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Alcohol Addiction for Teens
It is no secret that teens
across America experiment with alcohol everyday.
Statistics say it is common for most teenagers
to have experimented with drugs and/or alcohol
by their freshman year of high school. It is an
alarming change from even twenty years ago. Each
year, kids are finding drugs and alcohol earlier
than the generation preceding them.
Being the most easily
accessible, alcohol is sometimes found in their
parents home, their friend’s homes or provided
to them by someone of legal age. This opens the
gateway to continued experimentation, eventual
dependence and ultimately addiction. Tragically,
it is possible for a teenager to be a full blown
alcoholic before the day of their high school
graduation.
In the beginning years of
Alcoholics Anonymous, there were requirements an
alcoholic had to meet before being accepted as a
“member”. (There are no requirements today other
than a desire to stop drinking) The alcoholic
had to be hopeless, on skid row and at least the
age of 42. As the program flourished, they
quickly found numerous individuals who were much
younger yet alcoholic. Today, it is common to
find many teenagers at Alcoholics Anonymous
meetings. Many of them are there for themselves
and not for the courts, their parents or any
other reason other than to stay sober.
Then there are those teens
that are addicted to alcohol and may not realize
it yet. They drink heavily most every chance
they get and probably surround themselves with
other teenagers that drink like them. They may
be a part of crowd that is potentially, if not
already, alcoholic. Most recovering alcoholics
today share very similar stories of drinking
heavily as a teenager and continuing on for
years.
If a teenager thinks they may
have a problem, they probably do. It is vitally
important to listen to a teenager or for that
matter anyone, who is asking for help or
questioning whether or not they have a problem.
It should never be taken lightly. For them, it
can very possibly be a life or death issue.
There
is a misconception, especially among
non-alcoholics, that a teenager is too young to
become an alcoholic. Some recovering alcoholics
can look back through their teenage years and
see that they too were drinking alcoholically
then. It is true that most teenagers won’t come
to grips with their drinking problems until much
later in life. But for other teenagers, they
have hit a bottom that wakes them up to the fact
that they are alcoholic. That bottom can take
any number of different forms. It is different
for everyone.
It is
possible for a teenager these days to have
experienced the emotional bottoms that many long
time alcoholics have experienced. Alcoholism
does not discriminate against its victims. It is
an all inclusive disease, crossing into all age
groups. If a teenager thinks they have a
drinking problem, they should be assisted in
finding help. There are many young people A.A.
groups available today all across the country.
They are living their teenage years as it was
intended to be, free of alcohol and happy.
By: Patrick McLemore
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