The Growing Problem of Teenage Drug Abuse and Teenage Alcoholism
By C-P | October 3, 2008
The really worrying thing about teenage drug addiction and teenage alcoholism, is at how young an age the children of today are turning to drugs and alcohol. As a result, it's not at all unusual to find kids of 12-13 in rehab receiving treatment for addiction.
Your teenage years are amongst your most difficult and confusing because you're trying to understand yourself and how you fit into the world. Dealing with hormones, trying to impress the opposite sex , and coping with the general pressures that school life brings, makes things pretty tough.
Plus teenagers today are being exposed to so much more from a far younger age through television and the media. Drugs, alcohol and sex are not subjects that are regarded as out of bounds at that age in the way that they used to be 10-15 years ago.
So with the natural experimentation that goes on anyway as a teenager, it's not unusual to start experimenting with alcohol and drugs from 10-11 years of age. And without the maturity to handle that, it's inevitably going to cause problems.
It is impossible however to pin the increase in teen drug and alcohol addiction to any single factor. There are just so many different variables that may play a role.
Being exposed to more younger and so experimenting earlier as I touched on above, combined with peer pressure - play a large role. You do a lot of stupid things as a teenager because of peer pressure, abusing alcohol and drugs just one of those.
I wonder too about the standard of parenting, not being possibly what it was, playing a role? More and more single parent families, parents that work longer hours, and higher than ever divorce rates - have a massive effect on teenagers, who then turn to drugs and alcohol to escape their pain, insecurity and confusion.
But I think one of the biggest reasons today for the escalating problem of teenage alcoholism, and especially teenage drug addiction, is the availability of alcohol and drugs. If you look especially at the kinds of drugs readily and easily available on the streets today, heroin and amphetamines being two of the worst, it doesn't take long for kids to get addicted. And these are drugs that weren't available as easily 15-20 years ago.
Getting on top of the fight against teen drug abuse and alcoholism is becoming more difficult. In reality, as a parent, there is only so much you can do. Providing a stable and loving family/home environment is your most important task. All you can then do, is hope that it will be enough.
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