page 2 fathom november 9, 1979
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Fc&hom plays foum tor alcohol icoues
Alcohol.
Neither the issue nor the controversy is new.
The same questions are raised and answered by the
same silence. Discussions cover similar topics and
opinions are based on common deficits of knowledge.
With this issue of Fathom we hope to clear up some
of the confusion and to approach an old problem with
new angles.
We're not pretending we discovered the alcoholic
issue or that 1979 is the first year it has been a major
topic of conversation. Nor are we assuming that these
eight pages of newsprint will comprehensively cover
the subject. - .
We will assume the stories will help 1979 UNL stu
dents be more informed about the problems and
policies here that deal with alcohol.
There is a mountain of data on the subject and a
similar stack of recorded controversies. From that
plethora of information we have attempted to extract
that which we think pertains to the situation on the
UNL campus.
We are not taking an editorial stance on the issue,
but are merely fulfilling a need we see for purveyors of
information.
Our goal is to add new bits of information to the
continuing conversations and to give people, both stu.
dents and faculty, the chance to reevaluate their
positions on the issue.
Photo by Tom Gessner.
Wine and roses concentrated in college days
By Mike Sweeney
tudents in a 1976 UNL psychology
class received a difficult assignment at the
beginning of their five-week course: stop
drinking.
The 24 students enrolled in "Psycho
social Aspects of Alcoholism" signed agree
ments to abstain from alcohol for two
weeks and keep diaries describing their re
actions. The students were asked to attend
parties or social gatherings as normal.
When instructors Steve B. Blum and P. .
Clayton Rivers collected the diaries, they
said they were surprised by the results. Stu
dents wrote of feeling pressure and even
hostility because of their abstinence. Sever
al reported having a drink in their hands
before remembering their contract.
Of the 24 students in the class, 1 1 asked
for copies of the agreement to take to part
ies to justify their abstinence.
Alcohol is such an integral part of many
college parties that hosts as well as guests
often feel ill at ease when someone doesn't
drink, according to Peggy Brown, planning
coordinator for the Lincoln Council on
Alcoholism and Drugs.
"PEOPLE FEEL insecure if you're not
drinking, if you say 'no thank you, I'm
having 7-Up,' " Brown said.
Many college students drink because it's
the accepted thing to do at a party, she
said. But students also drink because of
stress, peer pressure and loneliness.
The significant use of alcohol among
college students is reflected in statistics
showing people in their teens and early 20s
to be the chief users and abusers of i
alcohol.
In a 1974 study by the U.S. Department
of Health, Education and Welfare, 27 per
cent of 18-to 20-year-olds-the largest per
centage of any age group-said they had ,
some type of drinking problem.
Further questioning indicated 9 perceitt
of college males and 1 percent of college
females had experienced more than one
blackout, and 10 percent of the men and 3
percent of the women reported drinking
before breakfast more than once.
In Lincoln, 19- to 24-year-olds account
ed for 44.7 percent of the arrests for driv
ing while intoxicated between the months
of January and September, 1979. A total
of 633 people were arrested, up from 559
people arrested during the same period last
year.
' TT APPEARS like we've got a growing
problem,' said LCAD research analyst Ron
Dade.
The college campus atmosphere contri
butes to the high drinking rates, Brown
said.
College students often are living away
from home for the first time, and their
social life may be uncomfortable, she said.
Alcohol helps desensitize people and make
them less nervous about their new sur
roundings, she said.
Living away from parents and the
support they provide isolates students and
makes them more susceptible to peer pres
sure, she said.
"Peer pressure in college is every bit as
viable as it is in junior high, except people
in college have no parental support to fall
back on," Brown said
The UNL administration tries to assume
the parent's role, Brown said, but "the ad
ministration isn't home when you come
home late."
Brown said many young- people may
turn to alcohol because of loneliness.
Studies have shown that people are
loneliest during their senior year of high
school and freshman year of college. Their
loneliness prompts drinking, she said.
ONCE COLLEGE students begin drink
ing, they tend to abuse alcohol, according
to Duke Engel, outpatient supervisor for
the Lincoln General Hospital Independence
Center.
"Most young people drink abusively.
That's the norm," Engel said.
Engel said young drinkers may continue
to abuse alcohol until they feel emotional
or physical pain.
Many college-age drinkers use alcohol
experimentally, and most "haven't got
their hands in the fire yet."
Most students reduce their drinking
after they have been hurt by it, but the
alcoholic student keeps coming back for
more punishment, Engel said.
Engel, who occasionally speaks about
alcoholism on the UNL campus, said he
once gave a program at a fraternity where
he listed the symptoms of alcoholism.
"One guy said, .'If that's the list of
symptoms, half the guys in this house are
alcoholics,'"-Engel said.
'The symptoms for adults are the
norms for the college campus," he said.
Those symptoms include a preoccupa
tion with alcohol, inappropriate behavior
when drinking and blackouts, he said..
'THE KEY IS-does the use of alcohol
lead to repeated and significant trouble,"
Engel said.
Although many students display the
symptoms, most are not alcoholics, he said.
They are only alcohol abusers who will
grow out of their alcohol problems.
Nevertheless, a person doesn't have to
be certain someone is an alcoholic to point
out a drinking problem , he said .
"You'd do the same thing if you saw
somebody lose 20 pounds, or if someone
was depressed and not going to class,"
Engel said. "Professionals don't have to
diagnose alcoholism to work with it
(alcohol abuse)," he said.
Counselors have been diagnosing the
problem at an earlier age, Engel said.
When he began working at the Inde
pendence Center several years ago, the
average patient was about 40 years old, he
said. The average has dropped to slightly
more than 30 years, he said.
Independence Center counselor Gary
Wise said three of the 16 people he works
with go to college, and four more are
college age. " x
Engel also said he knows a lot of college
students who seek treatment at the center.
Although they were unable to deter
mine how many college students were
treated , at the Independence Center,
records show 335 people sought treatment
from September 1977 to September 1979,
indicating an average of 14 people a
month . Of this number, 256 were male and
79 were female.
MARGARET EAGER, psychiatric
social worker at the University Health Cen
ter, said she sees a lot of. cases where
alcohol is part of a student's problem al
though she couldn't predict the amount of
drinking on campus. She diagnoses alcohol
ism about two times a year, she said.
Both Engel and Brown said the univer
sity's policy prohibiting alcoholic beverages
on campus has no effect on student drink
ing habits.
'Engel said only changes in drinking
attitudes, and not rules or laws will change
college drinking patterns.
"I almost think the issue of drinking on
campus is trite," Brown said. "If they (the
administration) are that concerned, why
don't they have alcohol education pro
grams in the dorms?"
If UNL dropped campus alcohol
restrictions, campus concern about alcohol
would be focused not on changing the
rules, but rather on alcohol abuse, she said.
'They'd have to judge it on its own
merits," she said.
She said the administration presents a
mixed picture to the students. Many use
alcohol while, admonishing students to
keep it out of the dorms, she said.
'The (student's) comeback to that is
'How do you drink in your home? This is
my home,' "Brown said.