How Can You Protect Yourself While Drinking

People who drink alcohol are typically aware of the potential consequences associated with its use, especially when taken in large quantities: impaired memory, concentration, and reasoning abilities, increased impulsive behaviours such as online gambling, decreased ability to handle your emotions, having no “filter” when talking, or even increased violent behaviour. However, most still choose to drink. Therefore, it is important to learn how to protect yourself when you do choose to drink.

Protective behavioural strategies (PBS) are defined as active strategies and behaviours that individuals can engage in while drinking alcohol to limit negative alcohol-related consequences. These strategies are beneficial for everyone, including those in treatment for alcohol abuse, because unlike other factors (i.e., sex, religiosity, or family history of alcohol use) that are difficult to change, PBS can be modified. In addition, PBS can be modified to address multiple types of substance use.

Protective behavioural strategies were originally developed to target undergraduate students whose rates of drinking are the highest across the lifespan. The strategies focus more on reducing alcohol-related consequences instead of stopping the drinking behaviour completely. There is much support in the literature for the use of PBS, and it has consistently been demonstrated that higher use of PBS is associated with less alcohol use and fewer alcohol-related problems. Moreover, research has informed us that individuals, especially women, underestimate how frequently others use PBS. However, if you believe that PBS is regularly used, you are more likely to engage in them yourself.