Oh what a night!

It's Friday night and here I am sitting alone in an empty flat, whilst all of my friends/flatmates and generally everyone who I usually hang out with are up and out dancing the night away.
Why am I not with them? Well to cut a long story short, last night I uncharacteristically drank what I feel I can only describe as my body weight in vodka, and more than 24 hours later I am still suffering the side effects.
I have discovered I cannot do what so many others do. Drink two nights in a row! It's not very student like of me, but i just cannot work out how so many people can drink night after night after night, wake up with constant hangovers, and feel ready to do it all over again the next day. It would just kill me.

I attended a research thing at my university not even three days ago and read this story about a young mans battle with alcohol. I know that a lot of my friends thought it was a load of rubbish but I found it quite interesting and in some respect an eye opener.

Everyone automatically assumes you know what alcohol can do to you in the long term, but I cant remember a time when someone actually sat me down and told me. The basic's are if you drink too much, you liver will fail and you wont live for very long. But what about the effects that wont kill you? Like the damage to your skin. The damage you cause the relationships in your life. The damage to your mental state, and not just the physical.

It made me think more about binge drinking and how much my drinking habits have changed since coming to uni. Back at home I rarely drank once a week. Here your considered 'unsociable and really not very cool' if you don't like to drink or go out.
I dislike the fact that I feel I have to drink when I go out with my friends, because being the only sober one of the group makes me feel uncomfortable.

Those mornings you wake up with the shakes because you feel so bad. Your head is fuzzy and a haze of thoughts about what you might have done, but cant actually remember. Your stomach churns, telling you that you need to be sick, and you cant move because you ache all over from the night before.

Those are some of the details kids/teenagers should be learning. The real day to day effects of alcohol. I'm reminded of this after some heavy nights, and every morning after the night before i regret wasting the money and losing my head.

Lets face it, is it all worth it? If you cant remember...did you even have a good night in the end?