Alcohol awareness is self-awareness 2025

By MOLAP Director Stacy Parmer

For Alcohol Awareness Month, the Missouri Lawyers' Assistance Program is offering no-cost, confidential alcohol use screenings throughout the month of April. To schedule a screening appointment, call 1-800-688-7859. Reaching out for help is a sign of strength and hope. Learn more at MoBar.org/MOLAP.

Alcohol awareness is self-awareness.

April is Alcohol Awareness Month. How appropriate to ring in the new season with a new mindset. Alcohol awareness is exactly as it sounds: being consciously aware of drinking habits. It encourages individuals to be mindful of their alcohol consumption, even if they do not regularly imbibe.

Alcohol use lies on a spectrum, with total abstinence on one end and dangerous and excessive drinking on the other. On that continuum, there is also binge drinking and an emerging trend of high-intensity drinking.

Binge drinking is a pattern of drinking alcohol that brings blood alcohol concentration to 0.08% or more. This typically happens if a woman has four or more drinks or if a man has five or more drinks within approximately two hours.¹ 

High-intensity drinking is consuming alcohol at levels that are two or more times the gender-specific binge drinking thresholds listed above.

The American Bar Association conducted a study in collaboration with the Betty Ford Foundation which found that 20% of lawyers and legal professionals showed signs of problematic drinking, compared to just 11.8% of the total workforce with the same level of educational attainment.²

The high stress demands of the legal profession foster a culture that is conducive to social drinking, often beginning in law school.

Being mindful and in the present moment can help you gain a better understanding of what your personal relationship with alcohol looks like. How do your drinking habits impact your work, school, home, or social life? Self-reflection helps us to build strategies to cope with drinking urges.

As we become more self-aware of our triggers for imbibing, we can begin to build more mindful drinking practices. Listed below are questions to assess your drinking habits:

1.    When am I most likely to pick up a drink?

2.    When I do drink, am I drinking alone or socially?

3.    How is drinking getting in the way of my goals?

4.    Is drinking impacting my relationships?

5.    Do I drink to avoid an uncomfortable emotion, thought, or situation?

6.    Do I feel the need to drink when I am not living up to perceived expectations or perfectionistic tendencies?

7.    Am I drinking to self-medicate underlying symptoms of stress, anxiety, or depression?

8.    What are common triggers that cause me to want to drink?

As lawyers become more self-aware of triggers and habits for imbibing, they can begin to build more mindful drinking practices and become alcohol aware – impacting how they live and practice law.

1 What Colleges Need to Know Now: An Update on College Drinking Research, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. 2 (2007).

2 Patrick Krill, et. al, The Prevalence of Substance Use and Other Mental Health Concerns Among American Attorneys, 10 J. OF ADDICTION MED. 46 (2016).