Why do Teens Drink
Posted Under: conscious living, health, parenting
The reasons that teenagers binge drink on the weekends, during spring break and anytime they get together in a crowd are relatively straightforward.
There are essentially three reasons:
- Self Confidence
- Peer Pressure
- Social Conditioning
We are all familiar with the effects of alcohol on the brain, well most of us. We’ve all been drunk at one time or another and the number one reason for desiring to be drunk is to be more self confident. Teens have very little confidence to begin with, and once they discover the perceived positive effect impairment has it has on their ability to interact smoothly with their peers they always want it. Alcohol lowers our inhibitions and places us at ease around other people. It makes us able to speak our mind without the self imposed social filtering that we have in our daily interactions with people. We can talk to people more confidently without embarrassment, humiliation or fear of rejection.
The quest for sex is also a huge motivator for teen binge drinking for both boys and girls. Generally speaking, teenagers no matter how popular, are a particularly insecure bunch. It’s much easier for a boy to suggest that a girl have sex with him when he is drunk, and it’s much easier for her to accept the proposition when she is drunk; neither one will suffer humiliation regardless of the outcome. When a person is drunk, anything is fair game. If you do end up saying or doing the wrong things you are forgiven, because after all, you were drunk; you didn’t know what you were saying and you would never say or do anything like that when you were sober. A lot of crazy and regrettable things come out of a person’s mouth when they are drunk. Even violence is forgiven. Violence committed under the influence of alcohol is almost accepted by our culture. Drunken brawls outside a bar on a Friday night are looked at as the norm. The police may show up but few charges are laid; everyone is just sent home. Women and girls who are date raped while drunk are often blamed for the rape themselves; they should have known better. Even deaths related to alcohol are viewed as terrible accidents. It is no accident when someone guzzles a half gallon of booze.
Peer Pressure
Popularity is a huge concern among teenagers. If you are popular in high-school you are on top of the world, high-school may very well be one of the best experiences of your life. However, if you are unpopular, high-school may be the worst experience of your life. The halls of a high-school are essentially ruled by a monarchy. The king and queen of the prom are most likely boyfriend and girlfriend and are among the most popular kids in school. Following them are their princes, princesses, dukes, duchesses, lords, fools and then the peasants. The overlords keep the fools close for their entertainment but the peasant class is never allowed in the circle of love. The peasant class is by far the largest group and the vast majority of them would like to come to court, but are not allowed in; usually their family does not display enough wealth for acceptance. The social hierarchy is long and complex. And what does the ruling class at high school do on the weekends for entertainment? They party. They get drunk. They travel from house to house where permissive parents allow under-aged alcohol consumption. The peasant class, longing for acceptance, follows suit.
This archetypical model of high school social structure can be seen reflected and promoted in such great works of cinematographic art as the “American Pie” series. Each generation has its run of pop-culture icons promoting this formulaic theme. It is all too familiar and all too real: the quest for euphoric oblivion including all manner of debauchery from free sex to drug and alcohol binging. The popular kids get the hottest girlfriends and boyfriends and the losers are stuck with their loser buddies in a heroic quest for the perfect girl and the ultimate high.
Teens place being “well liked” ahead of everything, and the reasons for this are very compelling. If you are not with the ‘in crowd’ you can be treated very badly, especially if you have some physical or social quirks or characteristics that are considered to be unusual. Teens thrive on conformity despite their desire to be unique. Many teens not lucky enough to have a certain degree of popularity are subjected to regular humiliation and outright bullying and run the risk of complete ostracization from the social group. In extreme cased teens have even been badly beaten and even murdered in a frenzy of social posturing by those belonging to the “in crowd”.
Social Conditioning
Teens drink in social situations because that is what they have learned to do. Alcohol consumption is just what’s done when people get together with their friends. And where did teenagers get this notion? From their parents and society at large. When kids observe their parents drinking and having fun and acting fully at ease in a social setting, they want to experience the same. The first time kids get drunk is usually at a fun family event; a wedding, a family reunion, a Christmas get-together. The adults are not monitoring them and they sneak into the punch bowl. They get that dizzy drunken euphoric feeling and it is pretty cool. They go to school on Monday morning and tell all their friends the embellished storey about how they got loaded on the weekend, thus begins their upwardly mobile journey into popularity.
Alcohol consumption is not in itself a bad thing, but binge drinking is; it is potentially life threatening. We have all heard and read the stories of otherwise good kids accidentally killing themselves through alcohol poisoning. In this area we are failing our youth. Parents, teachers and society at large are not doing a very good job of providing our kids with the correct information and good role modelling. Of course the best place to educate a kid in in their home and the best teacher is a parent. Parents should educate themselves on the realities of drug and alcohol abuse and pass that information onto their children at an early age. Parents can have a huge influence on the choices their teens make whether they think so or not. Kids really do want their parents approval.
Of course there is a government mandated drinking age, it varies amongst states and provinces but is largely ignored. Maybe we need to enforce this law a bit better. Maybe the police should not have such a cavalier attitude when it comes to teens and drinking and come down a little harder on the young offenders. We need to teach youth that it is not bad and wrong to consume alcohol but that the potential dangers are real. Teens will get mixed up with alcohol at some point so we must teach them to be careful when they do, and to do so slowly and in moderation.
