Helping a drunk friend

It is likely that at some stage of your life you will be in the situation where you have to look after a friend who is drunk. Your friend may have been drunk for a number of reasons, including not being familiar with how much alcohol they could handle, feeling pressure to drink a lot, or even because they like the feeling.

Whatever the reason, when someone is drunk, they may be more likely to get into unsafe situations, and that is where you, as their friend, can help.

How can you know if a friend has had too much to drink?

Alcohol affects people differently. Factors that might influence how alcohol affects you might include your gender, age, body shape, and even your mood. Some people might be able to drink a lot without it affecting them, whereas others might be affected after one drink.

Signs that your friend has had too much to drink might include that he/she:

• can't string words together to make a coherent sentence
• acting strangely and doing things they wouldn't normally
• has thrown up
• has a glazy look in their eyes
• can't walk straight and keeps bumping into people and objects
• has passed out.

What can you do to help your friend?

Look out for each other when you go out. If you think your friend might have had too much to drink there are a number of things you can do to help, including:

• Stay with your friend, and make sure they are okay.
• Quietly, let your friend know that they are probably drunk, and suggest to them it would be a good idea to stop drinking alcohol, or else slow down, and to drink some water and eat something.
  Sometimes the easiest way to encourage your friend to slow down is to get the group to go for something to eat that way you are getting your friend to take time out from drinking without having to confront them.
• Make sure your friend gets home okay;  for example, by either getting them into a taxi, taking them home (by car, public transport or by walking), or taking them back to your place.
• Let someone in their house know they're really drunk and need to have an eye kept on them, or else keep an eye on them yourself.
• If your friend loses consciousness or passes out, it is important to get help straight away and call an ambulance. The way you act will depend on whether your friend is breathing or not, and whether or not they have a pulse. Check out the St Johns Ambulance site for more info.

My friend is “just drunk”. They’ll be okay won’t they?

Not necessarily. Alcohol is a toxin, which means if it is consumed in excessive amounts, it can cause serious damage to the body.

Alcohol poisoning is a potentially deadly condition caused by drinking excessive amounts of alcohol. Symptoms of alcohol poisoning include:

• Mental confusion, stupor, coma, or the person cannot be roused
• Vomiting
• Seizures
• Slow breathing (fewer than eight breaths per minute)
• Irregular breathing (10 seconds or more between breaths)
• Hypothermia (low body temperature), bluish skin color, paleness

If your friend has any of the above symptoms, call 000 straight away.

Later on...

Friends are meant to help each other out, but being the person who has to look after everyone else on an ongoing basis is no fun. A bit later on you might want to tell your friend about how worried you were about them when you had to look after them, and discuss ways to drink without it affecting your nights in a negative way.

More information

You may also want to visit www.drinkingnightmare.gov.au and click on the ‘Need Help?’ link for a list of useful numbers and contacts.

Let us know what you think

What sorts of experiences have you had with looking after friends who drank too much? How did you handle the situation? Do you have any tips for others? Let us know in the Feature Forums section of the Reach Out forums..
 
Acknowledgement: Alcohol Education & Rehabilitation Foundation (AER)