Adolescent Drug Abuse And Alcohol

Underage drinking has long been, and continues to be, a serious public health concern. “Teen alcohol use kills more than 4700 people each year and high school students who use alcohol or other drugs are five times more likely to drop out of school” (MADD, 2014) than kids who do not. There have been years of underage drinking prevention programs to curtail the use of alcohol by those under 21 years of age and yet alcohol is the most widely used drug by adolescents in the United States (Wagoner et al. 2012).

Every day, on average, 11,318 American youth (12 to 20 years of age) use alcohol for the first time, compared with 6,488 for marijuana. According to a national survey, nearly one third (31.5%) of all high school students reported hazardous drinking (5+ drinks in one setting) during the 30 days preceding the survey. Alcohol is the most abused drug among America’s teenagers (CDC.gov). By young adulthood, early alcohol use was associated with employment problems, other substance abuse, and criminal and other violent behavior. Teenagers who begin drinking by the age 15 are four times more likely to develop alcoholism than those who begin drinking at the legal age of 21(TeenDrugAbuse.us). Teens under 15 who have ever consumed alcohol are twice as likely to have sex as those who have not. Nearly 4 in 10 sexually active teens that use alcohol have had sexual intercourse with four or more individuals (Alcohol Abuse Info).

Adolescent substance abuse is a phenomenon in our country that has been steadily inclining ever since the 2000’s. The effects of this incline are very straight forward and call for action. The facts are that alcohol and drugs are the leading causes of crime among youth and that alcohol and drugs are the leading factors in teenage suicide. (National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, Inc., 2014) Because adolescence is such a crucial developmental age the effects of alcohol and drug use are catastrophic. To fully understand this phenomenon we must firs operationalize all of the factors we are trying to study. The DSM V classifies substance abuse as,

Alcoholism is a growing problem in the United States. It can, and oftentimes does, result in illnesses and deaths. “Alcohol is the world’s third largest risk factor for disease and contributes to 4 [percent] of the global burden of disease” (Marshall, 2014). In relation to alcoholism, specifically adolescent alcoholism is a growing concern in the United States. The age at which young people are starting to experiment with alcohol is younger than ever. Dr. Don Macdonald explains that this may most likely be due to the fact that it is legal for the majority of the population. Therefore, adolescents are able to access and get a hold of alcohol more easily than they can other drugs – such as marijuana, heroin, cocaine, etc.

Why do teenagers choose to drink? This question is ever-present in the minds of parents and caregivers. Teenagers who drink do not comprehend the widespread and longterm effects of their actions. Consuming alcohol is very harmful to the teenager, friends, family, and even strangers. Nearly ten million young people ages twelve to twenty reported consuming alcohol in the past thirty days, with “consumed” being defined as more than a couple sips (“11 Fact About Teens And Alcohol”). These are not good numbers for underaged individuals. Teen drinking is an important factor which can lead to serious injury or death. Teen drinking is a serious issue with life-altering consequences and cannot be ignored.

According to teendrugrehabs.com, over 60 percent of teens have reported that drugs of some kind are kept, sold, and used at their school. Over 23 million people over the age of 12 are addicted to alcohol or some other drug. One significant issue, among many, that our nation faces is the abuse of drugs and alcohol among our youth. This is a problem for all age groups, but every day more and more people under the age of 18 are experimenting with drugs to “fit in” with the crowd.

Alcohol consumption by underage drinkers has and will continue to be a problem within our society. Adolescents view alcohol as a way of risk taking deviant behavior in order to rebel against parents and even society’s restrictions of what they consider to be adulthood. The following will describe the problem alcohol presents in adolescent’s lives. “Alcohol is a dependence-producing drug through its reinforcing properties and neuro-adaptation in the brain. It is an immunosuppressant, increasing the risk of communicable diseases” (Saunders and Rey 2011). “Alcohol use among American adolescents represents a significant public health problem. Teen drinking is associated with a range of health and social problems, including poor school performance, crime, and injury and death due to automobile and other accidents” (Treiman and Beck 1996). “For young people, alcohol is a potent symbol both of socialization into adult

Keeping up with the life of a typical adolescent is not as simple as it seems. Adolescents frequently get consumed with negative thoughts about the future which causes anxiety and prevents sleep. These are all signs that can lead one to a state called depression1. Once an adolescent is depressed, it is common for them to reach out to substances that numb their pain such as: alcohol, cigarettes, and marijuana. These drugs can be extremely destructive when abused. Since these substances can easily be bought by young adolescents, it is becoming more common for youngsters to reach out to these dangerous substances. Alcohol being the most prevalent and the easiest to get places a lot of trouble on youths. According to past research, there is a direct correlation between depression and alcohol abuse among teenagers aged 13-18.

Adolescent substance abuse continues to be epidemic in American society -- it crosses geographic, economic, gender, racial, and ethnic lines. In addition, more than a decade of national, state, and local prevention efforts have been minimally effective. It is a major problem that continues to escape our control.

The topic of this paper will be substance abuse in adolescents. I will mainly focus on family structure, neurobiology, prevention, and treatment of the adolescents. I decided to research this topic because many of my acquaintances and family members have had to deal with substance abuse, especially during their adolescent phase. The driving point for me was that I wanted to understand why substance abuse in adolescents kept occurring and how I could help make the adolescents that are in my life situations better.

According to current statistics released by the United States Department of Health and Human Services, “In the United States in 2011, there were an estimated 25.1 million adolescents aged 12 to 17. In the past year, more than one quarter of adolescents drank alcohol, approximately one fifth used an illicit drug, and almost one eighth smoked cigarettes” ("A Day in the Life of American Adolescents," 2013, para. 1). Substance abuse is major problem amongst adolescents. Some are experimenting, but some adolescents may become dependent on a particular substance. If one becomes dependent on a substance as an adolescent it could be detrimental to their future health and success as an adult. Spear (2003) stated in an article titled Alcohol’s

Teenagers are America’s greatest natural resource, and they need to be protected from some of the evils that lurk in the world. A subject that needs special attention is the abuse of alcohol by teens. Statistics show that there is a problem currently between teens and alcohol. There are many causes of teenage drinking and effects that prove that drinking is an important issue that needs to be dealt with to preserve American teenagers. Teenage drinking will become worse of a problem if it continues unchecked on its current path to destruction. Alcohol abuse among teenagers in the United States is a plague that is destroying the structure of American society.

The use of alcohol in teens has been a major problem in recent years. There is a study show that alcohol is a strong factor which made people addicted “The past decade, alcohol expectancies have been shown to be powerful predictors of drinking and it is now believed that they act as a common pathway for the influence of more distal risk factors for alcohol abuse” (Houben, 2006). Throughout the years, one can see the growing amount of alcohol consumed by those who did not reach the age limit. While referring to the alcohol consumption by the individuals of high school age, it appears that they become addicted. Moreover, the range of the problem is even bigger because of much research shows that teenagers become addicted by age 13 to 14. Moreover, there was a study conducted of Columbia University that shows general alcohol consumption in correlation to the amount consumed by teenagers (Dosomething, n.d.). Namely, 11.4% of drinkers among the overall alcohol consumption are teenagers (Dosomething, n.d.). While looking at the number of overall consumed alcohol, another problem comes up. It appears that teenagers who are active alcohol consumers during their teen years also have a tendency to drink too much alcohol when they grew up. In other words, they might tend to alcohol abuse for no reason, just because they were used to drinking in their teenage years. Also, The statistics also show that people between 12 and 20 years claimed that they consumed alcohol in the recent 30

No matter what the problem is in the community there is always a solution. We can all help several people in the community if we come together. For example, many communities are faced with things such as lack of clean drinking water, child abuse, crime, domestic violence, and drug use. Whether it 's rebuilding a play area, going by an elderly home, or clearing waste from an adjacent rivulet, a community administration venture is a magnificent approach to achieve change on a little, hint level. Addressing the situations in our community allows us to take responsibility for not only for ourselves but for our neighbors as well.

To begin with, there are many main causes for substance abuse in teens. Firstly, many teens abuse substances to “have fun” and to create interesting stories to tell or to share a common way to entertain themselves with others. This reasoning is shown in a survey conducted by the surgeon general’s office in 1991, in which 41% of teens reported that they drank when they were upset, 25% drank when they were bored, and 25% drank to feel the effects of being high (Clark 6). This evidence suggests that teens are using and abusing substances for a form of pleasure and enjoyment, which is causing them to continue their use for the same feeling. Secondly, many teens abuse substances because their parents or peers pressure and even inadvertently influence them to do so. According to a study taken in 1978 within the North Carolinas, 59% of students with at least one parent that drinks regularly, will themselves likely become heavy drinkers (Clark 6). This evidence implies that parental use of substances is influencing and leading their children to use and abuse