Avoid Drunk Driving, DUI, and Disaster

When you’re sober, it’s easy to consider the fact that drinking and driving is extremely dangerous and risky. However, once alcohol gets into our system, judgment and reasoning have a tendency to go out the window. Therefore, if we don’t take the right steps, any of us could find ourselves getting behind the wheel after having too much to drink. So, what can you do to avoid drunk driving and keep yourself safe from DUI and disaster?

Avoid Drunk Driving: Steps to Take  

Secure a Designated Driver 

One of the most useful ways to avoid drunk driving is by securing a designated driver. Before you head out for the night, you need to form a plan for how you’re getting home. If you ask a friend to drive, make sure it’s someone that you can trust. Not all friends make for great DD’s. For example, many people will agree to drive but not be able to refrain from drinking when they go out. In order to avoid this, make sure your DD is someone you can trust to not drink and to get your home safely.

Give Up Your Keys 

The next step to avoid drunk driving is to give up your keys. Before you begin drinking, it’s best to give your keys to a sober friend. You should do this before, because you may not want to once you have alcohol in your system. At that point, a friend may need to take your keys and you could become defensive. So, in order to avoid any tension, get rid of them before the night really begins. Furthermore, some people may opt for hiding their keys instead of giving them to a friend. However, it’s difficult to hide things from ourselves, which means you may retrieve them after drinking a bit. In addition, it’s also possible to hide them all too well and end up losing them.

Be Careful of Morning After Driving 

Most of us assume we are okay to drive the morning after a night of drinking. However, in many ways driving hungover can have the same effects as driving drunk. For instance, you most likely still have alcohol in your system the morning after. You may feel extremely sluggish, have a harder time focusing, and experience slower reaction time. Therefore, in order to avoid drunk driving, you should really be cautious the morning after drinking as well. 

Alcohol Use: Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms

As adults, we have plenty of stressors that we could list if given the chance. From our jobs, to our bills, our credit, buying a home… It seems that the list is never-ending, and varies just a bit for every one of us. However, it’s the way that we cope with those issues that makes all the difference. While there are plenty of healthy ways to cope with your day-to-day life, many adults still choose the unhealthy ones. Take, for example, alcohol use as a coping mechanism. How many people do you know that face a difficult situation and utter the words, “I need a drink”? The answer is, well… most people. However, this behavior is destructive in a number of ways, and has a hand in developing alcoholism. 

Alcohol Use: Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms

A coping mechanism is anything that we use as a means of combatting stress. As we mentioned before, coping mechanisms can be positive or negative— and it’s all in how they affect our mind state, our bodies, and the world around us. As you can likely assume, alcohol use is a negative coping mechanism. Furthermore, using alcohol to cope can easily lead to a dependence. 

Technically, alcohol does relieve stress

The reason many people use alcohol to relieve stress is because it does the job. Alcohol use slows the central nervous system, leading to feelings of relaxation— among other things. Therefore, it can be a means of stress relief. However, along with those feelings of relaxation comes a risk of addiction, damage to organs, as well as an avoidance of real life emotion and healthy ways of coping. 

The dangers of alcohol use to cope 

One of the biggest dangers of choosing beer, liquor, or wine to cope with your issues is that you aren’t using problem solving skills and proper coping behaviors. We, as adults, often find ourselves in difficult situations which require us to think on our feet, face adversity, and prosper. However, if drinking is our only means of dealing with problems— we might find that we struggle to make a difficult decision without it. 

In short, alcohol use is a dangerous alternative to healthy coping mechanisms, and can lead to larger issues than the problem at hand. So, find what works for you— and also for your body.

Hangover Relievers: Finishing Strong

When it comes to hangovers, there’s never a shortage of ideas on how to cure them. For example, drinking black coffee or even more alcohol are just a couple of ideas for getting rid of them. However, studies show there’s not much you can do to cure a hangover besides giving it time. But, there are a few hangover relievers you can put into place before the night is over. Furthermore, those first few steps are you wake up can be crucial to avoiding a nasty hangover.

Hangover Relievers: Avoiding Morning After Woes

Water and Sports Drinks

Alcohol serves as a drink that dehydrates your body. Therefore, many  hangover symptoms stem from dehydration. For example, headaches, dizziness, and lightheadedness are all symptoms of both hangovers and dehydration. Therefore, in order to ease them, it’s important to become hydrated as quickly as possible. So, water and sports drinks can actually work as hangover relievers. Both of these drinks hydrate the body quickly, helping reduce some of these symptoms.

Painkillers

Painkillers can be some of the most reliable hangover relievers. They can help ease symptoms like headaches and muscle pain. However, you must be careful when taking painkillers if you’re having stomach pain. Due to the make-up of this type of medicine, painkillers tend to irritate the stomach lining. In many cases, hangover symptoms will include pain in the stomach or nausea, which painkillers can then make worse. Therefore, you’ll want to be careful about turning to painkillers as hangover relievers.

Fruits and Fruit Juice

Fruits come loaded with lots of vitamins and nutrients. These can give your body the fuel it needs after a night of drinking. In addition, they can increase your energy and speed up the process of getting rid of toxins from the alcohol. Therefore, fruits serve as safe and healthy hangover relievers. Furthermore, bananas can be restore potassium levels.

If you don’t enjoy eating just plain fruit, go for a healthy fruit juice instead. Fruit juices work great as hangover relievers because they give you vitamins and nutrients while also letting you rehydrate. In short, nothing will immediately take your hangover away. Only time and rest can really do the trick. However, this list shows that you can turn to hangover relievers to ease your suffering.