| T: so I don't know how much you know already about sort of my role here and why you're even here so I thought I'd start by telling you a little bit about myself basically my job is to meet with all of the students I meet with everybody about once or twice a semester and just talk with you a little bit about how things are going different behaviors that you might be engaging in and thinking about any changes you might want to make for your life if you decide that you do it's not my job to change you I couldn't even if I wanted to that's not my role at all it's really to help you think about you know how things are going for you and how you might like making changes or moving forward that sound okay all right so why don't we start by you telling me a little bit about yourself | |
| C: sure um as you know i'm andrea i am a junior i'm in the marching band i plated center sacks honey yeah i'm also in the little bit of a band geek i play you know the wind ensemble and the Jazz Band things like that | |
| T: wow you really are involved in music yeah when did you start | |
| C: I started playing about years ago actually Wow yeah I start on the violin first and then I went on explored a little with the piano clarinet finally found the tenor sax hmm yeah | |
| T: very cool I've always wanted to be good at music it all right so it sounds like you're in band and a few other musical ensembles any other hobbies you have or things you like to do for fun | |
| C: um you know just hanging out with my friends or go to the beach things like that it's kind of everyday sort of day okay | |
| T: tell me a little bit about your family uh well I have one older brother he's about eight and a half old years older than me my parents and I have dog | |
| T: cute what kind of dogs the golden retriever oh nice okay big boy very fun | |
| T: alright and how are things going in school for you | |
| C: I'm pretty good grades have been pretty alright I still like three point seven ish okay | |
| T: great so you're doing well what sorts of goals do you have for after college or after high school | |
| C: I'd like to you know I'd like to of course graduate high school hopefully go to a nice Ivy League school or I mean that might not happen and then I'd like to go on become a doctor study psychology you need to come at psychiatrist or something okay you | |
| T: have some pretty big dreams yeah it's great that's really exciting to think about that and you're going to be looking forward to the future and those things all right well one thing I'm going to ask you about is um you know different people have sort of different things that they really value in their life whether it's you know their cultural identity or their family or their friends or job or hobbies things like that so here's a little sheet that goes through just some basic values that might be more or less important to certain people like belonging or sense of community again cultural identity or family friendship modesty religion respect self-determination and spirituality so when you think about yourself which of these are kind of most important to you in terms of your life | |
| C: um I think a sense of community and belonging okay I think those two and um respect | |
| T: respect okay can you tell me a little bit about why you picked those three | |
| C: yeah well I think community and belonging I kind of related them um you know how I said I was in the marching men I really you know I really enjoyed being in like that team setting of you know being with other people and all working to work together towards that one goal mm-hmm and then in terms of respect I I kind of view that as one of like my major like rules like I I really do think respect is important to respect myself or respect those around me so okay I place great importance in that | |
| T: okay great so sort of being a part of a group and being a part of a team gives you a sense of belonging like you said a sense of purpose in the way and then the respect is really sort of all-encompassing and not just authority but respecting yourself respecting your teammates or your bandmates and other people around you okay that's great all right well one of the things I want to talk to you about sort of relates to belonging and your friends so what kinds of things do you like to do when you get together with your friends | |
| C: um sometimes you just you know go to the movies go to the beach like I had said sometimes we just get together someone's house play some board games and hang out mm-hmm and | |
| T: when you're hanging out with friends is there ever alcohol involved | |
| C: yeah sometimes | |
| T: okay can you tell me a little bit about how alcohol fits into sort of your social scene uh well it's mostly just for for parties or party settings it's kind of to get things going and getting loosened up as they say mm-hmm and | |
| T: so when you go to parties most of the time there's alcohol there okay and how often do you think you would say you're drinking | |
| C: I'd say um on a not busy month for instance i'd say about like two weekends out of the month to three | |
| T: mm-hmm so about half the time you're drinking and half the time you're not can you tell me what's different about the days when you choose to drink versus not to drink | |
| C: the days that we drink or mostly like I said their parties so it's more of that whole partying and dancing and you know having everyone have fun and then when we don't it's a lot more relaxed it's a lot more hanging out playing board games watching the movie it's not yeah so it really depends on what the activity is whether or not alcohols get down there | |
| T: okay and do you notice a big difference or can you tell me about the difference in your enjoyment level at say a party versus and that you're playing board games | |
| C: I think of them as as different i think you know night in playing board games and things it's meant to be relaxing so it's nice to have like that kind of breather versus with a party it's a lot more energetic it's a after at all it's very draining mm-hmm but in the moment it's quite fun to dance and have | |
| T: okay so there's sort of pros and cons em yes okay what are the things that you like about drinking or like about alcohol | |
| C: um it's you know when we drink we we tend to have more fun because I guess we're not you know everyone's drinking together we're a lot more loosened up and relaxed and not really thinking about stresses or things like that but it can be when it's too much drinking it can be can be obviously bad | |
| T: okay so sort of in the the too much drinking or times can you tell me some of the less good things are not so good things about alcohol | |
| C: um a lot of times it will make make people stupid yeah you know people make dumb decisions and things like that way we usually try to be as safe about it as possible so like sleep over a friends house and so you know we're not driving and it's mostly within our friend group so we're not worried about strangers putting weird things in our drinks but um definitely some of the ideas people can have when they're stupid when they're drunk can can be really stupid | |
| T: hmm so you're trying to like you said not engage in really dangerous activities you're trying to stay put you're not driving you're trying to stay with people that you trust but yet it sounds like there's still some something's happening yeah can you tell me a little bit about that | |
| C: well I especially don't like it whenever me or one of my friends like we drink too much and we ended up like throwing up and things like that that I don't that's not fun | |
| T: yeah throwing up is never fun it's not and how often do you think that happened | |
| C: for me that's happened to me once it was the first time I ever drank and it was it was a lot and you know what I was doing I was mixing all kinds of weird things I'm just kind of taking anything ever anyone gave me that didn't end well but after that I have it but I do have friends that that still do some time so I'll end up like having to take care of them banging okay it kind of put it down around my my fun | |
| T: uh-huh okay so on the one side some of the fun things associated with alcohol our people are just more relaxed sort of carefree and kind of let loose a little bit more on the other hand there's a little bit more I guess planning involved because you have to make sure that you're doing it safely or as safe as you can and then there can be some other consequences like throwing up or even if it's not you that sometimes you're stuck your fun is sort of ruined when you're stuck dealing with a friend you drink too much ok any other not so good things about the alcohol | |
| C: yeah people can get a little like sloppy I guess like they're all loose like with people and corners doing things that should be done in private and that kind of stuff | |
| T: so you're kind of stuck being exposed to things you don't mean this video yeah got it ok all right well you mentioned a couple times that you've made a few decisions to try and limit the a dangerous aspect of the drinking why did you make those decisions | |
| C: I just I you know have an aunt who is an alcoholic so I I see like the issues that are involved and I've seen movies and things I know that drunk driving is an issue so I you know I want to be as safe as possible in those terms and be in a setting where like we can let loose but still be safe like I someone's house or something a parent at home or something but so I like I know that there are dangers involved and I guess I want to limit that and still be with a half one | |
| T: ok yeah it sounds kind of similar to your your value of respect to so on the one hand you the drinking maybe helps with the belonging community to start if there's too much then it sort of defeats the purpose and then with the respect one of the things you mentioned is really wanting to respect yourself and not sort of cross boundaries not sort of glass lines how do you think that the drinking fits in with that | |
| C: in terms of what in terms of respect I think well in a way I do think that drinking is probably a form of disrespect to my own body because i'm not putting things i'm putting things in it that shouldn't be there and then but in terms of how ways i am respecting myself i am I'm respecting myself by like trying to stay in someone's house and like trying to limit my drinking so I don't get to that blacked out like throwing up and everything and try to you know let loose but still be in control of my behavior so I'm not going to go with some random person I met mm-hmm into I don't know where to do I don't know what and things like that | |
| T: okay so you're sort of looking for that balance yeah how much you can drink to have some of the positive benefit but without crossover okay and what have you come up with at this point you have sort of a limit that you stick to or I | |
| C: usually well I start off by make sure that I make my own drink so I know what's in a and how much is in it so that way I control how much I drink so I'll usually just you don't get one of those cups and then make one drink and then I'll try to make it last as long as possible and i'll be like all right this is my one drink and I'm good in that way I still have something in my cousin so people aren't gonna be like oh here have some more like no I'm good I have mine and i'll so be you know having some to like let loose a little mm-hmm okay and | |
| T: do you feel that's working pretty well for you or you sometimes exceed that limit or or what do you think | |
| C: for the most part it works pretty well because like i said people you know people come asking me trying to pressure me I'll be like no I'm good I have you know I still have some like I'll get some later and then never end up getting anything but sometimes they'll be like hey let's take a shot and everyone's got it around like the kitchen or something ready to take a shot and then at that point I'll be like oh well maybe I can take one more and that's when I start you know falling into okay too much | |
| T: so a portion of the time it's working well for you and another portion of the time maybe you like I'd like to make some adjustments to to make it a little smoother okay so kind of thinking along those lines how important is it to you to make some changes or make some adjustments to your drinking to sort of fit with your values and your goals for yourself | |
| C: um I'd like to make sure that I you know in terms of respecting myself of my body I'd like to you know try to drink less okay like I you know it is nice to let loose and have fun but I'd also like it to be so you know I'm not damaging my body and I like my liver doesn't work by the time I'm like mm-hmm and you know have my friends on board with a similar mentality so we can kind of work at it together as a group as a community | |
| T: uh-huh so kind of combined he has goals okay so you're you have a goal it sounds like of actually cutting back on your drinking how important is it to you to work on that goal on on the scale of one to ten where one is not at all important and ten is it's the most important thing | |
| C: right now I'd say about like like a six or a seven oh I like to work on it but you know if I get around to it I get around to if I don't I don't uh-huh well | |
| T: why did you say six or seven rather than like a four um because I still think it's it's important | |
| C: uh-huh I still you know like I said I don't want my body try especially going to med school like I know how things affect your body and also affect your your social on your schoolwork and things like that i know that once i get to college it's not it's not gonna gonna work out being you know drinking every weekend and I'm like trying to wake up early and go to school take an exam like I know that's not that's not feasible it's not a good idea | |
| T: yeah looking ahead you can't keep drinking this way and reach the goals that you have for yourself okay well how confident are you that you could cut down if you wanted to I think on that same scale from one to ten | |
| C: I think if I made the decision I was going to for sure then I think definitely like a tent I know I | |
| T: oh wow okay why did you say it's just because i know that once i make the decision I know I can do it making the decision in the first place okay weather | |
| T: okay and so you mentioned you know quite a few reasons why you would like to cut down have you thought at all about how you might go about doing that | |
| C: um I'm thinking of maybe like trying to convince my friends without sounding you know dorky or something be like hey you know let's just stay in today like let's not go out or something or just be like hey I'm not like I'm not going to drink today and even if my friends do like being okay with them drinking around me not doing it and then then being okay with me drinking I mean not drinking and then doing whatever they want | |
| T: so sort of trying to plan more activities that don't involve alcohol and then also trying to participate in activities without drinking yourself or maybe even drinking less than your drinking okay does that sound like a goal you want to work on now or | |
| C: I think so i think it's it's very feasible i think it's possible okay | |
| T: so I guess we'll talk about less alcohol activities and just making some notes to myself and then maybe I'm reducing the amount of drinking that you're doing if alcohol is involved okay so that's that goal sounds feasible you said would it be okay if we met in a couple weeks to sort of see how it's going I think so that's good does that sound like something you'd like to do okay well I really appreciate you spending the time talking to me and you know it sounds like you have a lot of really good goals for yourself really ambitious goals and going to medical school and you know becoming a psychiatrist or some some other form of physician you're really looking forward to doing well in school so you can get there and it sounds like you have a pretty active social life and a lot of friends who you feel probably would be supportive even if you cut down an alcohol and that you know there's a lot of benefits you see both to your body in your health your school performance and even some of the social stuff in terms of feeling a sense of belonging without having to deal with some of the gross consequences of drinking too much so yeah you know it really sounds to me like you have a good plan in place and as long as you're willing and interested in meeting again and be very excited to be able to talk with you about how it's going like all right great so I'll plan to see you then in a few more weeks hurted thanks |