Skip to main content

New Years Eve: Amateur Night!

Three….Two….One….Happy New Year!!!!

The joys of celebrating the New Year echo in eternity. I can remember as a kid going outside and banging on pots and pans to celebrate the passing of a year. It’s a wonderful time filled with laughter and fun. Sadly, this joyous occasion often gets marred by the news of injured or even dead revelers who decided to drink and drive.

Although Thanksgiving is the deadliest night for alcohol related driving fatalities, New Years Eve comes in at a close second. In 2008, nearly 16,000 US citizens were killed in Drunk Driving accidents with almost 500,000 injuries. A person is killed every one half hour due to drunk driving and every other minute a person is injured due to an alcohol related accident. Over 40% of fatal automobile accidents are alcohol related and nearly 30% of all Americans will be in an accident involving alcohol in some way.

I do not want to preach to everyone, nor do I want to destroy any plans for you for your New Year’s celebration. Rather, I want to caution you and try to keep you safe. As a firefighter and NREMT-B, seeing the devastation of an alcohol involved motor vehicle accident is, to say the very least, an eye opening event. As a mental health therapist, to counsel the families of the deceased is a painful and heart wrenching experience. As I view the accidents on both sides, it gives me the ability to counsel realistically, but it also makes me the advocate for the designated driver or safer alternatives to the nights of heavy drinking.

Why do we drink and feel the need to drive? Quite simply, it is a matter of impaired judgment and reasoning. People will often think they can drive safely because they “only had a few” when in fact they are beyond the legal limit for alcohol consumption. In almost every state, the legal BAC (Blood Alcohol Content) is under a .08% and the legal drinking age is 21. This translates to approximately 4 drinks in one hour for a 175 pound man and 3 drinks in one hour for a 138 pound woman. During the holiday seasons, people are often caught up in the celebration versus counting their alcohol consumption rates. One drink leads to another leads to another which leads to another and so on. More alcohol related deaths occur during holidays because of the accepted stance on drinking during the events. Do yourself a favor and designate a driver or call a cab. And, at no point during these celebrations, should minors be allowed to drink. I have seen an increase in teen and early twenty something awareness to drinking and driving, but the devastating effects of the death of teen to a family and a community are not worth the risk.

What to do if you suspect a person is drinking and driving? First of all, be practical and be nice! Alcohol lowers inhibitions and the typically nice easy going person can become belligerent quickly. Ask for their keys, offer a place to stay, drive them home, and call a cab. Do whatever it takes to keep them from being a danger to themselves or others. Don’t just offer them a cup of coffee because the caffeine in the coffee will not help their impairments, it just speeds up their system. If you are on the roadways and you notice a driver whom you suspect may be under the influence, dial 911. When calling, make certain you have the make, model, and color of the vehicle along with the license plate number and a point of reference such as the road and cross street.

Please have a wonderful New Year’s Eve, but play it safe for 2010!

Popular posts from this blog

End of Watch - The Final Inspection

End Of Watch Lt. Joseph Szczerba New Castle County Police, New Castle, DE 09-23-11. Lt Szczerba fatally stabbed while trying to subdue a suspect that was high after huffing bath salts and was out breaking into cars. Lt Szczerba is the 1st officer on the department to be killed in the line of duty since 1972. God Speed Lt. Joseph Szczerba. "The Final Inspection" The policeman stood and faced his God, Which must always come to pass. He hoped his shoes were shining. Just as brightly as his brass. "Step forward now, policeman. How shall I deal with you? Have you always turned the other cheek? To My church have you been true?" The policeman squared his shoulders and said, "No, Lord, I guess I ain't, Because those of us who carry badges can't always be a saint. I've had to work most Sundays, and at times my talk was rough, and sometimes I've been violent, Because the streets are awfully tough. But I never took a penny, That wasn't mine to keep.......

Traumatic Reactions

Psychological trauma is a type of damage to the psyche that occurs as a result of a traumatic event. When that trauma leads to posttraumatic stress disorder, damage may involve physical changes inside the brain and to brain chemistry, which changes the person's response to future stress. A traumatic event involves a single experience, or an enduring or repeating event or events, that completely overwhelm the individual's ability to cope or integrate the ideas and emotions involved with that experience. The sense of being overwhelmed can be delayed by weeks, years or even decades, as the person struggles to cope with the immediate circumstances. Psychological trauma can lead to serious long-term negative consequences that are often overlooked even by mental health professionals: If clinicians fail to look through a trauma lens and to conceptualize client problems as related possibly to current or past trauma, they may fail to see that trauma victims, young and old, organize much...

Recovering from Disappointment

Life surely has its ups and downs. Whether you lose a friend, a promotion, a significant other, or you just fail at achieving a goal, the anguish of disappointment can be devastating. Whether the disappointment is in us or in someone else, the overall feelings of disappointment are akin to the grieving process. Personally, I believe we can work better at grieving the disappointment with others versus the disappointment with ourselves. For me, being disappointed in myself leaves me feeling out of sorts, lost, and, dare I say, vulnerable. It's often a reminder of how fragile life and the human experience is as it pertains to the loss of confidence. Disappointment can kick you squarely in the teeth leaving you dazed and confused. It is never a good feeling, but, with the right direction, you can recover from the feeling. The feeling of disappointed is also a part of life. Do we need disappointment? Well, maybe. I think we all need a modest level of disappo...