Teens and Binge Drinking

No matter how you put it out there on the table the facts are scary. You can get the statistics from anywhere - Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD) reports that more than 5 million high school teenagers experience binge drinking at least once per month. However, it could be higher or lower depending on the specific teenager, who they're with, and how often they attend high school parties. The fact of the matter is that it happens all across the United States. You may think that your teen is not involved with this sort of behavior, but think again. What child would want to tell their parents that they binge drink on the weekend? And just so we're clear, binge drinking is usually defined as having 5 or more drinks on any one occasion. No matter how you look at it, five or more drinks in high school usually means that it is enough to get the teenager drunk, if that tells you anything.

The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism has created the Leadership to Keep Children Alcohol Free. What is their main purpose in doing so? Its main goal is to keep alcohol away from children ages 9 through 15. The implications of having such an organization are daunting! Why, in fact, does the United States need such a Leadership? The answer is because teenagers are starting to binge drink at an earlier age, with over 40% of high school sophomores indicated that they have been drunk at least once, as the Leadership to Keep Children Alcohol Free reports. In addition, they also have found, through studies and reports, that nearly 20% of junior high school teenagers have experienced the same thing! Those two facts beg the question, "What is going on?"

It seems as though their needs to be some way for teenagers, high schoolers and junior high schoolers alike, to realize that binge drinking and drinking just to have that experience are not the ways to have fun. Studies have also shown that binge drinking reduces a student's ability to remember what they learned in class. Furthermore, shouldn't the amount of automobile crashes involving alcohol be enough to convince children and teenagers that it is most definitely not a safe thing to do?

One solution to the problem would be to create other positive influences in the teenager's life that they can cling to instead of alcohol. If there is something wrong within the family or if a family is experiencing some sort of trauma, teenagers and high school kids are more likely to drink. The Leadership to Keep Children Alcohol Free is educating the public, families, and the States of their own children's' drinking problems, hoping to reduce the number of children ages 9 through 15 who drink on a regular basis through education. Indeed, whole communities need to get involved and make this a city-wide and state-wide goal. Achieving a teenager binge drinking rate close to zero percent would almost be a miracle, but it is possible! In the meantime, educate your kids on why not to drink and why they should stay alcohol free. America can change this trend, one child and high schooler at a time!

Leadership to Keep Children Alcohol Free. (http://www.alcoholfreechildren.org/)