Peer-pressure, parental role models, popularity through mass media and simple experimentation; these are all reasons that children and teenagers pick up their first beer, long before they reach the age of 21. Adolescent substance abuse has never been more destructive than it is today and the number one abused substance is alcohol. Teenage alcoholism is more dangerous than adult alcoholism because teenagers are at a point in there lives where they are still learning how to interact with the world, meanwhile their bodies are still developing. This is the time where they learn to drive, learn to socialize with their peers, take on their first job and realize their first love. When teens mix alcohol with this, the results can be disastrous and even deadly. If the alcohol abusing teen manages to survive without being thrown in jail (or worse), the lessons they take with them will carry over to their adult life. This can lead to a perpetual cycle where they teach their child, who teaches their child, and so on. Without an intervention from their parents, teenagers learn their life lessons from the street or from mass media, both of which perpetuate the idea that drinking is “cool” and can even push the teen into a drug addiction problem.
Pressure from friends is the number one cause for teenage alcoholism at such early ages. The ability to fit in with the crowd, to look cool at the party, and to feel as grown up as possible, preferably with your friends watching, are far more important to the average teen than being healthy, getting good grades and planning for their future. It doesn’t help that most teenagers believe themselves to be invincible and expect that nothing bad could ever happen to them. This mentality is what causes injury and fatalities due to party stunts, drunk driving, and the worst of all, binge drinking. Physical abuse may also become an issue as teens fail to realize how their moods become affected when they get drunk. Without proper alcohol help and guidance, these children grow up to be an abusive parent with a major alcohol addiction. This is assuming they grow up at all.
Family and alcohol
Being a parent, it’s hard to see your child grow up drinking alcohol or using drugs. Knowing that while other children are out playing, studying schoolwork or planning their futures, your child is begging some random person to buy them alcohol or ditching school to get wasted with who knows what kind of garbage. Teenage drug addiction and teenage alcohol abuse has always been a problem, but with the easy access, we’ve given them over the last few years, it’s becoming harder to fix. Once the adolescent has reached this stage, the only solution lies with rehab centers that can provide a safe way back to a normal life. Unfortunately, many children, and even their parents, are afraid to seek necessary help based only on preconceived notions that they will be an outcast if they do.
When people imagine a reformed alcoholic, they imagine a middle-aged, wizened-looking person who’s been through all the alcohol treatment programs and 12-step programs. In a similar fashion, the successful drug rehab graduate is often 20 to 30 years old, has seen the inside of prison a few times and has found a reason to quit. Programs like these are often designed with adults in mind; people who society believes have more to lose, though this is rarely the case. A teenager who enters alcohol or drug rehab in California is automatically assumed to be the lowest of the low, a real dirt bag. In many cases, these children are misguided individuals who fell in with the wrong crowd and want a way out before it’s too late. These kids have seen what addictions and substance abuse has done to their friends, and they would rather go through drug and alcohol treatment programs then end up dead in a ditch somewhere.
Narconon Vista Bay has had a wonderful history of helping teenagers through alcohol and drug rehab in California. They have focused on bringing the teenager out their addiction and helping them return to their family. Narconon Vista Bay then helps to guide the adolescent so that they can make the right choices as they face an unknown future. The child can then return to living a normal life, knowing full well that their family is available when times get tough. With peer-pressure being the leading cause of drug and alcohol abuse in teenagers, the love of one’s family is the greatest tool they can possibly have.
