April Is Alcohol Awareness Month!

Together let’s increase your alcohol awareness

Alcohol awareness question 1: Do you know how an alcohol drink is measured as in I only had one or two? Alcohol awareness is important to have. Well, here in the United States, a “standard drink” is any beverage containing 0.6 fluid ounces or 14 grams of pure alcohol. So exactly what does that mean?

All of these drinks equal one standard drink:

*12 ounces of regular beer, about 5% alcohol

*8-10 ounces of malt liquor or flavored malt beverages such as hard seltzer, about 7% alcohol

*5 ounces of table wine, 12% alcohol

*3-4 ounces of fortified wine, 17% alcohol

*2-3 ounces of cordial, liqueur, aperitif, 40% alcohol

*1.5 ounces of brandy or cognac, about 40% alcohol

*1.5 ounces or a shot of distilled spirits—gin, rum, tequila, vodka, whiskey, about 40% alcohol

Alcohol awareness question 2: Just how many drinks are in a common container of alcohol?

Say beer…what equals 1 standard drink? 12 ounces. So, 16 ounces is 1 1/3 drinks, 22 ounces is 2 drinks and 40 ounces is 3 1/3 drinks.

With malt liquor 12 ounces is 1 ½ drinks, 16 ounces is 2 drinks, 22 ounces is 2 ½ drinks and 40 ounces is 3 1/3 drinks. Malt liquor has more alcohol content.

A regular size bottle of wine (750 ml) is 5 drinks!

With 80 proof distilled spirits—a shot is 1 drink. A mixed drink or cocktail has 1 or more drinks in it depending on the number of shots in it. A half pint is 4 ½ drinks and a pint or half bottle has 8 ½ drinks in it.

Guess how many drinks in a fifth…17 drinks!

Alcohol awareness question 3: What is alcohol misuse?

Alcohol misuse includes binge drinking and heavy drinking. Misuse of alcohol increases your risk of experiences harmful consequences due to drinking. The more drinks you consume on any day and the more alcohol misuse over time and the greater the risk you have for developing problems.

When someone binge drinks they have a pattern of drinking alcohol that brings their blood alcohol concentration (BAC) to 0.08%. This typically happens when a woman has four or more drinks, or a man has five or more drinks, within about two hours.

Heavy drinking for women is consuming four or more drinks on any day or eight or more per week. And for men consuming five or more drinks on any day or 15 or more drinks in a week.

Are you drinking too much?

If you are concerned about your drinking there are some ways to help yourself:

If you would like to learn more including how alcohol affects your health check out the Substance Abuse And Mental Health Services Administration website and explore this resource:

Rethinking Drinking

Now that you have increased your alcohol awareness, if you are concerned about your own or a loved one’s alcohol use know it is ok to reach out for substance abuse treatment. Do Contact Me today!

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