'Drinking Smart' program aimed at promoting moderation
By Kelly Christopherson

One-thousand-seven-hundred student deaths, 599,000 injuries, and 97,000 sexual assault cases are reported each year, all attributed to alcohol use, according to the College Task Force report to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. According to Dr. Susan O’Neill, Psychological Resident at the Student Health Center, those statistics have made programs like Drinking Smart available and beneficial.

“When you look at your drinking and think to yourself ‘this is something that has gone from a fun time to risky behavior that I need to control,’ that’s what Drinking Smart is here for,” O’Neill said.

The program is not intended for people who want to quit drinking altogether, however. The program's purpose is to help students make the change to drinking in moderation. Part of the program involves looking at reasons for wanting to make the change. In the program, students asses their drinking habits, what they like about it and if it is interfering with things they care about.

“We try to pinpoint the triggers that make students drink a lot,” O’Neill said. “We help them recognize those triggers so they can control them. We use alcohol for specific reasons so part of what we talk about is how to meet certain needs without alcohol. Are there other ways to relax without alcohol?”

So far the program is in its second run at MU. The first was last spring and experienced moderate success.

“This session, starting September 15, has between six and eight students enrolled. I’m expecting similar numbers for the second session held in October,” O’Neill said. “I can accommodate up to 20 people per session. I don’t want it to lose its supportive atmosphere because it’s meant to be interactive.”

According to O’Neill, students benefit by coming together with others for whom heavy drinking is an issue. Students learn skills for making moderation work for them by setting drinking limits, monitoring and pacing drinks and refusing drinks without rejecting friends. The program also hits on healthy strategies for relaxing, being assertive and achieving healthy sleep.

“They learn they aren’t alone,” O’Neill said. “On a campus like ours, that’s an important part of the experience.”

Students don’t think the program will have any effect on people.

“We’re in a college setting right now,” Jared Liles, a freshman agribusiness management major, said. “I don’t think it will help. Maybe for someone who has a serious drinking problem, but for like the casual drinker, I don’t think it will work,”

Other students believe that those who need it won’t take advantage of it.

“The people that truly need to go to the class will never go,” Tyler Lorigan, a junior finance and economics major, said. “The people that don’t have a serious problem will show up, but the ones that are the worst off won’t.”

Drinking Smart begins its second run of the semester on Oct. 27. For more information or to register, contact Susan O’Neill at the Student Health Center at 882-1483 or oneills@health.missouri.edu.

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