Statistics show that there is always an increase of drunk driving related accidents around the holidays. In general there are more people who drink around the holidays and apparently more of them feel that they need to take the wheel as well. One of the reasons that there are more accidents around this time due to drunk driving is actually because most of the people who get into the accidents around this time are not used to driving drunk.
Holiday Parties
There are always many parties around the winter holidays to celebrate the New Year and the other holidays that fall around this time. There is usually large amounts of alcohol served at these functions and people are happy and excited to be able to relax and they think that drinking enhances their ability to celebrate.
There is also the popular tradition to drink in the New Year and most seasoned alcoholics call it amateur night. It's the night that people who usually don't drink and drive decide to drink and drive. If one decides that they are going to have a holiday party, it is often a good idea to offer guests a place to sleep so they do not have to make the decision to drive home drunk. If there is not enough space available at the place where the party is located for all the guests to go to sleep, it is wise to ensure that any guest that is leaving and has been drinking does so in a taxi cab. This ensures the safety of the person who is leaving and also ensures the safety of those people whom the person is going to come across in their travels home. The guilt of the person who threw the party and did not ensure their guests safety when leaving would probably haunt them forever if something tragic happened as the result of the person deciding to drive drunk and nobody attempting to stop them.
Holiday Stress and Depression
Another reason that alcohol abuse/drunk driving higher around holidays is because the holidays can be very stressful for some people.
There are many people who do not have families to go home to either because there is no-one available or because the person is estranged from the people in their family that are. This can be very hard a person especially during the time of year that is supposed to be centered on family unity and reunion. It is also shown that there are more suicides around the holidays than around any other time of year. Another reason that the holidays can be very stressful is because in our society there is so much pressure for people to buy each other large amounts of presents. This can be especially hard on parents with small children who want to be able to provide a nice Christmas for their children and want to provide them with the gifts that society at large says they need to buy.
This can be really hard on them when they don't have enough money to buy these gifts, or at least all of them. These parents may go to the bottle for solace especially if that is the way they have dealt with stress in the past. The price of cheap alcohol is very low and there are liquor stores all over the place in most towns. It is easier for some people to turn to the bottle than it is to try and figure out the reasons that they are feeling stressed out in the first place. If a person is not drinking due to stress, but are making the decision to overindulge, it is very important that they also make the decision to not drive while under the influence. Drunk driving accidents are the leading cause of accidents in America today.
Parental Responsibility
There are many teens who go parties around the holidays and drink as well. Parents may not always be aware that this is happening. Many unaware parents have gotten a call from their teen who is in hospital due to a drunk driving accident with either themselves or their friends as the driver. Parents need to be extremely vigilant with their children and make sure that their children understand the dangers of drunk driving. It would be better for a teen to call a parent up to tell them that they needed to be picked up from a party because there is no there who is sober to drive them home. Although no parent wants their child to drink and would probably feel anger at finding out that their child had overindulged in alcohol without their permission, teens are often going to try to find a way to do what they want to do. Parents need to have a relationship with their teens that is open enough that the teen feels safe to go to mom or dad when they are in trouble.
Spending ample amounts of positive time with ones children is another good way to prevent these occurrences from happening. Research shows that kids who eat at least one family meal together a day are more likely to want to please and not disappoint their parents because they care if their parents get upset or not. Narconon also has many resources available for parents that can be very beneficial when talking to their children about the dangers of drugs and alcohol. Narconon reviews the risks of drugs in a way that teens and children can relate to.
Narconon counselors are available twenty four hours a day via the telephone or the internet. It is obviously not good to condone drinking or drug use in ones teen, but it is good to provide a safe environment for the teen to go to if they have questions about these issues. It is good to go to ones teen or child and have an educational discussion with them about the risks of drug and alcohol use before these issues ever come up in school. If the first place a kid hears about drugs or alcohol is from their peers, they are not going to be prepared to handle the situation as well as they would if they were armed with knowledge that they need beforehand.
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Becky Winslow has been helping others on the road to recovery from addiction for several years. Becky is also a freelance writer for http://drugsno.com
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