Teenage binge drinking
Binge drinking in your teenage years is quite common. However, many aren’t aware that the effects of teenage binge drinking can be fairly serious. In recent years, the use of alcohol by high schoolers and other young adults who are not of drinking age has been on a steady decline.
It is still common, and is the most commonly used drug for individuals in that age group. Nearly 75 percent of high school students have reported that they did consume alcohol before they graduated from their high school.
The most serious of all of the effects of teenage binge drinking is adult dependence. The National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism recently found that teens who consume their first alcoholic beverage before the age of 15, are nearly four times as likely to develop a dependence on alcohol in the later years of their life.
This is much higher than the number of individuals who become an alcoholic after the age of 21.
Many teens who drink when they are too young will also drink and drive. Nearly half of all of the fatal auto incidents’ that involve alcohol, also involve teens who are not yet of legal drinking age.
Many of these teens are not able to recognize the signs that they are in fact too impaired to drive, or are too afraid to call their parents for a ride and admit that they have been drinking. There are many different reasons why teens drive when under the influence of alcohol.
Other effects that can be attributed to teenage drinking is the use of harder drugs as the individual matures. Alcohol, like other substances, can be considered a gateway drug. It often leads to the use and abuse of harder substances, most commonly in teens. Because their judgment is impaired while they are drinking, they are much more likely to try other substances that they normally would not.
Category: Health
More impacts of alcohol and youth:
Alcohol use by young people is dangerous, not only because of the risks associated with acute impairment, but also because of the threat to their long-term development & well being.
Research shows that adolescent alcohol use has the potential to trigger long-term biological changes that may alter an adolescent’s development as well as affect the adolescent’s immediate behavior. The resulting adverse outcomes may include:
-Mental disorders such as anxiety & depressive disorders
-Neurocognitive impairment
-Impaired memory
-Altered sensitivity to motor impairment
-Damage to the frontal anterior cortical regions (ie. the development of self-regulation, judgment, reasoning, problem solving, & impulse control)
-Possible disruption in normal growth
-Effects on liver, bone, & endocrine development
-Disrupted developmental changes in hormones associated with puberty in males & females
For more evidence-based information on Alcohol Dependence & Abuse, please visit us at AlcoholAnswers.org