The winter holiday season can be a wonderful – though stressful – time of year. To help keep a balanced mindset, we at SAMHSA want to remind everyone to take time to focus on your mental, emotional and behavioral health and well-being during the holidays. We also ask you to be aware that traffic fatalities involving drivers under the influence of alcohol or drugs increase during the holidays. Due to the number of driving fatalities during the Christmas and New Year’s holidays,[i] President Barack Obama has declared December National Impaired …

With turkey, football games, and getting together with family and friends, the Thanksgiving holiday weekend is exceptionally busy.  This is also a time when there are more opportunities for binge drinking to become a problem for underage youth, young legal drinkers home for the holidays getting together with friends, and adults.
According to SAMHSA’s National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH):

There were an estimated 10.0 million underage (aged 12 to 20) drinkers in 2010, including 6.5 million binge drinkers and 2.0 million heavy drinkers.

Among young adults aged 18 to 25 in 2010, the …