Tragedies highlight teen drinking issues
By Connie Cartmell, ccartmell@mariettatimes.comFact Box
Facts on teen drinking
Alcohol is the most socially accepted addictive substance and is a contributing factor in more than 75 percent of all date rapes.
Alcohol dehydrates you. It does not quench thirst; it makes thirst worse. Alcohol is also extremely high in calories.
Drinking alcohol while you are pregnant can cause permanent brain damage and often causes physical deformities in babies.
Alcohol causes varying degrees of side effects in everyone who uses it - dullness of sensation, lowered sensory motor skills, lowered reactive or reflexive motor responses, impaired thought processes, impaired memory and judgment, sleep or sleeplessness and in extreme cases, coma and death.
When an alcoholic beverage is ingested a full 20 percent of the alcohol immediately enters the bloodstream by penetrating the wall of your stomach. Drinking on a full stomach can slow this process.
Many people mistakenly believe alcohol is a stimulant, like coffee, when in fact it is a depressant.
One of the first things to go when you have been drinking alcohol is your sense of good judgment and your inhibitions.
Alcohol can cause the following behaviors - aggression, sexual openness, excessive talking, spilling secrets, lying, phony friendliness and quick tempers.
A "hangover" is what happens when your body enters alcohol withdrawal. The headaches you get are caused by extreme dehydration of your brain. Your brain is literally pulled away from your skull, leading to throbbing aches and sharp pains at the attachment points like the temples and base of the neck.
Alcohol can lead to the following irreversible side effects in alcoholics and abusers - cirrhosis of the liver (fatal in 60 percent of cases) "cauliflowering" of the nose and ears, permanent restructuring of the brain including loss of long term memory, heart problems, obesity, premature dementia, loss of bladder control and slurred speech even when sober.
Source: The Right Path of Washington County
Some kids drink alcohol just because they can.
"Alcohol is more accessible today and often a social activity," said Karen Waller, guidance counselor at Belpre Elementary School. "When I was in school, underage drinking was not as great as it is today."
For parents, teachers, and the community, alcohol and teens is an issue of major concern.
The teenage driver killed in a pre-dawn crash in Belpre on Aug. 15 had a blood-alcohol level more than twice the legal threshold for intoxication, according to the Belpre Police Department.
William A. Joy, 15, the driver of an SUV that went out of control through a fence and crashed into a tree in a parking lot on Farson Street, was pronounced dead at the scene and his 13-year-old passenger, Mitchell Fisher, was seriously injured and died Aug. 19 at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, where he was taken shortly after the accident.
"It's been a wake-up call to all of us," said Waller, who is former guidance counselor at Belpre Middle School.
"We need to take care of each other," Waller said. "We need to teach our young people safe behaviors and 'model' safe behaviors for them."
Underage alcohol use and abuse may be thought of as a "rite of passage," she said.
"It is not," Waller said. "Most kids do the right thing and don't use alcohol. It's like a lot of things that kids may think everybody does it, but everybody does not."
The specific facts leading to the fatal August crash have not been released. In general, Waller said, lack of supervision by parents and a neglect in keeping tabs on teens can lead to serious problems.
"When your child says he is going to a friend's house, parents often erroneously think that child's parents are home. Often there is no supervision," she said.
At Belpre High School, the Teen Institute helps students to resist the first inclination to use alcohol. Social activities and community service projects work toward the goal of good decision making.
Waterford High School also offers a Teen Institute program.
"Providing a safe place for kids to get together is also important," Waller said.
Alcohol use by teens is not considered as prevalent in the region as it once was, according to Miriam Keith, special projects coordinator and community educator with the Washington County Mental Health Addiction and Recovery Board.
According to a youth survey in 2006 of sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade students in Washington County, the numbers for use of alcohol were lower than a similar survey taken by the recovery board in 2003, Keith said. There were 2,200 students who took part.
"But unfortunately, one time may have devastating results," Keith said.
The board lacks grants and funding for subsequent surveys.
Keith is pleased there has been progress, but said some of the greatest progress is coming from peer mediation, offered through several local programs.
"The goal is to help kids make better decisions," she said. "I feel that The Right Path program is connecting kids that had no connections prior to this."
Cathy Harper, coordinator of The Right Path for Washington County, a community coalition, said alcohol and kids is a community issue.
"Kids like to be supported and have adults in their lives. If you live in the community, you have the responsibility to care about the kids," Harper said. "Kids relate when they know adults care."
The Right Path supports youth through special events, activities, mentoring, peer support and more. Families are included.
"We live in a different world today, a world at our fingertips," Harper said. "You have to know what your teen is doing."
There is good news, she said.
"Our surveys show overall some strides," Harper said of alcohol use by teens. "Kids want to know the facts. They want the truth."
When young people have the facts and have support of adults, they make better choices, she said.
|
THETRUTH
|
|
|---|---|
|
09-16-08 8:09 PM
|
teen drinking is not worse now, it is a lot less. You cant fix stupid.
|
|
ramon05
|
|
|
09-13-08 11:48 AM
|
Like i've been saying education, education, education. To bad someone could'nt have reached out for slider and his family before it was to late!
|