youth. The whole graduate-high-school-and-party-hard-at-college themed movies are big hits at the box office – bar none. I mean it doesn’t matter how many times the same storyline has been used in a seemingly new movie, you always know what’s going to happen in the end. There’s going to be a lot of binge drinking, risky behaviors and serious consequences. The difference between the movies and real life is that there’s no absolution. Yet somehow our youth is influenced by these advertisements of a seemingly good time. Some people don’t develop addictions, live to see another day and live normal lives. Then there are those people who can’t dabble in alcohol and when they do serious consequences follow.
Mixing Alcohol With Energy Drinks Is Dangerous
If you’ve ever been to a college party sometime in the 2000’s, you’ve most likely been giving the option to chug the keg, grab a beer or take some hard liquor mixed with soda or an energy drink. Those are pretty much your options at a college party. Water? Sadly, there’s probably none in sight. As if alcohol wasn’t dangerous enough, mixing alcohol with an energy drink can have some serious side effects. In scary news, researchers at the
University of Michigan Institute for Social Research and Jennifer Maggs of Penn State University found that “…college students tended to drink more heavily and become more intoxicated on days they used both energy drinks and alcohol, compared to days they only used alcohol…”.
The Science Daily reports:
Patrick and Maggs analyzed data on 652 college students over a period of four semesters. During four two-week periods, the students answered questions every day about their consumption of energy drinks and alcohol, and about any negative consequences they experienced as a result — from having a hangover to getting into trouble.
“Our findings suggest that the use of energy drinks and alcohol together may lead to heavier drinking and more serious alcohol-related problems,” Patrick said. “As energy drinks become more and more popular, we should think about prevention strategies for reducing the negative consequences of using energy drinks and of combining energy drinks with alcohol.”