Alcoholism In Minors: Alcohol Abuse and Brain Problems Found In Adolescences

Adolescences under 21 drinking at a party together. 

A study showed 75,766 deaths resulted from alcohol consumption and 4,554 of those deaths were younger than the legal drinking age. Alcohol is a harmful drink and is being abused by minors more every year. It changes the way you think, act, develop, and respond to situations around you. Alcoholism has always been a serious cause of death, but as time goes on more adolescences are abusing the use of alcohol. There needs to be more education along with heavier punishment on what alcohol abuse does to minors and what results from it. 

As children mature and grow up they are trying to prove their independence. They do this in ways like underage drinking because it shows they aren't little kids anymore and can handle adult like activities. Adolescences do not understand the affect drinking can have on their bodies and behavior. After a study done in 2022, about 97% of children said they got the alcohol for free. This could be from the child stealing the substances from their parents or siblings without their knowledge. 

The legal drinking age is set at 21 since your brain should be fully developed by then. You should also have a serious amount of information on the affects alcohol can do to you by then. Starting drinking at a time before 21 can be dangerous since you are not educated on all the possible outcomes from drinking too much or too often. Younger people tend to test themselves with their lives and others because they use the phrase "YOLO" to seem cool instead of thinking about all the outcomes of their actions. 

Drinking before the legal age limit can have serious affects on your body and brain. Most people's brains don't develop until their mid 20's researchers say. If these kids keep underage drinking and abusing alcohol they could suffer from brain damage and decrease their development as an adult. 

Studies have been done by professionals that prove alcohol found in adolescences has decreased their brain functions and structure. Since their brains aren't fully developed on their own, they face challenging problems throughout their lives which result from the substances they are encountered with. This can affect learning, health, and anything that contributes to your everyday thoughts and actions. As you grow up you risk the chance of developing mental health issues and could cause major problems in your lifestyle. Everything you do will be caused by the type of feelings you are having at that age/time. Alcohol will only enhance your feelings and cause addiction to want more. 

Alcohol decreases your reaction time as well as your awareness. Binge drinking is found more in underage children than adults due to the immature actions and partying in adolescences. There needs to be more education classes through schooling and alcohol abuse advertisement throughout commercials, road signs, banners, etc. 

Underage drinking will not disappear, but trying to make a change publicly can reduce the amount of harmful actions and results that come from youth children drinking in general and unresponsively. 

There are many solutions to prevent alcohol abuse in minors to stop. Counseling is the number one treatment for underage drinking since it can bond the family together and create a safe place for the child, but there are other ways such as support groups and prescriptions to help as well. 

You need to be careful with introducing another type of substance to the problem because it can either solve the problems or create new problems for the situation. Some people might say prescriptions work the best, but this is why they don't. 

Prescriptions are another source of addiction and can just cause you to go down another rabbit hole. You want to stay away from pills because taking them to get through alcohol abuse will only make you crave the feeling of that other substance even more. You want to stay away from bringing more problems into the recovery stage of alcohol abuse with underage children. 

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have done research and studies to figure out why so many underage children tend to consume alcohol. There is no answer to this besides the fact there needs to be something done to prevent it. Solutions such as more educational classes during school could better educate children on all the possible outcomes from drinking underage. 

Adding more consequences on the legal side like heavier punishments with getting caught could help stop so much underage drinking. Kids think they will get off the hook or just get fined if they are caught, but it needs to have greater weight for the children. Having greater punishments will make the children think twice about being a part of or condoning substance abuse. Getting in trouble for something as serious as alcohol could ruin some futures, and kids should be taught the consequences in the work field especially with something like alcohol abuse on your record. 

Along with more educational classes, the punishment needs to be increased since there is no excuses for why children should still continue drinking as a minor. If you get caught breaking the law it's solely on the child, because they should be taught enough about underage drinking that it should prevent them from doing so. If they chose to drink under the legal limit there has to be a greater punishment to scare kids enough to not do it again or even risk the chance of getting caught to begin with. 

Knowing underage drinking could ruin your resume and future will stop kids from just drinking for fun and eventually getting addicted. For some kids nothing is as important as their futures. The punishment level for getting caught underage drinking is not serious enough to frighten kids to not do it. Increasing the punishment level will scare kids to not drink to begin with, and they will have no excuse on why the chose to participate since they were provided with classes on the effects from underage drinking. 

This is why there needs to be more educational classes available and mandatory for the children to participate in. Getting involved and helping to stop the continuation of alcohol abuse as early as possible will provide children with the information and consequences alcohol can have on you. 

There needs to be more education along with heavier punishment on what alcohol abuse does to minors and what results from it. With hopes of educating the youth on the affects of alcoholism and alcohol abuse, it could prevent the number of deaths along with issues that result from this substance. Increasing the punishment, due to the knowledge you should have on alcohol abuse as a minor, will stop so many children from just "having fun" with alcohol and start to think about what it will do to their future. By stopping the amount of alcohol children consume it will better their health and prepare them better for the rest of their lives.