Teenage Alcoholism is a growing epidemic across the nation. Even though most high schools implement drug/alcohol resistance programs, it is clear many teenagers allow the valuable information to go in one ear and out of the other. Unfortunately, a lack of knowledge or attention in this direction prove to oftentimes be fatal. According to some of the leading organizations researching teenage alcoholism, almost ten million teenagers consumed alcohol within the past 30 days. More than 3/4 of the nation's teenagers consume alcohol occasionally, at minimum. These numbers aren't the least bit comforting especially since all teenagers are considered underaged drinkers. It is technically considered illegal for teenagers to drink. The stats behind …show more content…
As a result, many teenagers turn to different ways to cope with the changes they face with. High school comes with added responsibilities and pressure to achieve excellent grades, stay involved in extracurricular activities, maintain a social life and get into a really great school offering lots of scholarship money. If mom and dad are divorced, someone is dealing with an illness or there is some sort of disfunction in the home, home life can lead a teenager into deep depression. Acceptance is high on every teenager's list of needs whether they admit or not. Everyone wants to be considered cool and accepted by their peers. The stress of getting into and maintaining social circles can be a real challenge. Last but not least, the teenage years are usually the time when hormones are at an all-time high. Growth spurts, acne and total awkwardness are often synonymous with being a teenager and dealing with physical changes. When a good support system is in place, the sky is the limit for what a teenager can achieve. However, when teenagers deal with conflict in the aforementioned areas in life, it isn't difficult to sink into a
The use of alcoholic beverages is very popular, especially with under-aged teenagers. They often get surrounded with the wrong friends, parties, or older people such as college students and begin to drink without earning information about the
Alcohol has been severely damaging young individuals health both mentally and physically. Even though alcohol can be harmful at any age it is especially dangerous for teens as their brains are still developing and cannot cope with alcohol the same way as an adult can. When consumed
Young teens all get a bad rep when it comes to drinking alcohol. Especially college students that are considered “binge drinkers”. When in reality a nation wide survey of students at 168 colleges and university’s found some interesting things about the underage corrupt youth. 93% of all students have never received a lower grade in a class because of drinking too much. 98% of all college students say that they have never gotten into trouble from an administrator from excessive drinking. While the media continually gives the under twenty one community a bad rep, in reality they are continually practicing safe drinking habits and in some cases not drinking at all. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse by the Institute
“According to the CDC, about 90% of all teen alcohol consumption occurs in the form of Binge Drinking, which experts say peaks at the age of nineteen.” (qtd by Listfield). Binge Drinking is the consumption of excessive amounts of alcohol in a short period of time. The author, Emily Listfield, defines that the standard alcohol consumption over a two hour period is considered to be four beers for women and five beers for men. This has become a great distraction for college students nationwide and a major dilemma on college campuses. Nearly two hundred thousand students visit emergency rooms each year due to the abuse of alcohol, and more than one thousand seven hundred students die. In the article “ The Underage Drinking Epidemic”, Listfield identifies the problems that underage drinking can cause, the dangers that could happen, and four solutions on what parents can do to keep their kids from binge drinking.
“’ Were seeing kids coming in with blood alcohol see levels in the mid-.3s, even .4, which four to five times the legal limit for driving. That’s the level at which 50% of people die,”’ says Dr. Mary Claire O’ Brien, an emergency medicine physician and associate professor at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. Underage drinking has become an issue in young teens. Teens are drinking large amounts of alcohol in short periods of time. The effects of alcohol in adolescents are much more life threating then an adult. In the article “The Underage Drinking “, Emily Listfield acknowledges that binge drinking is common in adolescents, it causes long term effects, physical injury and death.
“Every year in the U.S., roughly 5,000 people under the age of 21 die from an alcohol-related incident including car crashes, homicides, suicides, alcohol poisoning and other related injuries” ( “11 Facts About Alcohol Abuse”). That is 5,000 more teens or young adults that could be saved from this plague in this society (11 Facts About Alcohol Abuse). Underage drinking and alcoholism is a huge problem in the United States, and as a society need to make a change with how everyone sees this problem. Adults and young teens take this topic too lightly, and it should not be taken lightly because of how many deaths there have been from poor decision making. There are many programs or events that could help this problem by fundraising, however people think this is not a very important problem. Underage Drinking and Alcoholism is a huge problem in the United States because it causes major health issues that can be very costly, personal life problems that can lead to more problems later in life, and major risks that have no benefit, but can put someone else’s life in danger.
At parties, teenagers have an average of 5 or more beers in one night. In the United States teenage drinking has become a major problem, with about 3.3 million teens as problem drinkers. “1/4 of all 7th through 12th graders admit to drinking at least once a week”. About 40% of 12th graders said they had one episode of heavy drinking in the past two weeks (Bender50).
Even though the drinking age is 21 there is still a problem with underage drinkers. When teens get their hands on the alcohol they don’t understand the dangers of it. Therefore, they are careless and feel as if they are invisible and no one can stop them. Luckily, rates of adolescent alcohol use have fallen since the 1980s, but the
Underage alcohol drinking can have devastating effects on teenagers. It can affect teens' grades, health and many other things as well. The reasons why teenagers consume alcohol are pretty clear. What aren’t clear are the solutions to eliminating, or at least reducing the number of underage drinkers. It is vital that we do something to at least suppress this problem. By taking action, we can greatly reduce the number of underage drinkers and it could also save not only their lives, but also someone else's life as well. Underage drinking can cause many health problems as well as educational problems in a teen’s life; therefore our country needs to decrease the number of underage drinkers by increasing both the price of alcohol as well as the legal drinking age.
The teenage years are full of trials and tribulations for everyone. Adolescents are often forced into learning new social roles, developing new relationships, getting used to the changes in your body, and making decisions about their
In order to fully understand the threat that underage drinking poses to our country, it is important to realize just how commonplace this sort of inebriation has become. As a result of the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, a way of monitoring habits among teens, the Center for Disease Control (or CDC) found that nearly thirty-five percent of students had consumed alcohol within one month of taking the questionnaire (Adolescent 1). Statistics revealing widespread intoxication among minors are inherently concerning, since each new drinker is another potential victim of alcohol poisoning, dependence, or one of the many other dangers that drinkers face. Our reaction must be to actively oppose this situation, because although dilemmas of this scale cannot be remedied overnight, and conquering them is no simple task, we are all responsible for leading the charge. Alcohol-related juvenile casualties have plagued this country for too long; in order to save our communities and families from having to face this tragedy, progressive counseling efforts, extensive family outreach and training programs, and a resounding cry for Medical Amnesty laws are the best ways to diminish the death-toll.
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.
Underage drinking is very common in the United States. Alcohol is the most commonly used and abused drug in the United States, even more so than illicit drugs (Marijuana, Cocaine, etc…) and tobacco. “In 2012 the National Survey on Drug Use and Health reported that 24% of youth aged 12 to 20 years drink alcohol and 15% reported binge drinking. In 2013, the Monitoring the Future Survey reported that 28% of 8th graders and 68%
First off, alcohol addiction and abuse among teenagers today is a bigger problem than ever before. The root of the problem lies in the fact that the teens are so exposed to the culture of this day and age, leading them to where they have easy access to alcohol. For example, their parents may already be alcoholics, and it's merely a few bad decisions later which could cause the child to have a few drinks and cloud their judgement. This is a big problem because their young bodies have never encountered anything like alcohol before, so in turn, the body does not know how to process it, and therefore leads to their downfall. A publication released by the National Institute of Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse (NIAA) suggests that by age 18, an astounding 60% of US teens would have had at least one drink. Moreover, according to the NIAA, youth between the ages of 12 and 20 will often binge drink as well.
Teenage binge drinking (consumption of five or more alcohol drinks in a row) has grown to be a serious problem in the United States. A report in 2009 from the Surgeon General’s office show alcohol consumption by teens start as early as 11 years of age for boys and 13 years of age for girls (Grant & Dawson, 1997). In the youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Report (2007), data results showed that over three million teenagers in grades 6 through 12 are alcoholics, and several million teens have serious health issues due to drinking. Further research conducted by the Harvard School of Public health (2006) show a direct correlation of automobile accidents, alcohol poisoning, poor academic performance. violence and