Teens And Drinking

Even though alcohol is illegal to buy or possess if you are under age 21 in the United States, it is the most frequently abused drug by young people.

Alcohol-related crashes are the second leading cause of teen death. And alcohol use is often linked with teen deaths by drowning, fires, suicide and homicide. It is important to get the facts right. One 12-ounce beer has as much alcohol as a 1.5-ounce shot of whiskey or a 5-ounce glass of wine. Wine coolers look like juice sparklers but they have just as much alcohol as a 12-ounce beer. One glass of clear malt can give a teenager a .02 on a breathalyzer test. In some States, that amount is enough for anyone under the age of 21 to lose his or her driver’s license and be subject to a fine.

Have you ever had a drink?
Many teens will answer ” yes” when asked that question. In fact, most people had their first drink around the age of thirteen, even though the legal drinking age is 21 just about everywhere in the United States. Nearly 10 million American teens are drinking alcohol sometime this week.

Pressure to Drink?

You might want to know a little about alcohol before you answer that question.

Alcohol is really a natural product that is created by the process of fermentation. Fermentation is what occurs when yeast and the sugar from vegetables and grains change the sugar (in the vegetables & grains) into alcohol. Sounds innocent enough doesn’t it? But when you drink this natural product called alcohol, it is absorbed into your bloodstream, where it affects the central nervous system. The central nervous system is the control center for your whole body. Alcohol acts to slow down this control center. Since alcohol has a sedative effect, small amounts can reduce anxiety. Alcohol tends to block some of the commands the brain is sending to various parts of the body, and so it alters your senses. The more one drinks, the more his or her senses are altered. The result — we’ve all seen people who have consumed too much alcohol. They have difficulty walking, talking, and even hearing, many will have “blackouts” and not remember what they did or said. Alcohol can even be lethal if one drinks an enormous amount.

If you are a drinker of alcohol, can you remember how you first got started? Many teens start drinking because their families drink. The glass of wine that dad may drink after dinner seems innocent enough. Advertisers portray drinking as “cool”. Everyone in those ads seems to be having a good time. These ads seduce many teens to try alcohol. Teens may find alcohol to be relaxing, but there are many reasons they should not drink.

If you’re in your early teens, your body is simply not ready to handle alcohol metabolically. And instead of acting cool, one who has been drinking often acts like a fool. If you get really drunk, you’re almost certainly guaranteed a hangover — pounding headache, intense thirst, nausea, sensitivity to light and noise, blurry vision, shakiness, exhaustion, and more.

Teens who drink generally do not do well in school. They are more likely to engage in sexual activity while under the influence of alcohol. Safe sex is too often forgotten while under the influence of alcohol and a pregnant teenager with an STD is often the result. So drinking will not help you get away from your problems, as many teens think. It will only add to them. Teens who drink are more likely to get into fights and commit other crimes, which leads to problems with the law. Teens who drink are more likely to be involved in car accidents, and even commit crimes, these are facts that we can state based on studies of drinking and teenager behavior. Long-time drinkers can look forward to liver, heart, and brain problems.

How Can Teens Avoid Drinking?

This is a tough question. With alcohol so prevalent, how can you avoid it? After all, you want to fit in with the crowd and be liked by your friends and many of them will be drinking. You can always say your parents have caught you drinking, and to get caught again would result in ‘getting grounded’. But it is best to be honest with your friends. Tell them you don’t like to drink because it changes the way your feel or your personality. Your real friends will understand and may even respect you for that. Try to plan ahead to avoid gatherings where you know alcohol is going to be served.

Help is Available…

For teenagers who realize they have a problem with alcohol, help is available. Of course a teen must first admit that he or she has a drinking problem if they are going to get help. Does alcohol change your personality? Do you think about drinking a lot during the day? Do you start your day with a drink? Has drinking interfered with your relationships with friends or parents? These are questions you might want to think about. If you think you might be drinking too much or too often, hopefully you can tell your health care provider or school counselor who can refer you to a drug and alcohol counselor — which is totally confidential.

Getting help could involve a brief stay at a rehabilitation center, or even done on an outpatient basis. So tell the people you trust about your problem with drinking and you will get help. There are even Alcoholics Anonymous groups just for teenagers (Alateen). Find a local AA meeting place in your area and ask if they have a group for teens. You will have to work very hard to kick this addiction. It won’t be easy, but it will definitely be worth it.

What Is Binge Drinking?

Binge drinking is defined as “the consumption of five or more drinks in a row on at least one occasion.” In national surveys (in the U.S.) about a third of high school seniors and 45 percent of college students reported at least one occasion of binge drinking within the previous 2 weeks.

While some national surveys have documented a significant decline in the use of other drugs by high school seniors and college-age youths, there have been only small declines in the numbers reporting binge drinking. Teenagers and young adults drink alcoholic beverages at about the same rates they did 5 years ago. Binge drinking increases the risk for alcohol-related injury, especially for young people, who often combine alcohol with other high risk activities, such as impaired driving. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the four leading injury-related causes of death among youths under the age of 20 are motor vehicle crashes, homicides, suicides, and drowning. Alcohol is involved in many of these deaths.

Sexual encounters with their risks of pregnancy, STDs, and HIV exposure, as well as date rape and other violence, can and do occur more frequently while students are consuming large amounts of alcohol by binge drinking.

Binge drinking, or the partying lifestyle of young people, may be related to an environment that appears to support heavy drinking. Teenagers report that alcohol is more easily available to them today than it was 5 years ago, and there is a high correlation between availability and use. In addition, alcoholic beverages remain inexpensive in comparison with other beverages, especially beer when purchased in kegs, often the center of a college party or even a teenage party.

A factor that may add to the college setting as a high-risk environment for binge drinking is that youths on college campuses are targets of heavy marketing of alcoholic beverages. Beer companies are especially active in promoting to college students. Student newspapers and campus bulletin boards boast ads for happy hours with price reductions and other incentives that promote heavy drinking. Representatives of the alcohol industry, including producers, wholesalers, and retailers, sponsor campus social, sporting, and cultural events, even on campuses where the majority of participants are under the age of 21.

Prevention Strategies

Prevention strategies in response to binge drinking by young people include actions to reduce alcohol availability, such as increases in price, and responsible beverage service practices, especially at parties. Some communities require keg tagging, which requires kegs to be labeled with a serial number identifying the purchaser in case the keg is discovered at an underage drinking party. Other strategies include restrictions on marketing and promotion practices that glamorize heavy drinking, especially those directed at young people.

If you were told the party you are going to WILL have a keg (or a couple of them) and you are under the legal drinking age, you might want to consider going somewhere else that night. Think about the risks before you go. Thanks!

Check out the Blood Alcohol Calculator to see if you are legally intoxicated. You might be surprised.