Because Underage Drinking Didn’t Seem Bad Enough Already
Teen alcoholism and underage drinking is the biggest cause for heavy drinkers and alcohol addicts later on in their lives. Academic problems, risky behaviors, victimizations, diseases, and the possibility of alcohol being a gateway drug are all reasons why alcohol should always be avoided at all ages, especially the teenage years. The cons of alcohol are massively outweighed by the pros.
First, let’s break down the basic background information of alcohol and what it does. Some street names for alcohol are: brewskies, brew, booze, juice, or cold ones. How alcohol works is it slows down the brain’s ability to respond and communicate, and depresses the central nervous system. What this gives the alcohol drinkers is an initial feeling of relaxation, high sociability, giddiness, or happiness. After the drunkenness, though, can be depression, anger, sleepiness, confusion, and a loss of self control. Long term effects of alcohol are heart problems, breathing dangers, increased risk of mouth/throat cancer, damage to the gastrointestinal system, pancreas, and/or kidneys, and severe liver damage. Alcohol affects the liver the most because the toxins in alcohol singularly affect the liver cells, and kills them. Killed cells lead to something called “scar tissues” and, because they don’t reproduce or repair once they’re killed, they build up in the liver. One of the liver’s main focuses is to filter blood, and since the scar tissues are blocking the blood from flowing to the liver, unfiltered blood, which can be poisonous, and most likely will be, is now flowing throughout your body, along with waste. This is something called cirrhosis and is one of the most common and deadly alcoholic-related diseases. There’s also fatty liver, which is a condition where the fats in alcohol take over the liver and makes it stop functioning correctly.
Alcohol-related accidents, though, is another whole story. As said in the introduction, alcohol leads to victimization, which means hurting others. This can be something like a car crash, a fight, or possibly killing someone. Statistics show that an alcohol related crash kills someone every 31 minutes in the U.S., and alcohol related accidents injures someone every 2 minutes in the U.S. After 1-2 drinks, a driver aged 16-19 is 7x more likely to get killed in a car crash than someone who is sober. If it seems to be that nothing good comes out of being an alcoholic, then you’re correct. Whether it’s turning into a fatty, or turning into a complete madman, or even a fat madman, the outcome of being an alcoholic seems to be very low. Keep in mind that this all applies to teenagers and adults, and teenagers who start drinking alcohol stands almost no chance to sticking with alcohol throughout their entire life without any medical or psychological help. On the other hand, a child who reaches the age of 21 without either smoking, abusing alcohol, or using drugs if virtually certain to never do so later on in their lives. So you pretty much have 3 options: alcohol for life, start out with alcohol and then try really hard to stop, or just wait until 21 and never use it. There’s a reason why adolescents who begin drinking before age 15 are 4x more likely to become dependent on alcohol than those who wait until the legal age of 21. Speaking of which, the average age when Americans begin drinking regularly is 15.9, which isn’t even legal to begin with. Starting out young is a very poor choice, because that’s when a children’s mind is deciding what to use later on in life and what not to use, and alcohol should be something that they shouldn’t be using. They’re getting it wrong, though, by starting out early. It makes it locked into their minds for a very long time that alcohol is the go-to thing for relaxation, but sometimes when it doesn’t do as good as a job as it used to, the teens might want to switch to something more serious: drugs.
Generally speaking, marijuana is thought of as the biggest gateway drug. But since alcohol isn’t generally seen as a drug, that’s why it isn’t considered one, but alcohol is indeed a drug. There are 4 categories of drugs: stimulants, opiates, hallucinogens, and finally depressants. Alcohol is a depressant, along with marijuana, inhalants, and Rohypnol. Children who begin drinking alcohol by age 15 stand a 67% chance of progressing onto other drugs. The effects for those drugs get more and more extreme than the alcohol effects, and death can even take place. Although, there is such a thing as alcohol poisoning where one overdoses on alcohol, which leads to extreme drunkenness, passing out, and possibly death.
Parents are most likely to see through their child and can be able to tell if they’re drinking alcohol or taking drugs by simply taking a look at their grades. Alcohol has been implicated in more than 40% of all academic problems in college. Alcohol is also the reason for most violence in schools, along with drugs, because one of the effects for alcohol is anger and depression. Most parents would then ask themselves how they could’ve prevented their children from using alcohol, and most of it is just clear communication to the child about the dangers of alcohol. This involves adequate parental supervision, and not necessarily keeping the parents’ alcohol in obvious spots. Participation in extracurricular activities, such as sports or clubs, can distract a child from using/abusing alcohol. Parents should also know the reasons why their child might start drinking alcohol. There are 7 main reasons for this:
•
Other People
o
Children seeing parents and other adults drinking and having fun and enjoying it
o
Peer Pressure
•
Popular Media
o
42% of teens agreed that movies and TV shows make drugs seem like an OK thing. 12-17 year olds who viewed 3 or more “R” rated movies per month were 7x more likely to smoke cigarettes, 6x more likely to smoke marijuana, and 5x more likely to drink alcohol than those who don’t.
•
Escape and Self-Medication
o
Teenage years are tough, and some see alcohol as an escape from all of it
•
Boredom
o
If children aren’t participating in extracurricular activities, sports, clubs, or just plain being social, they see alcohol as just something to do
•
Rebellion
o
Different rebellious teens use different drugs that can fit their personality
?
Alcohol is generally for angry teens who use it to stop their anger
?
Methamphetamine, or meth, also encourage aggressive, violent behavior, and can be far more dangerous and potent than alcohol.
?
Marijuana often seems to reduce aggression and is more of an escape drug.
?
LSD and hallucinogens are also escape drugs, often used by young people who feel misunderstood and may want to escape to a better world.
•
Instant Gratification
o
Children sometimes see alcohol as a short-term shortcut to happiness
•
Lack of Confidence
o
As seen in the effects of alcohol, drinking makes you feel sociable, giddy, and happy. Children see alcohol as something that will help with their confidence, since it not only loosens inhibitions (means to restrain), but it also lessens social anxiety
•
Misinformation
o
Quite possibly the most avoidable cause, nearly every teenager has heard from somebody about how amazing alcohol or any drug is and about how it helped them.
In conclusion, underage drinking brings no good things in a teen’s life. Whether it’s academic problems, drinking and driving, victimizations, gateway drugs, or one’s body breaking down, underage drinking only brings bad things in life. It wasn’t as if underage drinking didn’t seem bad enough already.