Alcohol is the drug of choice among youth. Many young people are experiencing the consequences of drinking too much, at too early an age. As a result, underage drinking is a leading public health problem in the whole world.
Each year, thousands of young people under the age of 21 die as a result of underage drinking; this includes also many deaths from motor vehicle crashes and from suicide, as well as hundreds from other injuries such as falls, burns and so on.
Yet drinking continues to be widespread among adolescents. According to some data three-fourths of 11th graders, more than two-thirds of 10th graders, and about two in every five 8th graders have consumed alcohol. And when youth drink, they tend to drink intensively, often consuming four to five drinks at one time.
Research also shows that many adolescents start to drink at very young ages. In 2003, the average age of first use of alcohol was about 14, compared to about 17 in 1965. In fact, new research shows that the serious drinking problems (including what is called alcoholism), typically associated with middle age, actually begin to appear much earlier, during young adulthood and even adolescence.
Another research shows that the younger children and adolescents are when they start to drink, the more likely they will be to engage in behaviors that harm themselves and others. For example, frequent drinkers are more likely to engage in risky behaviors, including using other drugs.
But I think everybody of us have at least once thought about the reasons for starting drinking at such a young age. To some extent the reason is quite obvious: as children move from adolescence to young adulthood, they suffer some dramatic physical, emotional, and lifestyle changes. And increasing independence has been associated with alcohol use. So in a sense, just being an adolescent may be a key risk factor not only for starting to drink but also for drinking dangerously.
There is also one more point: is it possible to stop it somehow? Actually many people can advise only some medical treatment, and they are right, because it’s abnormal when a boy or a girl of 15 thinks that life is dreck and starts drinking all the time as if it can save him or her from something. They never think about how much they distress their relatives and friends. Because mostly not only do they spoil their own lives, but the lives of the people who love them as well.
Drinking is part of everyday culture. Culture sets patterms for behaviour and thoughts. If a cultre is harrassed, life values get changed or violated. Dinking is a good thing when it doesn't change behaviour and thinking. Excessive drinking is anticultural. It is a social illness. Reasons are many.
I think it also depends on a family. For some parents it's a nightmare but others tolerate it. Once I heard a woman say, "My son has grown up. Yesterday he came home sober." Of course, there is irony in her words but still...)
I like your idea: teens like trying things, and alcohol is one of them. Though I myself think that we all can decide: if teens want to drink, then they'll drink...somewhere in parks, deserted places and so on. And neither their parents nor teachers can stop them. And actually THIS is a problem. But here we should also think about the psychic state of these children.
Quite an interesting topic to discuss))) Well... I agree with 8davids8 that some of your thoughts seem to be rather general. But nevertheless the article is very interesting. By the way, what do you personally think: why do teenagers drink? And do they really drink so much that we have to worry? To my mind, teenagers do not DRINK, they TASTE. Maybe, sometimes they really overdrink. But what's wrong? They don't do it every day, and people need different kinds of experience, especially teenagers who are trying to adjust to this world. Another thing is that it is rather popular: to drink. If you don't drink you're strange, you're alien. But why?! Why is it imposed on teenagers? Who says that only those guys are cool that drink, smoke or even take "childish" drugs?! I think such stereotypes are the real problem we have to solve.
No one does. In most cases it looks vulgar when a girl drinks or smokes. But this is our choice. Only children drink to show their adultness. Others do it for personal reasons. For example, as my stepfather jokes - for joy)
I didn't mean that drinking a bottle of beer is bad. I wrote about addicted teens. And I'm not sure that you can become addicted to alcohol if you drink a bottle of beer from time to time. I guess the problem of adolescents' alcoholism in our country is just the same as for example in America or in some European countries. It's a stereotype that "drinking is in OUR blood", do you think that it's only in our?
Good article that is aimed at stating a problem! I have read it two times and is provoked for a discussion. Are there only transitional reasons related to psychological and social changes? We know lots of cases of drinking due to poverty and wealth, happiness and depression, birth and death, success and failure. Must we differentiate between consuming alcoholic beverages and heavy drinking? What is part of a cultural ritual and what is a dangerous addiction? Have you ever watched any movie on the issue? Will you add any links to a few Internet sites that deal with the matter!
Sometimes you seem to speak about some chronic teen alcoholics))) Calm down, these people are rare. Drinking is in our blood, I hardly know a male who doesn't drink from time to time. What would his children do? Genetically they are exposed to drinking. But there is nothing awful if a teen drank a bottle of beer last week. By the way, it's a pity that there are so few thoughts of your own in the article. Please, tell us, what can you tell about the problem of alcohol in our country? What do thunk you about the "prohibition"? What is the main reason why some youngsters drink, and others do not?
