Ask a spouse or friend if downing a third martini during happy hour is a good idea, and you can probably guess what they'll answer.
Need a more objective opinion? Ask www.MaineBac.org, a new Web site that will give you a free, confidential assessment of your personal drinking habits.
Just plug in a few vital statistics such as age and weight, then answer a few questions about topics such as how many drinks you have in a typical day.
The Web site takes that information and creates a customized blood-alcohol content chart and an analysis that shows your personal risk of getting into an alcohol-related accident or suffering an injury. It also details the health and financial risks of your drinking.
It's all completely anonymous, so it's OK to be honest about the number of mojitos you had at that party last weekend.
MaineBac – the "Bac" stands for "Brief Alcohol Check-up" – even compares your drinking habits to those of other Cumberland County residents so you can see how you stack up against other local drinkers.
And you can follow your drinking over time by returning to the site and entering the personal identification number assigned by the site.
"The campaign is designed so that it appeals to everyone, regardless of whether or not they may feel they have a drinking problem – because in reality, especially among young adults, drinking levels are way out of range for what is healthy and safe," said Erica Schmitz of 21 Reasons, a regional substance-abuse prevention coalition that is one of the partners in the project.
"Young people, young adults especially, just don't have a good context or barometer for what safe and reduced-risk drinking look like, and we have huge misperceptions about what serving sizes need to be," Schmitz said.
MaineBac is based on an online program developed by counselors and psychologists at San Diego State University. This is the first time it's been used outside of a college setting.
The partners in the Maine-based effort, which includes 21 Reasons, the city of Portland and the People's Regional Opportunity Program, plan to take MaineBac statewide if it works well in Cumberland County.
The group 21 Reasons has been distributing information about the Web site in the Old Port, at outdoor concerts, and at other places where people ages 21 to 25 might hang out. Coasters and wallet cards with the MaineBac logo are being distributed at local bars.
Although anyone may use the site, young adults are being targeted because they're typically the role models for underage drinkers, Schmitz said.
"We started by having most of our friends take it, honestly," Schmitz said. "It's really cool to just put in your information and see what it spits back at you."
For users who don't like what they see, the Web site offers ways to cut back on drinking, from spacing drinks an hour apart to alternating alcoholic drinks with non-alcoholic ones.
The Web site is meant to be a tool to help people get objective feedback on their drinking habits and change them where change is needed. It won't be used as a research tool because of the way people use the site.
"What they found on the college level is that because it's so fun to take, a lot of people will go in and they'll put in different numbers just to see how it comes out," Schmitz said. "'OK, what if I drink three, what if I drink five? What if I do one glass of wine and two shots?' "
Beth Deeran, a 22-year-old summer intern at 21 Reasons, considers herself a "pretty moderate drinker," but was surprised to see that even having one beer in an hour could put her in "a risky zone."
Deeran also thinks the Web site will open the eyes of some of her peers about their drinking habits and how they compare with others. Young people tend to overestimate how much their friends are drinking, and...
Reader comments
Click here to view or add comments on this story
Were you interviewed for this story? If so, please fill out our accuracy form