They say if you think you might have a drinking problem, chances are you have one. Nebraska is number nine on the charts of heaviest drinking in the United States. How they rate the states is on how much they drink, percentage of people who drink, and how many drinks it takes to get drunk. An article written in the Kearney Hub highlights how Nebraska has a drinking problem.
There’s plenty of binge drinking going on all around Nebraska. Small town people say there’s nothing better to do and college kids think it’s the only way to have fun and be social. They want to drink to get drunk. I find this article interesting especially going to a school that is known for heavy drinking. “You can’t spell DRUNK without UNK.”
Nebraska is ranked seventh nationally for binge drinking and the scary thing about this statistic is that means we’re more than likely sharing roads with drunk or impaired drivers. Your fellow coworker might “call in sick,” when in reality they’re just sleeping off a hangover. Being drunk tends to lead people to have poor judgement. Being drunk can make people do things they might regret when they sober up later like having unprotected sex, violence, and arguing with others and even end up in jail. Sometime’s it might be relaxing to have a few drinks, but you also need to know when to stop.
The article questions why Nebraska’s drinking percentage has been rising since 2008. To me, it’s simple. If you want to fit in, you drink. When you’re stressed, and believe me school alone is stressful, you drink. Work might make you want to drink. Sometimes it just seems like there’s nothing else to do besides crack open a cold one and just let your mind be at ease. Relationship and money problems are also two very stressful problems that people try to “solve” with drinking.
No matter what problems you’re facing or how stressful your life can be you don’t have to solve it with drinking. If you think you have a drinking problem, the chances are high that you actually do have a drinking problem. I think Nebraska does have a drinking problem, but I don’t think it’s all caused from whatever problems we’re facing, I think a big factor is that there isn’t much to do here. We have to make up our own fun and sometimes drinking is the easiest way to do so. We associate drinking with fun, so when we’re feeling stressed or overwhelmed we drink to hopefully make ourselves feel better.
Alana's Blog 
I agree with the fact that it’s a fun alternative to pass the time on occasion. I thought it was vital that you stated a few reasons as to why people usually drink. I suppose that’s important to note when identifying why Nebraska is up there on charts. After reading your blog, part of me is curious as to what state is number one? Even more, aside from finding different things to do within the state, what are some other alternative that officials can take to lower this statistic?
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It would be interesting to have some more context here about the list? Who are the top states for drinking? What are the percentages of some of these indicators? Other than Utah, who are the lower states? How do their measures compare? You’ve got great data you can dive into here. (Find the original report.) Gives you a great place to go beyond speculation.
Great topic about a huge public health crisis.
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