Marissa: Welcome to the Last Call Podcast. My name is Marissa Whitaker, and I'm the prevention educator at SUNY Cortland.
Sarah: And my name is Sarah Magowan. I'm the assistant Director of Student Health and Wellness at Onondaga Community College. Our jobs are to educate students about potential risks associated with substance use.
Marissa: We approach substance use from a neutral stance and our episodes are rooted in public health with a focus on science and harm reduction. Welcome back, everybody. Today we're going to be talking about a topic that's been trending in the news lately gray area drinking. So I was scrolling through my news feed and I kept seeing these articles popping up about gray area drinking after reading through a handful of these articles, because I was curious. I think this is something that hits a lot of people and it's something we don't talk about enough. So what gray area drinking is it's essentially drinking more than you would like, but your drinking is not at a dependency status or it doesn't match the definitions of alcohol use disorder. But there's times when alcohol is definitely being misused or being used in excess. So one of the hallmark characteristics of gray area drinking or people who are gray area drinkers is that they can and they do stop drinking. That's something gray area drinkers can do pretty well. Many people who drink are actually drinking at gray area levels. We just don't really have a term for it. So what does this look like? Sarah?
Sarah: So when thinking about college students, I think something that I hear quite often is in the morning when students will say, I'm never drinking like that again. They'll start with one glass of wine and it leads into them drinking the whole bottle. They've set limits for themselves kind of before they go out, and then they end up kind of surpassing those drinking limits that leads them to kind of basically feel like **** the next day.
Marissa: Yeah. And I think, too, this isn't just college students. I think this is many Americans, regardless of your age, your gender, race, ethnicity, for some people, that misuse might be problematic. But again, for some people, it's just drinking more than you intended. So there is a difference between misuse and dependency. When someone's waking up shaking and they're detoxing, that's far different than waking up with a hangover, like what Sarah said, so that I'm never drinking like that again. People may be more of a gray area when you're waking up every morning and you're shaking without drinking. That's more of a dependency issue.
Sarah: I think it's also important when we're differentiating between misuse like the gray area drinking and dependency. Dependency is where your alcohol use is consistently affecting your quality of life. So you're missing time from work, you're not going to class, you're waking up constantly with a hangover, or you're neglecting other things that you have to get done as a result of your drinking.
Marissa: Right. Pregaming before a party versus pregaming before you're going to class or you're going to work.
Sarah: Also mores kind of thinking about the term binge drinking. So it's interesting because this gray area sounds a lot like binge drinking, but I don't love the term binge drinking. What do you think about that?
Marissa: No, I'm full agreements and I think when I talk about binge drinking with students, there's a lot of disclaimers to it and caveats that I get it. We need standards so we can have some number to go from. But we often leave out a really important part with binge drinking. And that's like the intent. The intent to get super, super drunk. I'm going to have a couple of drinks and talk to people. It's I'm going to have a couple of drinks so I can talk to people that we leave out of the equation oftentimes.
Sarah: Absolutely. And I think that intent is such a huge part of drinking, but also it can be tied into cannabis use as well. So are you intending to hang out with your friends and get a little buzz or are you intending to be blackout because that most of the time ends up not working out well for you?
Marissa: A couple of instances of gray area drinking. We're not sitting here saying that we're perfect and that maybe we weren't college students and that maybe at different points in our life we've even been gray area drinkers. I think a lot of us can fall into this. It's when that gray keeps happening over and over and then it becomes like.
Sarah: When that gray becomes a pattern as well.
Marissa: Like 50 shades of gray up in here. 50 shades of gray area drinking.
Sarah: So again, of course there are some events that occur maybe throughout the semester or throughout a year that would encourage people to drink more than they normally would. But I think it's important to think about, are there certain people that you spend time with that, you know, you're more likely to drink more around or that you know, won't respect the limits that you've set? Kind of going along with that too. Is it a certain mood that you're feeling when you realize that you're drinking more than you normally do and what's causing that mood to kind of encourage you to drink more? And can you trace that back to see what can be done about that?
Marissa: So that's a really great way to describe this there and kind of set a person up. So after you've traced this back, you've realized you might be doing some gray area drinking. Here's what you can do. So figure out what your cut off point is like. When do you find yourself getting to a healthy buzz versus getting to a point that you're starting to feel out of control, where you're starting to get into arguments with people, you're starting to forget your phone and your keys and your student ID card.
Sarah: Absolutely. And it's interesting tumor is because some people that comes with different types of alcohol. So if you know that hard liquor gets you over that point where you don't make good decisions anymore, that's okay. And it's okay to recognize that some people don't handle liquor well, and that's okay to kind of know about yourself, but it's not okay if you're consistently surrounding yourself with people who are making you drink in ways that you don't feel comfortable or that make you do things that you regret later on. So some things to be concerned about are if you're wanting to start your day with a drink, you wake up and the first thing that you think about in the morning is kind of how to start your day with alcohol. If you're spending all of your money or more money than you feel comfortable with at the bar or going out in situations, that's another thing to be concerned about, neglecting other duties or responsibilities. We talked about this a little bit a couple of minutes ago, but just making sure that, yes, it's okay to go out and have a good time. But if you're neglecting other things, if you're not doing your schoolwork, if you aren't going to work, if you're showing up hungover for the fifth time in a week, that's a time when you really should start thinking about your drinking and maybe it's time for you to cut down or cut back.
Marissa: Yeah, and I like what you said, too, about starting the day with a drink. That's when it's definitely probably more significant than a gray area. But what can also be a gray area drinking is being so preoccupied about when we're going to drink. So it might not necessarily be from like a detox standpoint needing that drink, but if you wake up and it's like, okay, when is a good time for us to start drinking? And we're talking 10:00 A.m. Because it's Cortica, that could be gray area drinking or at least gray area thinking as well we should coin that. So if any of this has resonated with you, or if any of this made you pause and kind of think like, we have offices on our campus to talk about this stuff, we're your people. So you can make appointments with Sarah or myself if you want to talk about your patterns of drinking, if you want to talk about your thoughts around drinking, even if you want to find out ways to replace alcohol with healthier habits, we're really here to meet students where they're at with things. We're not going to make you sign a sobriety pledge and swear it off altogether. But if you are finding that these gray areas tend to be happening a little more frequently than you're comfortable with, there's people on campus who can help you with this stuff.
Sarah: And even if you're noticing maybe that your use looks different than a friend's use or your consequences, look different than a friend's consequences. That's another way that we're here for you, too, is to meet you where you're at, but to also help you reduce those negative consequences, because we don't want anyone kind of puking nonstop on a Sunday the night after they've drank too much.
Marissa: Exactly. And a great area may not be a problem right now, but it could potentially be problematic in the future. So if you are a gray area, drinker that's, okay? Examine where you're at and see how maybe we can, like, lighten that gray just a little bit.
Sarah: Thanks so much for joining us on this week's last Call podcast. We will catch you in the next one.
