Teen Drinking

Most teenagers whether in college or high school, will encounter an event that is centered around alcohol. According to the CDC, one in five high school girls engage in binge drinking. Binge drinking means consuming more than four drinks on a single occasion. For men, it is five. Binge drinking in men has decreased over the past few years, but for women it has remained unchanged. We need to make a stop to this and prevent this excessive drinking.

When binge drinking, it can be so toxic to a person and potentially be fatal. Alcohol impairs judgement, physically and mentally alters your body, and can cause changes to our immune system and emotions.

As teens transition through puberty and into adulthood, major changes creates a desire for independence. This step is where most teens end up binge drinking or being involved with illegal substances. Most teens think that drinking is not as bad as using drugs or smoking, but it can be worse if it is consistently consumed.

Teens are also not recognizing the long term impacts of drinking on the human body. They are not looking past the one night they might be drinking. One night of more than three drinks can lead to alcohol poisoning, rape, STDs, coma, and death.

Regardless of the reasons for drinking, teens have easy access to alcohol. This can be at their parents or a friends house, a party, etc. This can be prevented by more supervision and placement of the substances.

Some long term health consequences of using alcohol are heart disease, stroke, cancer, STDs, pregnancy, chemical dependency, liver disease, alcohol poisoning, and more. Nerve damage can also occur from the excessive drinking while the brain is still developing. This is exactly why the drinking age in America is 21. This nerve damage can lead to long-term damage to the brain's memory, coordination, and movement abilities.

So, what can we do to prevent this overuse of alcohol?

The most important part in teen drinking is supervision and making sure that teens are not overusing alcohol or obtaining it in mass amounts. Parents and other adults can best help with this by making sure that their kids are going to a safe place, their own home does not have mass amounts of alcohol, etc.