Would a 16 hour alcohol awareness class have prevented me from becoming an alcoholic? By that I mean, had I taken an alcohol class when I was in my teens and 20s would I have become a social drinker or a teetotaler rather than a stumbling drunk?
Now, as a recovering alcoholic, and a counselor for both in-class and online alcohol classes, I can assure you that not one of my students ever went from never having consumed alcohol to an immediately alcoholic right away. The only person I know real or fictional that happened to was Homer J. Simpson.
No we all start off as social drinkers. Most will remain social drinkers who consume alcohol responsibly. The 10%-20% who will develop a drinking problem, none ever start out thinking they would become part of the statistic. Heck, they were only doing what everyone else was doing, right?
Would it have made a difference that while the amount I was drinking increased on the social level that I took an alcohol class to assess that my drinking pattern was trending toward trouble? I would like to think it would. I often say if I knew then what I know now. If I could start over I would choose never drinking at all.