Alcohol is a depressant drug (yup, a drug), that slows down your body functions, both physically and mentally. Explaining why your reactions aren't as fast after a few drinks, why your inhibitions are lowered, why your speech becomes slurred, and why you wake up the next morning with no recollection of how you got home. It's likely to make you feel down (it being a depressant, and all), especially if you felt blue before you started, but can exaggerate an existing mood. So if you felt a bit aggressive or hyper before you got going, this will probably be magnified significantly after downing a few drinks.

Your body's instinctive reaction to alcohol is to try to flush it out of your system, resulting in dehydration. It also irritates the lining of your stomach, causing the nausea and vomiting that are such an awful part of the morning after.

To reduce the effects of a hangover, make sure you've eaten enough before you go out (that notion of 'lining your stomach' is not a bad one), and during the night, alternate booze with a soft drink (if you're worried about getting slagged - which you SHOULDN'T be, but that's another issue - then just don't tell anyone there's no vodka in your vodka and coke), and drink a big glass of water when you get home.

But remember - the only cure for a hangover is time. It takes your body a full hour to remove one standard drink from your system, no matter what you do. The coffee, the full Irish breakfast or the cold shower might perk you up a bit, but you'll be a caffeinated, well fed, clean and shiny drunk!

Well, alcohol, being a depressant, is dangerous when you mix it with another depressant (which a variety of prescription and illegal drugs can be), as it can slow your body's functioning to a point that can lead to organ failure. Combined with a stimulant, alcohol can lead to increased blood pressure, anxiety, confusion, aggression and paranoia.

The effects of certain over the counter drugs, like cough and cold remedies, painkillers, antihistamines and travel sickness pills, can be enhanced by drinking alcohol, even hours after taking them, so you'll feel even more drowsy, and your concentration and coordination will go down the plughole. Alcohol can also interact with a wide variety of herbal supplements, so avoid these while drinking, especially echinacea, camomile and valerian, which cause serious drowsiness and/or sedation when combined with drink.

First of all, you need to know how much you're drinking - there can be a world of difference between the size of the glass of wine you'd pour yourself at home and the glass you'd get in the pub. And your gender counts too - unfortunately, basic biology means that girls can't drink as much as boys (damn biology!). Remember too that's it not the volume of liquid you drink, it's the percentage of alcohol that's in it - one standard drink is considered to have 10 grams of pure alcohol. Even different brands of the same type of drink - different wines or beers, for instance - will have different percentages of alcohol in them. Check out www.drinkaware.ie, it's a fantastic resource for calculating exactly how much alcohol is in your favourite drink.

But basically, experts advise that up to 14 standard drinks per week for a woman, and 21 for a man, is fairly safe. Unfortunately, you can't save these all up for one mad drinking splurge at the weekend - our bodies just can't process all that alcohol all at once - and you should really only have 2 or 3 drinks in one go, if you're a girl, and 3 or 4, if you're a boy. Anything above this is considered unsafe, and is damaging to your health. You should also ensure that you have at least a couple of alcohol-free days during the course of the week.

• It might not seem likely, but you can become dependent on alcohol, or alcoholic
• It can interfere with your sex life, causing erectile difficulties in men
• It can cause stomach problems, such as ulcers
• It can cause a nice little thing called pancreatitis, that results in severe abdominal pain with nausea and vomiting
• Excessive alcohol consumption can lead to liver disease
• An increased risk of certain cancers
• Mood changes
• Alcohol poisoning can lead to coma, brain damage and death

And that's just the damage to your body. Other risks include:

• Alcohol's interference with your functioning increases your vulnerability to fights, unprotected sex and sexual assault, getting robbed, or having an injury or serious accident (like a car crash)
• You are more likely to suffer relationship difficulties while drinking to excess
• You risk getting into trouble with the Guards, and ending up with a criminal record

Remember, you don't have to be an alcoholic to harm yourself or others - just one binge drinking session is all it takes to put yourself in danger.

And you should NOT drink in any of the following circumstances:

• If you are pregnant, or think you might be
• If you are taking certain medications (check with your doctor)
• If you are driving, operating machinery, playing sports, or doing anything that requires coordination or unimpaired judgment

You don't have to be an alcoholic for drink to start causing problems in your life. If any of the following are true, you might want to have a closer look at how much your drinking and why, and maybe take a bit of a break from the booze for a while.

• You drink to forget about your problems, or conquer your shyness or anxiety
• You drink over the recommended amount on a regular basis
• You find it difficult to stop drinking once you start, even if you don't drink too often
• You are secretive about drinking
• You suffer from memory loss or blackouts after drinking
• You feel guilty about drinking
• Drinking interferes with your ability to do the things you usually do, or should do, like going to college or work
• Drinking starts to disrupt other areas of your life, like your relationships with family or friends, your finances, your health or your behaviour

There's a great 'Check Your Drinking' quiz at www.drinkaware.ie to help you work out if you're drinking too much.

• Stay with them, and do not allow them to have any more alcohol
• Keep them warm
• Get them home safely - do not just bundle them into a taxi on their own
• If they pass out, put them into the recovery position (on their side, with the top leg bent, the top arm bent across the chest, with the palm of the hand under the cheek, see www.firstaid.ie). Never move anyone with a suspected spinal injury
• Call an ambulance or ask someone else to do it

It can be difficult to go booze free, especially as Irish culture often centres around the pub. Ask your friends to support your decision, and not to give you too much of a hard time if you're enjoying a soft drink in the pub. If they just won't quit, tell them to feck off.

If pubs aren't your thing anyway, there's lots of other things you can do. Put your persuasive hat on and ask your friends to try out some of your hobbies, whatever they might be. Check out www.dublinks.ie or www.dublin.ie for some good ideas, and don't miss the Event Guide that is published fortnightly. DIT has some great clubs and socs that you can get involved in too – check out www.dit.ie for details.

• Don't forget your dinner! Fill your belly with carbohydrates like pasta, potatoes, rice and bread. Yum!
• Don't be in a hurry! Remember - your liver can only remove 1 standard drink from your body an hour.
• Think water, and drink water! While you drink, and after. Also pace yourself with lots of soft drinks.
• Avoid drinking games, or competitive drinking! Maybe fun now, but you'll pay the price later. Try not avoid rounds too, or limit them to just one or two friends. If others in a round are drinking faster than you're comfy with, just slow down, or opt out of the round altogether.
• Never accept drinks from strangers, no matter how good-looking they are, and remember that the reason they might look so great anyway might be all down to the beer goggles! And you're hardly drop dead gorgeous yourself when you're drop down drunk.
• Don't leave your drink unattended either... if you leave one on the bar while you go to the loo, ditch it and buy a new one.
• And remember to plan how you're going to get home before you start drinking. Keep your taxi numbers in a safe place, along with some cash to pay for your cab.

• Drink Aware Merrion House, 1-3, Fitzwilliam Street Lower, Dublin 2. Tel: 01 6114811 E: info@drinkaware.ie Web: www.drinkaware.ie
• Alcoholics Anonymous General Service Office, Unit 2, Block C, Santry Business Park, Swords Road, Dublin 9. Tel: 01 8420700 E: gso@alcoholicsanonymous.ie Web: www.alcoholicsanonymous.ie
• Eastern Regional Health Authority Drug/HIV Freephone Helpline: 1800 459459
• Health Promotion www.healthpromotion.ie/alcohol/