Thanksgiving Thoughts: Rethinking Alcohol

 🍂💭 Thanksgiving Thoughts: Rethinking Alcohol

It’s Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada 🇨🇦 — families gathering, Canucks game on, drinks flowing everywhere.

But I was reading a post about youth drinking, and something about it really hit me…
We keep saying “don’t do it” instead of helping young people understand it.

We don’t teach what alcohol actually does — how it can change your emotions, reactions, even your relationships.
We don’t teach how to spot when someone’s had too much, when things turn manipulative or unsafe.

In both Canada and Mexico, drinking is everywhere — parks, beaches, family tables.
And especially in Mexico, I’ve seen expats who never make it home, drinking daily, slowly fading away.
I see elders showing signs of dementia and disconnection, and no one talks about how long-term drinking plays a part.

I think it’s great to abstain — truly — but pretending that “just say no” works? It doesn’t.
Moderation, awareness, empathy — that’s the real lesson.

This Thanksgiving, maybe instead of another round, we start an honest conversation about why we drink, what it means, and how we can take care of each other. ❤️🍁

Stay tuned as I am going to do a series on this.