Alcohol abuse is a serious problem among many young people - Essay Example

Alcohol Abuse Alcohol abuse among the youth is a serious problem in the world we live in today. The alcohol problem is part of the family environment. One person’s drinking habits affects everyone to an equal extent. It disrupts the family environment and creates problems for not only those who are engaged in the activity themselves but also those around them. Over the years, the level of alcohol abuse started getting increasingly common among youth. The problem starts from the age of about thirteen where the child experiments with it.

Statistics show that almost 64% of the high school students say that they have been drunk at least once. Among youth between the ages 12 to 17, 77% (Spear, pp. 71-81) say that they have had at least one serious problem related to drinking in the past year. The teenagers who engage in this problem suffer in various aspects of their life. Teenagers having drinking problems suffer in their education. They tend to skip school and their classes and their performance level starts going down as the problem increases.

This is because their attention span towards anything goes down and hence their performance decreases. Another problem that arises is that of drunk driving and the number of accidents and deaths caused by it. Statistics show that underage drinking and alcohol use is more likely to kill youngsters compared to illegal drugs. Motor vehicle accidents are one of the leading causes of deaths of youth between the ages of 15 and 20. The rate of these accidents is much more for teenagers between ages of 16 to 20 rather than 20 years and above (Spear, pp. 71-81). Another problem is that of suicide.

After depression and stress, alcohol abuse is the third factor causing young people to commit suicide for children between 14 and 25. Sexual assaults and rapes are also becoming increasingly common as an effect of alcohol abuse. Approximately 10% of the high school girls (Milhorn, pp. 56-68) reported that they have been sexually abuse once in their lives. Adolescence is an age whereby the body goes through a lot of hormonal and internal changes as well as the formation of new brain networks. Alcohol use disrupts these important development processes and leads to serious problems.

Occupational and academic achievement is impaired due to it. Youth who consume alcohol too much have trouble remembering things and have a lesser concentration span. A survey showed that about 60% of the college girls who had sexually transmitted diseases such as AIDs were drunk while they had intercourse. Also, about 90% of the rapes reported on campus occurred because either one of the victim or the attacker were under alcohol influence. The numbers of such crimes have tripled from 1977 to 1993 (Milhorn, pp. 70-77) and are still increasing.

The reasons for this problem are also numerous and are quite deep rooted. Usually these may be due to problems at home. It is often seen that children who come from unstable home environments where the family is going through a divorce or the parents are already separated are more likely to subject to alcohol usage. Sometimes family pressures about studies or living up to the expectations also forces children to start drinking. Coping with stress and depression is also seen to be cured by drinking which is why the rates of this alcohol abuse are slowly going up and the effects are long lasting and are not just restricted to the user itself (Milhorn, pp. 23-39). Works Cited Milhorn, H. Thomas. Drug and Alcohol Abuse: The Authoritative Guide for Parents, Teachers and Counselors.

Da Capo Press, 2003. Spear, L. “Adolescent brain and the college drinker: Biological basis of propensity to use and Misuse alcohol.” Journal of Studies on Alcohol. Volume 14, 2002, pp. 71–81.