FOR Brian May, too much love will kill; for some Filipino millennials it’s alcohol.
For college student Pamela Bolanos, it’s also too much trust.
Even if I had a 7 a.m. class the next day, “go pa rin nang go,” Bolanos told the BusinessMirror.
I became too comfortable with the scene that I trusted too much the people I partied with since nothing happened to me until that night, she narrated.
According to Bolanos, she went to a friend of a friend’s house party, and something was slipped in her drink.
“I don’t know what and I don’t know how, but I was just on my second [bottle of] beer [but I already got dizzy]. Good thing I had my friends glued to my side and they took me home immediately.”
Bolanos said she stopped partying for a few months after that incident.
Too much alcohol intake also almost killed Bianca Paggabao, a Hotel and Restaurant Management student. Her state of drunken stupor led her to twist both ankles after misjudging the landing from a bus.
“When I was alighting, I only stared at the purser so I didn’t notice the gap between the bus step and the road was high,” Paggabao narrated.
“So I twisted my right and left ankles,” she said, adding that immediately made her sober up.
Based on research by the Demographic Research and Development Foundation Inc. (DRDF) and the University of the Philippines Population Institute (UPPI), 37 percent of people aged 15 to 24 are alcohol drinkers.
According to the research, college-educated millennials have the highest drinking prevalence with 43 percent with the lowest among high-school undergraduates at 29 percent.
The 2013 DRDF and UPPI study added that the highest drinking incidence is in the National Capital Region with 56 percent.
The 2010 Philippine census reveals a total of 18.05 million people are aged 15 to 24, comprising 19.6 percent of the country’s total population.
Citing news reports, the AlcoholRehab web site said that Filipinos are the second highest consumers of alcohol in Southeast Asia (the Indonesians are first).
“It is estimated that 5 million Filipinos drink on a fairly regularly basis. It is believed that 39.9 percent of the population drink on an irregular basis,” the web site said.
A recent Nielsen report said spirits occupy the third top spot in consumer purchases in convenience stores.
But aside from health risks, making a fool of one self is another likely effect of having too much to drink.
So did Daryl Baybado admitted who didn’t remember rolling down a pavement until shown a video of him doing so on a night downing tequila and beer.
“I was shown the video the next morning,” Baybado said, adding he could not also recall going to two other pubs that night.
Another millennial missed his stop, while another spilled all secrets he kept from friends.
Other millennials did not just confess: they also shared regrets and lessons so that other millennials would be aware of the dangers of alcoholism.
Karen Krizia Constante and Jhoana Paula Tuazon