It is not a secret that the problem of alcoholism is one of the most urgent problems of our days. Today people pay more attention to another issue, in particular the problem of teenage drinking. Teenagers start drink alcohol in more early age and they become addicted faster than adults. This teenage drinking essay is devoted to the problem of alcohol abuse by adolescents. We also consider the consequences and the main motive of such an abuse.

The dangers of alcohol for the teenagers’ body

Alcohol influences teenagers differently from adults. The adolescence is characterized by the fact that young brain under the age of 20 years has different reaction from the brain of a grown up to the information it receives. Young brain is created to learn. It is at the stage of establishing real connections between nerve cells. Alcohol destroys this function.

Even a thousand years ago distinguished physician of the medieval East Avicenna was an outspoken opponent of the use of alcoholic beverages by children. Used to say metaphorically that when children drink wine it is the same is someone adds fire to fire or puts dry wood in the fire. This statement remains actual even nowadays.

The influence of alcohol on teenagers is stronger than on adults and it also affects the brain functions in future.

Scientists discovered that drinking under the age of 20 years leads to alcoholism in almost 80% of cases. It turns out that developing young body 6-8 times faster gets used to the alcohol, than organism of an adult, that is why teenager becomes alcohol addicted faster. In such a way, children who start drinking in school years, at the age of 20 – 25 years begin to be treated for alcoholism, but unfortunately not always successfully.

The reasons why teenager drinks alcohol for the first time can be various: observing the parents’ example or in the company of peers. However, do not underestimate the harm of alcohol for a young body, even if a teen drinks just beer or canned cocktails.

Kick in the brain

Ethanol contained in alcoholic beverages influences the brain that during adolescence is at the stage of structural and functional changes, that is why it is extremely vulnerable to the effects of chemicals. The results of the experiments on animals and people volunteers show that even one small dose of alcohol can break the brain chemical mechanism, which is responsible for learning. Later it provokes thinking retardation, breaks development of the moral and ethical standards, some abilities can disappear. Influenced by alcohol a teen literally becomes blunt intellectually as well as emotionally. Additionally, insufficiently mature teen brain forms faster alcohol addiction.

Kick in the stomach

Liver of a teen collapses under the influence of alcohol much faster than of a grown up, because the permeability of vascular walls in adolescents is higher, and mechanisms of enzymes in the liver is not completely formed yet. Alcohol leads to the fatty degeneration of the liver cells and dysfunction of the synthesis of vitamins, enzymes, protein and carbohydrate metabolism. It is also noticed malfunction of the gastrointestinal tract: under the influence of alcohol quality and amount of gastric juice changes, the pancreas is disrupted, what can lead not only to pancreatitis, but also diabetes. Eve the lightest beer is a strong diuretic. If a person drinks beer regularly, minerals and nutrients are being washed out from the body, and their loss for the teenager growing organism may be irretrievable. What about low alcohol canned cocktails, which are so popular among adolescents, they are real explosive mixture of sugar, dye and alcohol. This mixture, except alcohol, supplies into the body of a teenager excess amount of calories. Very often in such cans contain caffeine that negatively affects the nervous and cardiovascular systems.

Kick for the future

Sexual contacts without contraception among adolescents usually happen when they are drunk. Such “random contacts” may lead to infection with sexually transmitted diseases, hepatitis B and C, HIV infection. Often unprotected sex can cause early pregnancy among girls, abortion, and other gynecological problems that follow it.

All the rest

Body that has not finished its development yet, very painfully reacts to ethanol. It leads to the cardiovascular system dysfunction: tachycardia and blood pressure drops appear. The immune system can no longer carry out its functions fully. Teenager becomes very receptive to infectious diseases, and not only colds. Among teenagers who drink regularly, many of them suffer from urinary tract and kidney infection, also chronic inflammatory respiratory diseases, which are often worsened by smoking.

That is why, not yet fully formed brains of boys and girls are affected more by alcohol, than the brain of an adult person. And the main consequences of intoxication are forgetfulness, increased sexual desire, virgin loss in such a state and subsequent early unwanted pregnancy in combination with venereal diseases. But this is not the limit. The metabolism of neurotransmitters is disturbed in the teenage brain, what leads to literally “dullness”, which at constant abuse of alcohol, especially beer and cocktails, turns into intellectual and emotional degradation.

Teens’ motives for drinking alcohol

Nowadays growth of consumption of alcoholic drinks by teenagers is noticed all over the world. In this regard, in many countries of the world more and more attention is paid to the problem of the spread of alcoholism among young people, scientists conduct studies to examine the motives of the use of alcoholic drinks by teenagers, to identify the factors that contribute to the development of alcohol abuse by teenagers. Many researches that study these issues were carried out abroad and many underage drinking essays were written.

The data indicate widespread use of alcohol by young people abroad. For example, in the United States 91% of 16-year-olds in the state of New York consume alcoholic beverages, 92% of boys and 85% of girls under the age of 14 years occasionally drink alcohol, in Canada, about 90% of pupils of 7-9th forms drink alcohol.

The main reasons that motivate teenagers to drink alcohol are presented in the table compiled from data of the Swiss Institute for the Prevention of Alcohol Problems. As we can see from the table, there are three main motives:

a) I like it, it is nice – 45.1 – 60.6%;

b) the impact of teen group – 11.2 – 22.5%;

c) stress relief – 12 – 15.4%.

All foreign researchers note that the spread of alcohol among boys is bigger than among girls. But this difference is reducing nowadays. The number of girls who drink alcohol has increased.

Also foreign researchers notice that teenagers begin to drink alcohol in more early age. They pay much attention to the study of the circumstances of teenagers familiarizing with alcohol. There are two main forms of familiarizing: in the circle of close people (parents, relatives) and in the circle of friends. Parents encourage children to drink in 60.5% of cases (mostly at the age of 6-10 years). Familiarizing with alcohol in the circle of friends happens in older age.

Along with the early familiarizing with alcohol foreign specialists speak about increase in the number of alcohol abuse among young people. There are many discussions on this issue, but generally scientists take into consideration three main criteria: frequency of alcohol consumption, quantity and problems that occur at teenagers due to the frequent use of alcohol. Despite the difference in determining of the groups of abusers, data of different scientists still allow to judge that the number of such groups is pretty big. For example, in the United States every seventh young man at the age of 17 years abuses alcohol. Belgian researchers note that 40% of boys and 27% of girls in a day drink at least a glass of beer. So the fact of early alcohol consumption and alcohol addiction provokes serious concern and anxiety.

As you can see the problem of alcohol abuse among teenagers is very urgent. That is why we decided to write this underage drinking essay to remind everyone how much serious this issue is and how much important it is to take measures to fight it.

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