Alcohol: A conversation. A comprehensive approach for schools. CALM Lesson 3: Alcohol and sex: Do they mix?

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1 CALM Lesson 3: Alcohol and sex: Do they mix? Description This lesson invites students to consider the following questions: How well do alcohol and sex mix? How well can a person make decisions in a sexually charged situation when he or she has been drinking? What are the consequences of making poor decisions about sex? Students will learn how alcohol affects their ability to make decisions. They will also discuss minimizing the risk in situations involving alcohol and reducing the harm that could result from high-risk activities. Note: We know it can be difficult to talk about sex in a school setting. There are many ways to approach this. Please feel free to contact your local health unit to see if there is a sexual health consultant or public health nurse in your area to support you. No matter how you decide to approach the topic, the decisions high school students make about sex are important ones, and they need to know that alcohol impairs their ability to make those decisions. Content and time (75-minute lesson) 1. Introduction to alcohol and the brain (15 minutes) 2. Story and debrief (40 minutes) 3. Making good decisions (15 minutes) 4. Closure: Key messages (5 minutes) Required materials Attached story Note to teachers This is the third in a series of three lesson plans. Each can be taught on its own, but the lessons are best taught in sequence. For other approaches to teaching students to think critically about alcohol, please refer to the Social Studies lessons, which are also available to teachers. At some point, most students will be faced with some tough choices. They will decide whether they will drink alcohol or not. They will decide whether they will engage in sexual and physical activities. By talking about these issues today, we hope to create awareness of the skills and information students need to make the best possible choices for themselves. Tell your class that you are going to talk about how sex and alcohol mix or don t mix. Set and review a few basic guidelines for today s class. For example, you may want to tell students, We 1

2 will be talking about some things that are private or sensitive in nature. This class is not about any one particular person or situation; the truth is that anyone in this school can be at risk of unfortunate consequences of mixing alcohol and sex. 1. Alcohol and the brain (15 minutes) Introduce the concept that alcohol affects the brain. Have your class brainstorm the things we see that show us that the brain is being affected. Their answers may include difficulty walking, blurred vision, slurred speech, slowed reaction times, impaired memory, inability to control emotions, and impaired decision-making. Review with your class how drinking makes your brain slow down. Alcohol is absorbed into your body and bloodstream through your stomach and small intestine. Once in the bloodstream, alcohol travels up to your brain and alters the levels of neurotransmitters, thus causing sluggish movements and slurred speech. 2 3 Alcohol s effects on the brain Reason, caution, intelligence, memory 2. Self-control, judgement 3. Senses 4. Co-ordination 5. Balance 6. Vital centres respiration, heart rate Introduce the concept of impaired decision-making. Since alcohol slows down our brain functions, it limits our ability to make good decisions. It can seem like a lot of important decisions are not actually considered they just happen when we are drinking. We might blurt out something we don t intend to say; we might kiss someone, or make out or sleep with someone when we didn t intend to. We later regret what we did. We know that alcohol impairs our ability to make good decisions. We know that alcohol impairs our ability to judge a situation. During high school, drinking alcohol is an important issue, and the choice we make each time can have big consequences. Some students may also be exploring sexual experiences. How can we make sure that all of these choices line up to create decisions we are happy with and don t regret? 2

3 2. Story and debriefing (40 minutes) Note to teachers: There are a lot of choices and situations that require reasoning and judgement that students may face when impaired. These can include, but are certainly not limited to, decisions about sex, drinking and driving, betraying a friend, and behvaiour that involves physical risk like stunting or trying illicit drugs. Included below is a story using a sexual situation as the example. Please feel free to modify this portion of the lesson to discuss situations that you feel would be most relevant for your students (for example., drinking and driving, betraying a friend, impulsive decision-making). The debriefing questions attached could be used with a variety of different scenarios. Read the attached story: You wake up on a Monday and you have to go to school. You re so nervous that your stomach is upset. You re panicked about what the other students are going to say. You know you can count on your friends not to gossip about you, but what about all the others? What do they know? You barely remember what happened yourself. You close your eyes and try to patch the evening back together. It s Friday night. You are excited to go out because the big party is on. You ve had alcohol before, but tonight is going to be different. You expect that everyone else will be drinking, and so you plan to have a few as well. Why not? Your friends say it s easier to talk to people when you are drunk. So you have a few. You remember Taylor was there. With the alcohol, you felt loosened up, more talkative. You were feeling good. After several drinks, the room starts to spin and you feel a bit sick. Things start to get a little bit blurred but Taylor is touching you and asking you to go upstairs. You follow because you can t quite think of what else to do. Your friends are all talking with other people, the music is loud, people are playing beer pong beer pong, and nobody even notices you leaving. As you walk, you fall and laugh about it. The last thing you can clearly remember is that Taylor closed the bedroom door and you felt scared this was not what you had wanted. What do you remember next? You re slipping back into consciousness. You re vaguely aware of a wave of nausea washing over you. Your stomach convulses and suddenly you can t hold it: you roll over to vomit over the edge of the bed. The thumping of the bass from the music downstairs is now the pain in your head. You roll back over and realize that there is someone beside you. Perhaps you know them; perhaps you don t. Did they sit behind you in math class? Friend, stranger? You remember entering the room with Taylor, but is it Taylor who is lying beside you? What the? You take a quick inventory: Are you naked? Where is your underwear? Wait? Did you have sex? Is that an empty condom wrapper on the floor? Did you even use a condom? What time is it? You should be home by now. What will you tell your parents? Will you tell your parents? Will the whole school know? 3

4 It is Monday morning again. You look at yourself in the mirror. All you want is to take a shower and get all of this out of your mind. You want to go back in time. You want it all to go away. Break your class into small groups and have them discuss the following questions. Lead your class in a discussion once adequate time for small group discussion has been allotted. What do you think happened between the two people that night? Is Taylor a boy or a girl? Does it matter? What are the consequences for the girl? Guy? Bystanders? What are some of the reasons these two ended up in this situation? How did the use of alcohol influence their decisions and behaviour? What are the negative consequences of drinking alcohol? What are the positive consequences of drinking alcohol? What implications does the existence of , Facebook and YouTube have for situations like this? Debrief further with the entire class with the following questions: Is this a problem? Why? Was what happened OK? How did alcohol affect the severity of the situation? Why did the girl drink? Why did the guy drink? (Write answers on the board and circle similarities.) How could this situation have been prevented? How could possible harm from this situation have been minimized? What influences your decision to drink? Have sex? Be in a relationship? How do you decide? 3. Making good decisions (15 minutes) Making a good decision about drinking, sex, or anything else for that matter, means considering and knowing where you stand before there is any chance that your ability to make decisions will become impaired. Whether we are talking about alcohol or sex, you should know what your limits are, what you are comfortable with, how you are going to keep yourself safe, and who you can go to for help. Introduce the idea that making a well-considered decision requires that you take into account all three aspects of self (mental, emotional and physical). 4

5 What types of questions do you need to consider for each of these? Head Heart Body Alcohol (Should I drink or not? How much should I drink?) Sex (Should I have sex or not?) Am I ready? Why do I want to do this? How will I feel about this decision tomorrow? Do I have a plan? Who can I go to for help if I need? Am I emotionally ready? Does this feel right to me? Do I feel safe? What am I comfortable with? Am I physically ready? Am I protected from STIs* or unplanned pregnancy? Do I know about SDUs** and how much alcohol is too much? Model created by the Calgary Sexual Health Centre 2008, taken from online workshop Facilitating Sexual Decision Making, Alberta Society for the Promotion of Sexual Health (ASPSH), February *STIs = sexually transmitted infections **SDUs = standard drink units (see Lesson 2) 4. Closure: Key messages You may have the best intentions when you are sober, but when you consume alcohol, your judgement and decision-making ability are impaired. It is important to be aware of the things that may cause us to make choices that can hurt us. Once we recogize those things, we can learn to avoid situations that cause us to make poor decisions, or we can protect ourselves from the consequences of poor decisions. Potential assignment for further reflection: Have students find current examples of risky behaviour and alcohol in the media. Using the debriefing questions from the story above, have students further reflect on the effects of alcohol on people s ability to make sound judgments and ensuing decisions. 5