Binge drinking 3-11-08

I personally enjoy drinking I find it very enjoyable as it makes me feel really pleasant, I find it that it particularly helps me enjoy a night out better than not drinking, as I feel an outsider when not drinking and I am not able to fully enjoy my self. Whereas when I drink I feel a lot more relaxed and able to let go and enjoy the night. I mainly enjoy drinking in social meetings such as celebrating a special event. I have not yet reached the point of drinking so much that I did not remember the night before, or had any situations where alcohol has taken complete control over my body and mental state. I feel that I am aware of my personal drinking limit, this means that I stop drinking alcohol, when I feel a sense of weakness physically, once I reached this stage I am aware that I should no longer drink.

This is where I think binge drinking occurs, people tend to forget about their health and simply carry on drinking through out the night not realising that is very bad for them, medically recommended alcohol level for women is 14 units a week and for men is 21 units a week. I think this all depends on the individual, some women can drink a lot more than men and still do not get drunk, but it frightens me to know that the weekly drinking limit is quite small. This immediately resorts to more people becoming binge drinkers as they go over their drinking limit with ought realsing. I think that alcohol is a luxury and should not be taken for granted as it can sometimes help but also destroy the human body.

There are many reasons to people becoming binge drinking victims, an example that I can relate to was Becky's friend interview, where she had a night out binge drinking to get over her splitting up with her boyfriend. I definitely can relate to Becky's friend as I found my self drinking to forget about a personal problems, in this case alcohol helped me to forget about my troubles for the night, but I realised at the end of the night that it was not the best idea as I got very emotional and unable to control my emotions. In this case binge drinking does help for the moment but it can storm up a lot of troubles in the end. This of course can lead to no self respect and for others, such as setting a bad example about a particular gender i.e women, this was mentioned by Becky's friend as some girls give out the wrong idea about women. On the other hand binge drinking has become a very popular culture, almost a sport Adam mentioned in his interview that he once done 20 shoots one straight after the other. I particularly find it revolting as I think that the human body is taken for granted to please peer pressure and a pointless culture. I believe this is only because I am seeing things from an outsider point of view, whereas to them it is a valuable example of team appreciation and a step towards group bonding.

I thought Alister's interview was revealing as this made it very funny, as he was uneasy and unsure what to reveal about his personal thoughts on binge drinking. As he had to both be honest and a member of staff, In this case he found himself in a very difficult position as he had to please both, but in the end he managed to get through it all. I think that this particular interview would work really well for verbatim theatre as it is a very pure and clean interview where character and personal reflection is exposed.
In addition I have not actually taken the course of an interview to get personal views on binge drinking, I choose to look at the verbatim point of view from a different angle, for the following reason; As I was travelling back home on the south east trains, I guy sat behind me as he was having a phone conversation about a night out about alcohol related. I found it very interesting the way he was debating whether being drunk and disorderly is a crime.

At first when he mentioned alcohol I was quite intrigued to hear his personal views, I was not prepared with any recording sources, as I was not aware that the conversation will take place. I was not very sure whether to get a pen and paper out and start to write down what he had to say about drinking. So I just payed close attention instead, Another verbatim example that I came across involved one of my friends, I have chosen not to interview my friend as I did not want to expose my friends binge drinking problem. My friend Kelly is 19 years old she has been binge drinking since she was 17, through out her pregnancy and still is currently drinking. I believe that she is aware of her binge drinking but as she is a single mother she finds alcohol as way of escaping and comforting her current situation. I particularly found my self in a difficult situation as I do not know how I can make my friend realise that she doing her self a lot of harm. I have bought her alcohol on two occasions as that is her demand every time I go and visit her to see how she is geting along with baby. I do not get forced into it but because sh simply asks me to pick up a "Bottle of W.K.D" on my way to her house as she smartly makes a very casual excuse that she can not go out to get it her self as she is looking after the baby. I sttoped falling in the same trap, as I think it is not the right thing becuase I am simply helping her harm her self. She has particularly lost a lot of weight as she only smokes, drinks and hardly eats in days. Therefore I feel that verbatim theatre could actually take place also from my point of view about my friends situation, exposing my personal thoughts and worries about her state.

I found it very interesting and enticing hearing about all the different views on binge drinking, I feel that I have learned many new facts about binge drinking that I never thought about before. I also realised that verbatim theatre can be very useful, in turning a particular subject into a good or bad thing. What I mean by this is that one can manipulate the essence of a piece of theatre all depending on the structure that it is represented, i.e Lucy's group choose to represent binge drinking from a bad point of view by starting off lightly with Jumbo's interview, than the basketball vice president, Adam showing ways to cheating not to drink as much, drinking statics, and Suzie's mum talking over phone conversation whilst pictures of Innocent little girl are projected on to a screen, than juxtaposed with pictures of adult girl destructed by binge drinking. I think that this particular structure is capable to make a big statement about binge drinking. It most definitely advertises to the public that alcohol is very bad and evil as it destroys the purity of young people, which is a very strong issue being made. that could be accepted or rejected by the public all depending on the actual individual. I particularly would disagree with this particular statement but it would also twist my arm at the first view. Overall I think verbatim theatre is very powerful in brainwashing people into thinking a particular way, but also showing the core of the truth about a certain topic/person.