According to the Department of Health and Human Services Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, teenagers do not use tobacco or illegal drugs as much as they drink alcohol. Teen drinking has been known to cause many problems for the person under the influence of alcohol and for the people he comes in contact with. For this reason, the effects of alcohol on teens are too serious to ignore.
Future Addiction
Teens who abuse alcohol before their 15th birthday set themselves up for an addiction to alcohol when they get older. When a teen becomes dependent on alcohol, he can develop a strong desire to drink with no control over the matter. He will require more alcohol to get the same feeling he once got when he took his first drink.
Learning Impairments
The consumption of alcohol has been known to cause memory problems that have a tendency to affect grades in school. Drinking during the teen years has also been known to cause mild brain damage. According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, images taken of the hippocampus--the section of the brain responsible for remembering things and absorbing knowledge--showed that teenagers who did not abuse alcohol has a larger hippocampus than teenagers who were dependent on alcohol.
Impaired Judgment
Alcohol consumption diminishes a teenager's ability to make logical decisions. It weakens the activity of the nervous system and it encourages improper sexual behavior that often leads to forced sex and unwanted pregnancy. Teenagers who drink and have unprotected sex leave themselves vulnerable to sexually transmitted diseases. A teenager's ability to drive is also impaired when he is under the influence of alcohol, which often leads to car accidents and problems with the law. Other types of accidents occur as well. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, alcohol-related injuries and conditions experienced by teens between the ages of 12 and 20 and treated in hospitals amounted to 145,000 in 2005.
Other Effects
Alcohol has an effect on a teen's health and may make a teen vulnerable to diseases such as cancer. Alcohol also interferes with a teen's development. Thoughts of ending life are experienced by teenagers who drink alcohol, and alcohol sometimes leads teens to try other drugs. A lack of harmony with peers is another problem experienced by teens who drink alcohol.
References
- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and SAMHSA's National Clearinghouse for Alcohol & Drug Information: Tips for Teens: The Truth About Alcohol
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Quick Stats Underage Drinking
- National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism: Underage Drinking: A Major Public Health Challenge
