It comes as no surprise to anyone that students at Dartmouth drink a lot of alcohol. Most students at most colleges imbibe regularly, an aphorism that has held true from “Animal House” (1978) to “Neighbors” (2014) — in fact, I like to think of collegiate inebriation in the terms of my second-favorite Bible verse, Ecclesiastes 1:9. “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again. There is nothing new under the sun.” Whether it is beer, boxed wine or the now-Dartmouth-banned hard alcohol, booze plays a large role in both the public and private lives of American college students.
Alcohol must be consumed responsibly and respectfully. While I have little doubt that there are students on this campus who abuse alcohol, the word “alcoholism” cannot be thrown around lightly. There is a difference between drinking too much on a Saturday night while you are in this kind of environment or enjoying a beer in the evenings and having an alcohol use disorder — colloquially referred to as alcoholism. The “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders” breaks down AUDs into three sub-classifications: mild, moderate and severe. The DSM-V lists 11 symptoms which may indicate AUD; the presence of two to three symptoms indicates mild AUD, four to five, moderate, and six or more, severe.
Make no mistake — binge drinking is a serious problem, and it should be curtailed in whatever ways are effective and fair to everyone involved. I certainly do not recommend the level of drinking I have sometimes seen in both basements and dorm rooms. But binge drinking does not automatically equate to alcoholism. That sort of logic is a fallacy that mischaracterizes and dramatizes the reality of student behavior.
Alcoholism is not legally drinking a glass of wine with your late lunch or dinner. It is not grabbing a mimosa at Saturday brunch. It is not occasionally raging with your friends on the weekend to let off some steam. It is definitely not enjoying the taste of alcohol, as many adults do. When you call these activities alcoholism, whether you mean to or not, you are invalidating and delegitimizing the experiences of those who struggle from an AUD, and those who have been hurt — physically, emotionally, spiritually, verbally or various combinations of the above — from loved ones who suffer from an AUD as well. It undercuts the severity of trauma that those affected by an AUD experience. Language matters, and the intent of what you say does not erase the impact of its reception. Alcoholism is a serious, dangerous condition that should not be taken lightly — and calling every stumbling 21-year-old on a Friday night an alcoholic is doing just that.
I understand that some people may carelessly or humorously throw around the word “alcoholism” as a defense mechanism — maybe as a way to alert friends that one is concerned about one’s own drinking habits, or as a way to broach the subject with someone about whom one is worried. If you are concerned that you or a friend may have some kind of an AUD, however, using the word “alcoholism” in anything but a serious manner can have the opposite effect. If you are worried that a loved one might have an AUD, and you use the word “alcoholic” in a flippant manner, then it may validate those unsafe drinking habits by undercutting their severity and turning them into a punchline. If you joke about yourself being an alcoholic, people may respond with similar levity instead of taking your words seriously.
If you are worried about yourself or others, please do not hesitate to reach out to Safety and Security or the Counseling Office at Dick’s House. And most importantly, confide in a trusted friend or reach out to anyone about whom you are concerned. If you do not talk about your concerns, and talk about them in a kind and serious and caring manner, then nothing is going to change. If there is a situation that needs to be changed, then that change should come as quickly as possible. Put simply, alcoholism is no laughing matter.
