More Reasons Not to Drink and Drive
* “I think, therefore I am.†--Rene Descartes
The holiday season is upon us. For most, this time of year stirs pleasant memories. For some, it may evoke sorrowful or painful memories. Still others may have no memories at all.
Imagine not having a single recollection of family and friends, celebrations, decorations, gift-giving and goodies from this festive season. This, of course, refers to memory loss, a frequent result of one of the most common injuries in our society today: head injury.
We have all read the statistics and heard our fair share of stories about jolly holiday cheer turning into tragedy in the form of drunk-driving accidents. Many of these auto accidents result in whiplash or some other type of head injury. More than 700,000 people in North America suffer head injuries each year.
The brain is a soft tissue with a consistency somewhere between egg white and Jell-O. Therefore, any strike to the head or sharp movement could cause serious symptoms. Physical effects may include slurred speech, tremors and loss of coordination. Behavioral effects may include mood and personality changes, increased or decreased interest in sexual behavior, persistent talking or aggressive behavior. And cognitive changes can include difficulty in distinguishing left from right or identifying colors, inability to recognize words or name objects, lack of awareness of certain body parts or surrounding space, and difficulty in recognizing faces, to name only a few.
The psychological effects are astounding. Often the head injury survivor looks “normal†and others are often unable to understand why he or she cannot, for example, act appropriately or remember instructions. The person is literally no longer himself.
After learning how extensive and debilitating head injuries can be, one would have to be “sick in the head†to get behind the wheel of a car after drinking alcohol. This holiday season, use the precious organ in your head for what it was meant to be used for and think before you drink, so we can all have beautiful Christmas memories.
AHMAD VAHEDIAN, Ph.D.
KELLY McCARDY
Ventura
