Alcohol Abuse Rehabilitation and Treatment Center

Teen Alcohol Abuse

Teen alcohol abuse is a very big problem facing our society today. Parents, teachers, and police are dealing with a generation of young people that feel they have just as much right to drink as adults do. Most countries around the Word have a much lower drinking age than the United States does. In America people cannot legally drink alcohol until they are twenty one years of age. No doubt young people will be exposed to alcohol in one form of another before they reach that age. In many European countries children’s water has small amounts of wine added to it. This amount is gradually increased until the child is around sixteen and begins drinking straight glasses of wine. This gets the young person used to alcohol and its effects. In America most people do not have a chance to drink alcohol until they reach college where they are not monitored and have friends that are old enough to buy them alcohol.

Their lack of experience with alcohol coupled with the absence of adult supervision can create a very dangerous situation for a young person who decides to drink. They may be caught up in the moment and want to impress their friends or older classmen. Most people have heard about the heinous activities involved with fraternity and sorority hazing. The freshmen will be forced to do all kinds of ridiculous things in order to prove how bad they want to be a part of these societies. Colleges have struggled with how to curb these types of activities and keep the embarrassments and tragedies to a minimum.

Young people entering college are caught between being an adolescent and wanting to be an adult that is capable of running their own lives. This may be the first time in their lives that they do not have a curfew and someone to check in with concerning their activities. Many colleges do not take roll, so it is completely up to the student to be responsible enough to make it to class. They also do not have room checks in many dormitories, so the student is free to come and go as they please. For many young people this is much more freedom than they have ever experienced, and they may not know how to handle it.

This type of freedom means that the young person is the only one monitoring his activities during the day. If he so chooses, he can stay home all day and sleep, then wake up later and begin using drugs, and then start the night with drinking, and stay up all night and pass out in the morning just to do it again. This how teen alcohol abuse can start.