Interview with Dr. Jolien Dopmeijer Part II

This week we spoke to Dr. Jolien Dopmeijer again about alcohol use. Jolien is currently 'Student Project Leader' at the Trimbos Institute and obtained his doctorate a year ago at the UvA on the well-being of students, which also includes alcohol and other substances. After our interview last week about the link between alcohol use and mental health, we learned that there are many more interesting things to say about alcohol use among college students.

Last week we discussed the link between alcohol and student well-being. What else can you say about alcohol problems among students?

''We know that many students drink excessively and that many binge drinkers are among them. We also see this in the monitor (ed. Monitor Mental Health and Substance Use for Higher Education Students). These are people who drink a lot of 'units' on one occasion. This puts you in the risk category of alcohol users. We also see that students drink more and more often. It's often said that this is part of 'student culture', but I think that's downplayed too much. That's because most people show "natural recovery." You can see that alcohol consumption already decreases as students get older and they start drinking an average amount at a certain point.

However, there is a group where this is not the case: the excessive drinkers. This group can be defined in several ways. It is sometimes said that that is more than 14 drinks a week for a woman and more than 20 for men. You can also add someone's motive to drink to that. In the group of problem drinkers you see that there is often a relationship between alcohol use and psychological problems. This category of 'excessive drinkers' often also involves alcohol for 'coping'. That is, using alcohol to deal with situations that you find difficult.

In addition, there is a large group of drinkers who do not end up in the addiction corner, but who drink so much that it is harmful. For example, they sustain brain damage. Or you end up in a traffic accident because you participate in traffic after having too much to drink. Another important point to remember is that many socially unsafe situations occur under the influence of alcohol. In addition, alcohol almost always exacerbates existing psychological problems. So alcohol can be harmful or problematic in many more ways than just through addiction.”

What situations or factors would you like to warn students about? What should you pay attention to if you do not want to become a problem alcohol user?

The moment you notice that you are using alcohol to numb sadness, fear or any other kind of bad feeling, you should already know that your behavior is dangerous. Unfortunately, the 'drinking away' of feelings is becoming normalized in our society. On TV we see that when something bad happens to people, they go straight to the pub or grab the bottle in some other way. You can of course ask yourself: why is that our reaction? Why don't you go for a walk?

Another thing that often happens with students is peer pressure. I notice that there is a lot of pressure to drink in social situations. This does not only apply to students, by the way: people who refuse alcohol are sometimes even forced to have an alcoholic drink in their hands. It is difficult as a student to say 'no', because students are often busy making friends or because it may have been difficult to refuse alcohol in the first place.

It helps to check whether you actually want to drink yourself. A helpful tool for this can be the website whatdrinkyou.nl are. All kinds of situations are outlined there, which make you think about what your motive is for drinking: do you want it yourself and is it non-binding or is it for another reason?

A third thing to look out for is the heritability of addiction or substance use. If you have a history of substance use in your family, it doesn't necessarily mean that it is the same for you, but it is good to pay extra attention and to continue to evaluate your own relationship to substances. The chance that you are prone to addiction is higher."