Teenage Drinking Too Much Alcohol

Alcoholism

There has been an ever increasing trend of young people getting to the habit of too much drinking. This is rampant at the point where these youth become of legal age and to majority, that acts as the go ahead to binge drinking and absolute abuse of alcohol. There are various issues that are related to excessive drinking especially among the youth. These risks are emanated as one moves from one category to another as of these categories formed by the HNS (2010);

Lower-risk drinkers -- who are the teenagers drinking between 2-3 units and are at a lower risk of causing themselves health risks in the future. However they may be exposed to injury if operating machinery, dangerous driving, risk or drowning if planning to go swimming alone without peers, babies may be affected in the womb for teenagers who get pregnant these among other minor risks.

Increasing-risk drinkers -- this level has a higher risk of damaging health of the teenager. Here the teenagers are observed to take 3-4 units of alcohol on a regular basis. The related health risks here are susceptibility to caner of the mouth, of the neck and of the throat. Other problems of excessive drinking are risks of breast cancer for female teenagers, liver cirrhosis, high blood pressure, fatigue, depression, poor sleep, weight loss and sexual problems among the teenagers.

Higher-risk drinkers- this is the highest point of the teenagers damaging their health due to alcohol related problems. At this level, the teenager could be taking 8 units and above and on a regular basis. The teenagers here might be at risk of the conditions mentioned above and may be in a deeper crisis of the same than the above two groups. The teenager at this stage could be at a much worse shape physically as compared to the other levels above or even those who do not drink. It is also at this level that alcohol usually damages the relationship between the teenager and other people around him/her.

There are various reasons why teenagers drink (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, 2012); one of the reasons is the environment that the teenager grew up in. If there was an atmosphere where drinking was not castigated then they are likely to drink too. Expectancies of the teenagers also influence them into drinking since as they grow to the ages of 13 and above, they begin to view alcohol in a positive manner and expect to have the positive effects themselves once they get of legal age. Risk-taking is yet another reason for the youth to drink as at the teen-age the teenagers would like to take risks as they experiment with various things and issues, alcohol is usually one of the readily available tools of risk taking. There is also the aspect of peer influence as everyone would be doing the same when they turn legal hence others would like to try out as well. The other pertinent factor is the exposure to alcohol and alcohol related content through the media which glorifies drinking hence making many teenagers eager to try it out.

Prevention of excessive drinking