When I had too much to drink

Focus group interviews were carried out in different parts of Sweden with young men and women aged about 20 from different social groups. The groups were selected from naturally existing networks of friends. Considering that the consumption of alcohol has increased strongly in this age group over recent years, the purpose was to get a notion of how the young people are reasoning in an everyday fashion about alcohol. In this study, it is shown how in the form of narratives they tell about their own experiences of having drunk too much at times. The value system at the background of these narratives is examined with the aid of the accounts given of why drinking became excessive and how the narrators explain and excuse what happened.

The moral emerging from the accounts is that in our culture he/she who drinks too much risks to be questioned in moral terms. At the same time, the acceptance by listeners of the accounts shows which reasons are considered acceptable for excessive drinking and on what grounds such a conduct may meet with understanding and instead be regarded as an involuntary and reasonable response to outer pressure or to other circumstances beyond the narrator's control.