Lesson video

Welcome to RSHE, PSHE lesson on drugs and alcohol.

My name's Mr. Duffy, we are going to look at the psychological risks associated with alcohol.

This lesson covers issues about psychological risks of alcohol.

If this is a sensitive topic to you, we recommend checking with a trusted adult before starting or doing the lesson, or do the lesson with a trusted adult nearby.

So in this lesson you will need an exercise book or paper 'cause you will need to write some things down, in which case you will need a pen or a pencil.

Hopefully you've done your intro quiz.

We are going to look at mood changes associated with alcohol.

Going to look at links to mental health and permanent brain damage.

And at the end of the lesson, you'll do your exit quiz.

So let's have a look at some key words.

So dementia, this is the loss of cognitive functioning, thinking, remembering and reasoning, and behavioural abilities to such an extent that it interferes with a person's daily life and activities.

We will talk about dementia later on in the lesson.

So let's just remind ourselves of the law then.

So it is illegal for someone under the age of 18 to consume alcohol.

It's illegal for someone to purchase alcohol if they are under the age of 18.

And it is also illegal for someone to purchase alcohol for somebody else if they are under the age of 18.

So let's have a look at the alcohol and mood changes.

Alcohol affects people differently depending on how much and how long you've been drinking.

Regardless of the mood we're in, with increasing alcohol consumption it's possible that negative emotions will take over.

So we've mentioned negative emotions.

Please pause the video for a second and make a list of any negative emotions you can identify.

Thank you.

Here are some possible answers, anger, aggression and sadness.

So alcohol and our mental health.

Regular, heavy drinking, we're now talking about in excess of the daily recommended units of alcohol or the weekly recommended units of alcohol, interferes with chemicals in the brain that are vital for good mental health.

It causes an imbalance.

So while we might feel relaxed after a drink, in the long run alcohol has an impact on our mental health and can contribute to feelings of depression and anxiety, or make stress harder to deal with.

So pause the video again, and what I want you to think about is that John and his friends regularly drink.

And they regularly drink alcohol over the weekend in excess of recommended daily allowances.

Having learned about alcohol and mental health at school, what advice would you give to John about the short-term effects of alcohol on his mental health? So pause the video, and I'll see you in a second.

The short-term effects are things like stress and anxiety.

He's going to become stressed.

He's going to become more anxious.

We've got things like where he's one minute really happy and quite hyperactive and quite jovial and the next minute he could be quite down, quite depressed.

Again, expose that anxiety.

Confusion, might start to become a little bit paranoid about what people are saying and think it's aimed at him and that's where the confrontation, the conflict can occur.

When we start thinking about the long-term effects we start thinking about brain damage.

Long-term alcohol misuse can cause alcohol related brain damage, or ARBD.

It is caused by a person regularly drinking too much alcohol or binge drinking over several years.

And when we talk about dementia, as our key word, this is what we're talking about.

There are different types of ARBD.

People who get alcohol related brain damage are generally aged between about 40 and 50, and that's because they've been drinking for a long time.

They've been drinking in excess for a prolonged period of time, and as a result the brain has become so damaged by the time they get to about 40 or 50 they're now suffering from alcohol related brain damage.

There's a thing called alcohol-related dementia, and this is what we're talking about where they can't remember certain things.

It's a type of alcohol-related brain damage.

If a person has alcohol-related dementia they will struggle with day-to-day tasks.

This is because of the damage to their brain caused by regular drinking.

The person may have memory loss and difficulty thinking things through.

So they won't be able to process the information and then be able to do something and what we would do in a logical manner.

They would get confused.

They would have memory loss as well, so they might not remember certain things, and in which case, they become extremely confused and that can cause real anxiety.

They may have problems with more complex tasks such as managing their finances.

They might not realise how much money they're spending.

They might not remember what they spent their money on.

They might not remember actually physically going to the shops.

And this can affect their finances 'cause they're not on top of it.

They're not thinking about how much is coming in and how much is going out.

The symptoms may cause problems with daily life.

For example, the person may no longer be able to cook a meal.

They may simply not be able to remember how to turn the oven on or where it is, or what to do.

That logical process of step-by-step cooking is gone.

The bits of information and no longer there.

And this can obviously cause serious anxiety, depression, not understanding the world that is around them.

There's another syndrome called Wernicke-Korsakoff's Syndrome, or WKS, and this is the most serious form of ARBD.

This is a syndrome that damages the brain in a specific way.

Alcohol prevents the body from getting enough thiamine, which is vitamin B1, which is vital for brain cells to work properly.

So what they're actually doing is alcohol is stopping these brain cells from working properly and are damaging the brain cells.

The lack of vitamin B1 can have a severe and long lasting effect on the brain.

About a quarter of people with this syndrome who get treatment do make a good recovery.

It's about 25%.

About half will make a partial recovery and still need support to manage their lives.

So the ones who are making a full recovery is quite small.

About a quarter of people with the condition make no recovery and may need long-term care in specialist residential care home.

They simply cannot look after themselves because of drinking excessively over a long time.

So what I want you to do now is pause the video, digest the information that you've received.

And I want you to write down what the symptoms are for the two ARBD related brain diseases, okay.

Pause the video and I'll see you in a second.

So alcohol-related dementia.

We have cognitive memory problems such as memory loss, difficulty with familiar tasks and depression.

So those are some of the symptoms and the physical problems such as damage to the liver, stomach, and pancreas and poor temperature control.

Now the issue with poor temperature control is that they could and quite easily suffer from hypothermia.

So let's consider this task.

Having learned about alcohol and mental health, what advice would you give to someone about the short-term effects of alcohol on their mental health? Please pause the video and jot down your ideas.

There is further help and advice that you can seek to provide you with further information regarding the topics that have been discussed today.

Things like the NSPCC, YoungMinds, Drinkaware, Alcohol Change UK and Alzheimer's UK are all really good websites for you to gain further information regarding the topics that have been discussed today.

I really hope you've enjoyed the lesson.

I really hope you found it informative.

I would really like to see your letters to John.

So if you would like to please ask your parent or carer to share your work on Twitter tagging @OakNational and #LearnwithOak.

I would really like to see those letters so please share your work.

I've been Mr. Duffy, I really hope you've enjoyed the lesson and I'll see you soon.

Goodbye.