The spotlights at the
Arena Bar and Grill outshine glowing Christmas decorations when you’re onstage
singing karaoke.
Just
thinkin’ about tomorrow, clears away the cobwebs and the sorrow…
I shouldn’t be on the
stage with a microphone. I shouldn’t be turning as red as the stockings hanging
throughout the bar. I shouldn’t be singing a hit Broadway tune with my toneless
baritone that’s normally reserved for shower performances.
But, I am. And my
friends chuckle from the safety of their booth, knowing quite well that a dare
and a few liquor pitchers are the only reasons they’re watching me
fail…epically.
Wednesday nights
usually aren’t this rowdy for me at Penn State. According to a report released
by the office of Student Affairs Research and Assessment, Wednesday night isn’t
a big drinking night for most students, with about 13 percent of the student
population admitting to drinking on Wednesday in 2011 (about 70 percent said
they were drinking on Friday and Saturday).
Regardless of what
night, Penn State has a well-known drinking culture like other schools of its
size. Tailgates with mountains of beer-filled coolers can be seen at every home
football game. Lines at bars stretch well pass the entrance on the weekends.
Students even created their own drinking holiday, known as State Patty’s Day,
when they realized they would miss out on the debauchery associated with St.
Patrick’s Day because of spring break.
Although I make it to
my classes on Thursday, the damage is done. I drag my feet from building to
building and sit, zombie-like, in each of my classes before I get back to the
scene of the crime. I decline a few invitations for drinks because I have work
in the morning.
“Time to get back up on
that pony,” one friend texts.
The obvious attempts at
peer pressure do little to move me from my living room Futon. I know that if I
go out, I won’t make it to work the next morning.
“There’s this mentality
of going out to get drunk,” Suzanne Zeman, coordinator of educational services
for the office of Health Promotion and Wellness at Penn State, says of students
who attend the university.
Zeman, a registered
nurse who oversees the university’s Brief Alcohol Screening and Intervention
for College Students (BASICS), says Penn State’s drinking culture is similar to
other schools.
“A lot of the
universities like Penn State have been dealing with this issue for decades,”
she says about drinking in college.
Zeman says tailgates
with alumni reliving their college days might give students the wrong impression.
And pre-gaming, drinking before a party, with shots of liquor is becoming
increasingly popular, which leads to a higher risk of emergency room visits and
trouble with the law.
“Some of the students,
when we talk to them, most of their negative experiences that they’ve had with
alcohol were with liquor,” she says.
A majority of students
are referred to the BASICS program because of some sort of alcohol-related
incident, Zeman says. Some students were caught with one beer in a residence
hall, while others were rushed to the ER with high blood alcohol concentrations.
Health educators screen
students for anxiety and depression during the first session and ask questions
about the students’ alcohol use. A week or so later, students return for a
feedback session and more one-on-one discussion.
“They’re sent here to
do the program, but that doesn’t mean they want to change anything,” Zeman
says. “It’s driven by them. It’s about what they feel confident they can do.”
In a combined effort,
the student and health educator discuss the possibility of an action plan for
manageable changes in the student’s drinking patterns, as well as strategies on
how to execute the plan such as counting drinks and setting a limit.
“Sometimes that word
‘change’ can be a big deal because students are expecting that they are going
to come in and we’re going to judge them for what they did,” she says.
Zeman says the program
tries to educate students on the problems with binge drinking. She says most
students begin to binge drink in college, but some have been doing it since
high school.
According to the
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, binge drinking is when a
person drinks enough alcohol within two hours that their BAC levels reach 0.08.
Long-term effects of binge drinking include liver and heart damage, among other
organs.
Zeman slides a chart to
the middle of her desk and begins to talk about something called the Biphasic Response to Alcohol.
Alcohol, a depressant,
has two phases or effects on people. The initial phase, she says, is a feeling
of stimulation or excitement. This is followed by the second phase of feeling
tired.
“After a student
reaches the point of diminishing return, there is less of the good feelings,”
Zeman says.
The point of
diminishing return occurs at a BAC of about .06. Zeman says maintaining a BAC
lower or equal to that can lead to a good night, void of nausea and the
infamous hangover.
Zeman, who has seen
most of the negative effects of Penn State’s drinking culture, says there will
never be a strategy to completely avoid the problem of an excessive drinking
culture, but giving students information on alcohol and encouraging change in
drinking behaviors is what she and her colleagues try to do through BASICS.
“It is what it is,” she
says, not sounding defeated by the problem. “There are fluctuations
year-to-year, but in general, I think it’s an issue we deal with and face a
lot.”
* * * * * * * * * *
My small loft apartment
is cluttered Saturday with red Solo cups, most of which are half-empty with
warm, stale Belgium wheat beer. Friday night’s party died naturally, with most of the guests leaving when they had their fill of booze, but not before some unknown culprit vomited in the bathroom. An unwelcomed gift for the host.
Whoever left their dinner in my shower didn’t know when to stop. Much like after karaoke when my roommates and some other guests continued drinking until 6 a.m., a few hours after I went to bed. They started an impromptu fire outside the apartment because it seemed like a “good idea” at the time.
The cop who showed up didn’t think so.
And then Saturday night
there was the young woman who, after being kicked out of one bar, wanted to
continue her bar tour at another drinking establishment.
Standing in the harsh,
December cold, my friend Matt and I decline the invitation.I’ve had one too many shots and can feel my eyes getting heavier from the lack of sleep. I know my limits, and another bar feels more like torture at this point in the night.
College is full of
drinkers who want to extend their nights and parties. Many have had one or two
reckless nights when they can’t recall how they made it home. They swear never
to drink like that again.
Then there are those who
have a definite problem. There is no “off” switch for these drinkers.Jason Whitney, an education professor at Penn State, knows what’s like to push unhealthy drinking limits in college. The recovering alcoholic of 21 years and faculty advisor for the Lions for Recovery program on campus is frank when discussing his partying days at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
“It’s a pretty common story about being wiped out from drinking in college,” Whitney says about his partying days. “By the time I’m done telling that story, students are falling all over themselves going, ‘that’s exactly how I drink’ or ‘I know exactly what you mean.”
Even after admitting to
similar experiences, Whitney says that some of those students don’t think they
have a problem. They don’t stick around to learn more.
Lions for Recovery is a
student-run group that provides students in or considering recovery a support
system. The group is affiliated with the national Collegiate Recovery
Community. After he realized he was blacking out every time he drank alcohol, Whitney decided to stop drinking while in college. He was 19 years old.
He says when he decided to get sober, the University of Colorado at Boulder already had a long-running Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. He found a “great new set of friends” there who were very supportive and serious about recovery.
“Seriously good friends,” he says. “Good people all around…I love those people.”
Now, at Penn State, Whitney works with both the CRC and LFR so students can experience the same kind of circumstances that he says saved his life.
“People who suffer from alcoholism and drug addiction have a disease that tells them they don’t have a disease,” Whitney, who sponsors some Penn State students in recovery, says.
There are 18 students at Penn State who are currently in recovery through some part of the CRC program, he says. And, for those students and others pursuing sober living, it’s not easy…especially at Penn State.
“It’s really hard when you feel isolated,” he says. Whitney explains that a campus like Penn State could be classified as an “abstinence-hostile environment” because there is an expectation that “drinking should be happening.”
But the students in the program are ready to make the necessary commitment to recovery, he says.
“You can’t just change one aspect of your life,” he says about sober living. “You can’t just keep going to the bars and expect to last very long.”
“And you cannot do it just by avoiding the whole party scene either, because that doesn’t work. There is zero chance of recovery in just going at it alone for someone who is an alcoholic.”
Before his next meeting, Whitney takes a bite of his lunch, which has been largely neglected because of the interview.
Whitney says students who can’t control how much alcohol they have once they start drinking and can’t stop after they have really good reasons to stop need to get help. Future graduates who will be searching for employment soon need to consider their drinking habits because “if you’re blacking out consistently at Penn State, you’re going to be blacking out everywhere,” he says.
There is a type of person who is known as a “hard drinker,” he explains, who can stop drinking when they are given sufficient reason. The hard drinker may get in trouble at work for something caused by their drinking and that will be enough motivation to stop.
“The alcoholic gets the same reprimand, means to stop and can’t,” Whitney says. “They don’t understand what alcoholism and drug addiction is…even people who really have the disease often don’t understand how it’s kicking their ass.”
But, his other message is one of hope.
“Recovery is awesome,” he says. “I was learning a tremendous amount about myself and how to be a better person,” he says.
“It’s less lonely than drinking, even when you have hundreds of friends,” he adds, pausing briefly. “It’s actually less lonely.”
*
* * * * * * * * *
As we walk away from
the downtown action, I have to ask why Matt’s packing it in so early on a
Saturday.I’ve told him that I’m tired, but since he’s the same friend who harassed me earlier in the week after my night of karaoke, I can’t let him go without returning the favor.
“I have a lot of stuff
to do tomorrow,” he says.
Before I have the
chance for an encore performance, we shake hands and go our separate ways.
The
sun’ll come out, tomorrow…
I hum for a few more
blocks, kicking an empty beer can before realizing that it already is tomorrow.
