While sitting here, watching the third bowl game of the day, I realized how much importance is put on alcohol in our society. Every third commercial is for some type of alcohol. In the old days, only beer was advertised.

Today I saw an ad for vodka, of all things, featuring Puff Daddy, or whatever his name is these days. He was advertising his own line of vodka, Ciroc, “an ultra-premium, smooth vodka”. The use of his image as a selling tool by the distributor is a blatant attempt to bring vodka to his fans, young, black, men and women.

There were a few beer commercials on, and they, too, featured young men and women (although, mostly white), and were marketing the younger audience. The bars in which the commercials were shot, though, were not filled with the kinds of people who hang out in bars around here. The people in the bars in the commercials were good looking, energetic, youthful, and fun. The drinkers I know are none of those.

Every year on Super Bowl Sunday, the newest and best beer commercials are launched. In the past they have featured frogs and dogs and horses and people with catch-phrases that we could all repeat the next day at work. Although these ads now all say, “Drink responsibly” (whatever that means), they do not feature realistic depictions of what real drinkers look like. Real drinkers who are drunk and unruly, passing out or puking, women who become floozy, men who become violent. I guess if you drink responsibly, you will always be good looking.

Every once in awhile (and those “once in a while’s” are getting further and further apart), I could still knock back a cold six-pack. I see people drink socially and wish I could be like them, but I am smart enough to know that I am not like them. Whether I admit that I am an alcoholic or not is inconsequential. The fact that I KNOW that one drink will lead to the ten is enough for me. I know my limit is zero.

I am lucky. I quit on the first try. Not to say that I won’t go back. I have often told people that on my 80th birthday I’m letting it all hang out. I’ll be smoking Marlboro’s and drinking Budweiser’s like there’s no tomorrow. And at the age of 80, maybe there won’t be that many tomorrow’s.

But for now, I’m cool. I can get along without it just fine. Again, I am lucky. Not everyone can do it like I did. I’m not better, just different. I didn’t need AA. Some people do, and that’s fine with me. God bless them. Some people can’t do it at all, and God bless them, too. We’re all put here for a reason, and maybe some people are put here to warn of us dangers. As the author Catherine Aird once said, “If you can’t be a good example, then you’ll just have to be a horrible warning.”

Let us all try to be the good examples.

But what is alcoholism costing all of us? The guy at work who works at half-speed because he is hungover, or the girl who fails to come in at all are both costing every one of us. The increased healthcare costs for every single alcoholic affects our monthly insurance premiums. The payouts made to survivors of alcohol-related car accidents are paid for by our automobile insurance payments. We all pay the price for every alcoholic wandering around our country.

The government states that there are 14 million Americans currently abusing alcohol. The cost to our country is huge – over $150 billion in lost productivity and health-related expenses. – all because of alcoholism.

If you think the alcohol companies are concerned about this number, you are mistaken. From 2001 to 2005, alcohol companies embarked on a “responsibility” advertising campaign, stressing the responsibility of drinkers and the necessity to be 21 if you do drink. The amount spent on that campaign amounted to approximately $100 million, less than 2% of their budget during that time period. Alcohol companies spend approximately $6.80 per drinker to woo them onto the bottle.

Think of this during Super Bowl Sunday when we all sit in anticipation of the next Budweiser commercial, or wait to see what Heineken will come up with over the holidays. They aren’t just selling alcohol, they are selling alcoholism, and we are all paying the price for it.

As we all know, prohibition did not mean abstinence – in fact, quite the opposite. By making alcohol such a “forbidden fruit”, prohibition enhanced the desire for its use in many people. The price of alcohol that it made it market rose, the quality of the alcohol declined considerably (often to fatal levels), and organized crime took over the distribution and sale. The black market had a field day with prohibition.

Prohibition also brought on the first documented cases of severe alcohol poisoning and lethal doses in the United States. Because of the poor or dangerous quality of the alcohol on the market, and the desire to drink it if you got it, people consumed unusually large levels of alcohol in short time periods. During this time, cirrhosis of the liver became rampant, leading to high levels of alcohol-related deaths for decades to come.

Imagine if today alcohol suddenly became illegal. Of course it wouldn’t happen. The alcohol companies have far too much money to let that happen. But, if you put common sense aside, imagine if it did. Would our country be rid of alcoholism? Hardly. We would travel to Canada and Mexico and the Caribbean to get drunk. The Native Americans would set up drinking stations on their lands to cater to the alcoholics. The underground economy would flourish and someone who is now thought of as a home-brew geek would be a very rich man. Alcoholics will always find their booze, no matter what the cost to either their pocketbook or their body.

The point here is that alcoholism is a powerful force, one that our government was unable to control. If it is that powerful, you can’t tackle it on your own. Ask for help

The United States National Institute of Health has provided a chart that details blood alcohol content ranges and the effects of these ranges and it is surprising, at least to me. Good thing I wasn’t behind the wheel very often when I was drinking, or I’d be in jail today.

Apparently, with a blood alcohol content of up to .12 percent (far above the legal driving limit), a person merely becomes self-confident, daring, and a little flush. The primary effect is that their judgment is a little impaired. This stage is named “euphoric”.

From .09 to .25 percent (three times the legal limit!), drinkers become sleepy and can’t remember fats. They are slow or uncoordinated, sometimes dizzy, and their vision becomes blurry. This stage is named “excitement” although there appears to be little excitement going on.

From .18 to .30 percent, the “confusion” state is marked by dizziness, confusion, emotional (aggressive or affectionate), sleepy, slurry, and impaired vision. I remember a lot of time here.

Remarkably, there are two more states one can enter. The “stupor” state (.25 to .4 percent) includes vomiting, lapses in consciousness, and the lack of response to stimuli. I remember being here, too.

The “coma” state (.35 to .5 percent) is just that – unconscious. During my last night of drinking, I think that is where I ended up. Unconscious, cold, and damn near close to death.

Interestingly enough, I felt completely capable of driving well into the “confusion” state and probably did drive in that state. Being between 3 and 4 times the legal limit in our state would have sent me to jail for a mighty long time, so I have to consider myself (and all those people out on the road with me) very, very lucky.

Your first stop is undoubtedly Alcoholics Anonymous. From there, you will find people who can point you in the right direction and provide support. You can look up your local AA branch in your phone book or visit them at http://www.aa.org. The AA website has an enormous amount of information, including the entirety of The Big Book. Take time to learn about the organization, familiarize yourself with the acronyms they use, the way meetings are held, and the types of meetings that are available.

See a doctor if you can. Recovery is serious business and you may not know what damage you have done to your body, especially your organs. Your doctor can point you toward a recovery program that fits you.

Psychiatrists, psychologists, and any number of therapists are available to help with recovery. Check online and in the phone book for practitioners with this specialty.

If you are a woman, check with your local Women’s Center. If you are gay or lesbian, check with the local gay or lesbian center.

There are a number of non-religious alcohol recovery programs available, both online and in person. Spend some time on the web, and find a program in your area that works for your beliefs.

As with all recommendations, the best recommendation is word-of-mouth. If you know a recovering alcoholic, try and put your trust in them and listen to what they have to say. AA may seem to “religious” for you, but you may find that you can adapt it to tour own set of beliefs. By throwing away the bad and keeping the good, you may find that AA will work for you, too.

So, my collegiate drinking career began I had even attended my first class. I imagine my experience is not unlike many college students in the 80’s. From what I have seen, colleges are no different today.

Having been a high school teacher, I still keep up-to-date on some of my old students, mostly the girls. We are linked together via Facebook and MySpace and from time to time, I will check in with them and see how they are doing. I am almost always shocked at how these young, kind, sweet, caring things have been changed within their first semester of college.

Their pictures online reflect drinking, drunken sexual activity, and no interest in their studies. I shouldn’t be surprised, of course, because I was the same way. But to see a young girl evolve so quickly, influenced so strongly by her surroundings, is scary. And for every sexual or alcoholic action I am confronted with on their Facebook, I know there are many others that weren’t caught by a photographer.

I looked up some statistics on college drinking, and what I am seeing online is typical behavior. More than 300,000 of today’s college drinkers will die because of alcohol. Over 150,000 of this semester’s college students will drop out next year because of alcohol. The average college student spends over $900 each school year (twice the amount they spend on books) on alcohol. One-third of college students have missed classes because of alcohol.

Times, apparently, have not changed. Kids are still doing what I did twenty-five years ago. If you know a college student, talk to them, and let them know, somehow, not to make the same mistakes some of us already did.

I certainly didn’t know when I was drunk, or should I say, at what point I officially became drunk. Definitely not the first beer, probably not the second beer, but maybe the third or fourth. There were external factors that contributed to the drunkenness – was I eating, was I drinking fast, was I dancing (and therefore sweating it out), was I recovering from a hangover?

According to my calculations, I drank approximately 409 gallons of alcohol each year in my heyday. The average American drank 2 gallons of alcohol per year. Of course that is taking into account the large number of people who don’t drink, but nonetheless, I was putting it back. Good times!

So you would think that with that much experience in drinking, I could identify when and how I was drunk. But I couldn’t. And that’s the magic of alcohol! You never know when and how it will hit you.

Alcohol is absorbed primarily in the small intestine, with only 20 percent absorbed in the stomach. Absorption and its effect depends on the concentration of alcohol, the type of beverage (carbonation enhances absorption), and whether the person has drinking on an empty stomach. Once absorbed, the alcohol enters the bloodstream, mixing with the water in the blood, and dissipating into the organs.

Once absorbed into the body, it is the function of several organs to get rid of the toxins. The kidneys work to eliminate the alcohol in the urine. The lungs try to eliminate the alcohol through your breathing, and the liver tries to break it down. Your organs are working overtime to get rid of the stuff, while you are working overtime to get it into your body. Guess who pays the price?

I dear friend of mine has been a sponsor for several people over the past two decades. Some of these people he has guided through years of struggling sobriety. Some others, he has lost along the way. Asked about it, he says that they were all worth it, no matter how demanding or irritating or angry they had become. Sponsorship is not an easy cross to bear.

As Bill W. says, “Every sponsor is necessarily a leader. The stakes are huge. A human life, and usually the happiness of a whole family, hangs in the balance.” What other volunteer experience puts a person in such an important role? Where else can you make such a difference in the life of not one, but many people, over the course of a lifetime?

In addition to being a sponsor to several people, my friend volunteers at a prison once a week, leading AA meetings behind bars. He helps offenders once they get out of jail, and gets them to meetings, too. Once you feel comfortable in your own sobriety, and if you are an avid AA follower, sponsorship is a wonderful way to repay the organization that helped you.

Again, since I am not hardcore AA, my knowledge of sponsorship is only based on my friends’ experiences and what I have read in books and online. I have seen sponsorship work wonders for both the sponsor and the one he or she is helping. The sponsor learns valuable leadership skills, confirms his or her sobriety, and is responsible to another. Both the sponsor and the sponsored work together to keep each other sober.