When you get drunk you make dumb decisions which can change your life forever.
Want to know more about safe drinking? Follow our 5 easy tips.
Drink in Moderation
- The Australian Guidelines have been created to tell us how much alcohol we can drink without causing harm to our health. The Australian Guidelines recommend:
- Children under 15 years of age should not drink alcohol.
- The safest option for young people aged 15-18 years is to delay drinking for as long as possible. On a single occasion, you should not drink more than 4 standard drinks over several hours — this will reduce your risk of injury and death on that occasion.
- Men and women aged 18 years and over should drink no more than 2 standard alcoholic drinks a day. This will reduce the risk of alcohol related disease or injury.
Standard Drinks
For more information on the Australian Guidelines and standard drinks go to: Drinkwise
Plan ahead and look after your friends
- Go out with friends you trust.
- Limit time spent with friends who drink a lot and don’t feel pressured into drinking more just to fit in.
- Don’t allow other people to top up your drinks especially if you do not know them!
- Tell someone you trust where you are and keep their address and telephone number in your pocket. The 000 emergency number will work on mobile phones even when out of telephone charge.
Organise a safe way home before you leave
- Organise transport, a designated driver or get someone to pick you up at the end of the night.
- If you are on your ‘p’s or you are a learner driver, you are not allowed to drink and drive. Remember zero alcohol blood alcohol content!
Decide how much you are going to drink and plan for this
- Decide how much you are going to spend and if you have credit cards, leave them at home.
- Eat before and while drinking and avoid salty foods. A small amount of food before you drink will slow down the absorption of alcohol into your bloodstream and help keep you safe.
- Drink water before and between drinking alcohol, but do not give excessive amounts of water to someone who is drunk.
- Avoid rounds or shouts.
The facts about binge drinking:
- Click on the image to download the PDF
Keep track of how much alcohol you are drinking.
- Keep a count of how many drinks you have had.
- Drink slowly, it takes an hour for your body to process a standard drink. Learn how to calculate standard drink. Want to know what is a standard drink?
Click here:
- Avoid drinking shots or spirits. These drinks are high alcohol and are the main cause of blackouts, alcoholic poisoning, brain and liver damage. Did you know the alcohol content of spirits is very high 35-50%, compared to wine 12-14%. and beer 3-12%.
- Risky drinking can mean drinking too much on one night or occasion or heavy drinking over months or years. How much alcohol is risky depends on a number of factors including:
- Being pregnant.
- How healthy you are.
- Your age.
- How much you drink
- How often you drink
- How fast you drink
- Where you drink.
- What you are doing during and after drinking.
- What you are eating or what medications or other illicit drugs you are taking.
- Your mood at the time of drinking.
Want to know more about your drinking and whether or not it is risky drinking? Have a look at Drinkcheck. All it takes is 5 minutes.
