Diyanath’s Alcohol Life Impact scale (of course)
|
Quite true |
Partly true |
Partly untrue |
Quite untrue |
|
| 1. I can relax fully, drink in hand or not |
00 |
01 |
04 |
06 |
| 2. I feel relaxed when I have a drink in hand |
03 |
02 |
01 |
00 |
| 3. I relax fully only when I have a drink in hand |
08 |
06 |
02 |
00 |
| 4. I feel relaxed when I am tipsy or quite drunk |
04 |
03 |
02 |
00 |
| 5. I relax fully only when I am tipsy or quite drunk |
10 |
08 |
04 |
00 |
| 6. I enjoy events / am good fun, drink in hand or not |
00 |
01 |
04 |
06 |
| 7. I am good fun when I have a drink in hand |
03 |
02 |
01 |
00 |
| 8. I come alive only with a drink in hand |
08 |
06 |
02 |
00 |
| 9. I am good fun when I am tipsy or quite drunk |
04 |
03 |
02 |
00 |
| 10. I come alive only when tipsy or quite drunk |
10 |
08 |
04 |
00 |
Interpretation:
A. Individual items
Should item 5 or 10 apply, it’s serious indeed: Alcohol already is badly hampering me.
A ‘true’ on 3, 4, 8 or 9 is also not too fine.
If 1 and 6 call out ‘Quite true’ I should feel fairly pleased but must ensure I keep up my guard to protect this pleasant seat.
A ‘quite true’ on 7 or 2 suggests some restriction. And should serve as early warning.
B. Total score
We have worked out without a doubt what a score of 16 means.
So you may do the rest.
Beware though, if your full score is anywhere more than 4
I am very happy for the new feature of this blog portal and I am looking forward to Mr. Diyanath Samarasinghe’s next contributions.
I would also be interested in his experience with this table. What r the general answers? And how do people interpret for questions 2,3,6,7,8? Does “drink in hand” mean also using the alcohol? Or is already just holding it relevant?
Thank you!
Hi Dr. Diyanath, This new DALI scale is great. Congrats !!
Thanks Diyanath, for this first blogg entry. As you say, it is a serious issue and you manage to address in a more fun way.
I am interested in the discussion of: what does “drink” mean? Especially in the European alcohol culture “drink” and “drinking” is strongly associated with alcohol. WHen you go out “for a drink” everybody understands that you go out to use alcohol. Is it the same in other cultures, too?
I reflect on this because I am drinking a lot. Every day. Several litres. But I don’t USE alcohol. I live free from it.
I think it is beneficial to the debate about alcohol harm to start talking about the usage of alcohol, maybe consumption of alcohol, but to skip “the drinking” of it. What do you think about that?
Happy to read these comments, thanks.
Yes, Kristina, there are privileges given to the holder of a glass in hand, even if she does not consume any alcohol. But to get fully into the act, one has to consume at least one drop. Just one drop allows most (but not all) consumers to ‘automatically’ do all the fun things that are allowed ‘the drinker’ – because the consumer too KNOWS she ‘has consumed’ – so there is no need to deceive oneself.
And I am glad that Maik raises the need to recapture ordinary words that have been taken over by the alcohol culture. Not just ‘drinking’ but even cheers or pissed or light-headed or high or merry or …
There is in addition the subtle alteration of our language orchestrated by the alcohol trade. In the past we called it the ‘alcohol industry’ but we are now induced to say, ‘beverage alcohol industry’, for example. Other nice expressions that convey the meanings assigned to them by commercial forces include ‘sensible drinking’, ‘moderate drinking’, ‘safe limits’ …
The powerful have control not only over thoughts but even over words and language we use for thinking.
Thank you Diyanath for the answer. Yes – a human mind’s belief IS the human’s reality.
When it comes to wording – I fully agree! It would be great to list all the related words that have been captured/created by the alcohol industry and challenge those!
So far we have:
drinking (“Let’s take a drink”), Cheers, pissed, light-headed, merry,.
I add: party, after-work…
Let’s continue to add to the list!
And the discussion and exploration of the issue of privileges and illogical advantages that come with alcohol use is highly interesting. I think I learn a lot about social constructions: how humans create a certain social environment (like the Western alcohol culture) and then at one point it becomes self-perpetuating because it looks AS IF it has always been like this.