The Student Room Group

Spilled vodka in a tutorial

(Yes it’s another thread about how much I drink)

I was in a tutorial and I accidentally knocked over and spilled my hot chocolate that was mostly vodka. I’m a poor student so the cheap vodka I drink smells very strongly like paint stripper lol. Everyone around me, including the tutor, gave me really weird looks and I’m paranoid that they know it was vodka. No one said anything and the tutor didn’t ask me to stay behind or yell at me so maybe they just thought I’d spilled hot chocolate and gave me looks because of that. It didn’t go on anyone’s laptops or notebooks or anything and I just wiped it up and apologised and then the tutorial moved on. They would’ve said something if they’d noticed wouldn’t they? I don’t usually drink all day, I just was that day. I’m kind of panicking about it though. It was yesterday and nothing has been said since so does that mean people didn’t notice?

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Reply 1

Looks like the tutor is not taking things further. It can go another way though if the tutor wants to report you for it. It's just not professional to come to work smelling of booze (cheap or otherwise) or to drink in an office setting. Being in a class or tutorial is no different. You would be disappointed if your tutor arrived to the tutorial stinking of or drinking alcohol when taking the tutorial so pay him/her the same respect.

On a wider note, if you do have a drink issue then please seek proper counselling from Student Wellbeing services.

Reply 2

Original post by mike23mike
Looks like the tutor is not taking things further. It can go another way though if the tutor wants to report you for it. It's just not professional to come to work smelling of booze (cheap or otherwise) or to drink in an office setting. Being in a class or tutorial is no different. You would be disappointed if your tutor arrived to the tutorial stinking of or drinking alcohol when taking the tutorial so pay him/her the same respect.
On a wider note, if you do have a drink issue then please seek proper counselling from Student Wellbeing services.
I wasn’t drunk and I didn’t smell of booze, just the drink did when I spilled it. I could smell it but that could’ve just been because I knew what it was and was paranoid, I don’t know if anyone else noticed. I was behaving professionally in the tutorial and wasn’t drunk though, I was taking notes and participating/answering questions appropriately.

Reply 3

There’s a chance no one noticed and there’s a chance they noticed but felt it was too awkward to say anything. Why were you drinking vodka during a tutorial?

Reply 4

Original post by Anonymous
There’s a chance no one noticed and there’s a chance they noticed but felt it was too awkward to say anything. Why were you drinking vodka during a tutorial?
I woke up feeling tired/run down/fed up and I hadn't drank the night before so I thought I'd earned a vodka hot chocolate to cheer myself up

Reply 5

Original post by Anonymous
I woke up feeling tired/run down/fed up and I hadn't drank the night before so I thought I'd earned a vodka hot chocolate to cheer myself up

Poor excuse! You need to visit AA. If my staff arrived at work with vodka in their hot drink they would be suspended."It is not permitted for staff (as opposed to clients/patients) to drink, smell of alcohol, or be under the influence of alcohol, whilst on duty or on Trust premises.

1.

7.2 It is not permitted for staff off duty to drink alcohol in a public place whilst wearing a Trust uniform and / or identification badge.

2.

7.3 Staff are asked to note that there is a perceived link between the smell of alcohol on the breath of staff and incompetence. Such perceptions can damage public confidence in Trust services. For these reasons alcohol consumption during meal breaks and before coming on duty is not permitted.

3.

7.4 Individuals, who are required to drive as part of their duties or required to drive clients/service users as part of their duties must not consume alcohol before coming on duty or while on duty. Alcohol remains in the body long after an alcoholic drink is consumed and this must be remembered when drinking outside of working hours, including the previous evening."

Reply 6

Original post by Angela1001
Poor excuse! You need to visit AA. If my staff arrived at work with vodka in their hot drink they would be suspended."It is not permitted for staff (as opposed to clients/patients) to drink, smell of alcohol, or be under the influence of alcohol, whilst on duty or on Trust premises.

1.

7.2 It is not permitted for staff off duty to drink alcohol in a public place whilst wearing a Trust uniform and / or identification badge.

2.

7.3 Staff are asked to note that there is a perceived link between the smell of alcohol on the breath of staff and incompetence. Such perceptions can damage public confidence in Trust services. For these reasons alcohol consumption during meal breaks and before coming on duty is not permitted.

3.

7.4 Individuals, who are required to drive as part of their duties or required to drive clients/service users as part of their duties must not consume alcohol before coming on duty or while on duty. Alcohol remains in the body long after an alcoholic drink is consumed and this must be remembered when drinking outside of working hours, including the previous evening."

I'm not at work though, I'm a student
I doubt anything will come of this, which is a shame as it’s the kind of wake-up call that you need.

Remarkable how quickly you went from “I just have a few drinks every evening” to “well yes, of course I take alcohol into a tutorial to ‘reward’ myself”.

Reply 8

Original post by Admit-One
I doubt anything will come of this, which is a shame as it’s the kind of wake-up call that you need.
Remarkable how quickly you went from “I just have a few drinks every evening” to “well yes, of course I take alcohol into a tutorial to ‘reward’ myself”.
I do just have a few drinks in the evening, day drinking is very rare for me, and I didn't drink on Tuesday night so what I drank during yesterday day was only what I would've drank the night before
Original post by Anonymous
I do just have a few drinks in the evening, day drinking is very rare for me, and I didn't drink on Tuesday night so what I drank during yesterday day was only what I would've drank the night before

I don’t know what you want me to say. You were plainly an alcoholic from your behaviour in the previous threads and now things are worse. You can’t keep dodging bullets indefinitely.

Reply 10

Original post by Admit-One
I don’t know what you want me to say. You were plainly an alcoholic from your behaviour in the previous threads and now things are worse. You can’t keep dodging bullets indefinitely.

Things aren't worse, they're the same, I had about 4-6 units of alcohol a day when I wrote the other threads and I still have the same amount now

Reply 11

Original post by Anonymous
I woke up feeling tired/run down/fed up and I hadn't drank the night before so I thought I'd earned a vodka hot chocolate to cheer myself up
Now that you’ve started drinking in the day it will probably start happening more often even if you don’t think it will. You should sort it out before it gets to the point of you drinking all day everyday.

Reply 12

Original post by Anonymous
Now that you’ve started drinking in the day it will probably start happening more often even if you don’t think it will. You should sort it out before it gets to the point of you drinking all day everyday.

It won't, I still have my drinking under control and wouldn't let it get to the point of impacting my life

Reply 13

Yeah lets face it, at least some of the people who saw this already suspected you have a drinking problem anyway before you splashed everything with smelly booze No matter how magically you feel you hide anything.

Normal or even kinda heavy drinkers don't feel the need for mugs of near neat vodka at classes, that's extreme dependence, don't BS us about control, that being a one off or somehow making up for another night. This is utter lush drunkard territory.

Reply 14

Original post by StriderHort
Yeah lets face it, at least some of the people who saw this already suspected you have a drinking problem anyway before you splashed everything with smelly booze No matter how magically you feel you hide anything.
Normal or even kinda heavy drinkers don't feel the need for mugs of near neat vodka at classes, that's extreme dependence, don't BS us about control, that being a one off or somehow making up for another night. This is utter lush drunkard territory.

No one I know irl thinks I have a drinking problem. Obviously I know it's not normal to take vodka to a tutorial but I have 4-6 units of alcohol a day, it's not like I'm drinking entire bottles in one night.

Reply 15

Original post by Anonymous
No one I know irl thinks I have a drinking problem. Obviously I know it's not normal to take vodka to a tutorial but I have 4-6 units of alcohol a day, it's not like I'm drinking entire bottles in one night.

That's an obvious deflection. You are kinda making the classic drunk/ket excuse that because you aren't being directly challenged everything is cool, you'd be amazed how many people DON'T want to engage a drunk and get into it all, you think an average college or uni lecturer is going to want to make that their problem? It's not school anymore, they'll just let you fail and lush out.

I told you not to BS me, I've seen drinking, I've seen heavy drinking, I've seen drinking for ego & habit, feeling a need to take a mug of what? 4-6 shots of vodka to a class because you feel your schedule owes it is messed up. I think my very worst after an ill advised heavy night before work was a single whisky into a coffee in the morning to try and dampen the alcohol conversion, and I'd call even that a worrying habit... you're WAY past that.

Reply 16

OP, I was in a relationship with an alcoholic, and my mother in law was an alcoholic. The negative impact which alcoholics have on those around them is not to be underestimated, but the man impact of problem drinking is on the alcoholic.

From your own descriptions of your behaviour, you have a drinking problem, and you also appear to lack insight into that problem. Accepting that you have a problem is the first step to solving the problem.

I am not a fan of AA, because I think that it's a form of religious cult which replaces one form of dependency with another, and which treats addicts as hopeless characters who can only be saved by God; but it can at least be said that dependency on AA meetings and the idea of a "higher power" may be better than dependency on alcohol.

AA is one route. There are other ways to tackle a drinking problem, and you can obtain advice about these online or from a GP, but you have first to realise that you have a problem and try to deal with it.

Reply 17

Original post by StriderHort
That's an obvious deflection. You are kinda making the classic drunk/ket excuse that because you aren't being directly challenged everything is cool, you'd be amazed how many people DON'T want to engage a drunk and get into it all, you think an average college or uni lecturer is going to want to make that their problem? It's not school anymore, they'll just let you fail and lush out.
I told you not to BS me, I've seen drinking, I've seen heavy drinking, I've seen drinking for ego & habit, feeling a need to take a mug of what? 4-6 shots of vodka to a class because you feel your schedule owes it is messed up. I think my very worst after an ill advised heavy night before work was a single whisky into a coffee in the morning to try and dampen the alcohol conversion, and I'd call even that a worrying habit... you're WAY past that.

No one in my life at all has mentioned it. My family know how much I drink and they aren't concerned. And the drink was probably about 150-200ml of vodka, 100ml of water and the hot chocolate powder and I was drinking that for several hours. I have about 4-6 units of alcohol a day, which is obviously more than the recommended/probably classed as heavy drinking but it way less dramatic than you're making it seem.

Reply 18

Original post by Stiffy Byng
OP, I was in a relationship with an alcoholic, and my mother in law was an alcoholic. The negative impact which alcoholics have on those around them is not to be underestimated, but the man impact of problem drinking is on the alcoholic.
From your own descriptions of your behaviour, you have a drinking problem, and you also appear to lack insight into that problem. Accepting that you have a problem is the first step to solving the problem.
I am not a fan of AA, because I think that it's a form of religious cult which replaces one form of dependency with another, and which treats addicts as hopeless characters who can only be saved by God; but it can at least be said that dependency on AA meetings and the idea of a "higher power" may be better than dependency on alcohol.
AA is one route. There are other ways to tackle a drinking problem, and you can obtain advice about these online or from a GP, but you have first to realise that you have a problem and try to deal with it.

Going to AA and saying I have 4-6 units of alcohol a day and it doesn't impact my life whatsoever would seem a bit ridiculous
Original post by Anonymous
Going to AA and saying I have 4-6 units of alcohol a day and it doesn't impact my life whatsoever would seem a bit ridiculous

Hiding daytime drinking and bricking it that you’re going to be found out sounds quite far from not impacting your life whatsoever.

You’re the one making repeated threads because things are slowly escalating.

In all the threads, has a single person said that you drink a normal amount and to carry on?

And we’re only hearing what you want us to know.

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