Why Do Teens Drink Excessive Amounts of Alcohol?

[OmCheeto]

Well. I'm pretty old. 49 about 3 weeks ago. My first binge occurred when I was 11, when my mom took me back to her homeland; Germany. It now strikes me as peculiar that my kraut relatives thought it was somewhat funny that an 11 year old could get so baked. It was a grand time for me of course.

I got baked again about 3 years later, when my sister, a 17 year old, bought me a bottle of Boones Farm Apple wine. It was another grand time for me.

Since then of course,... I've been sitting in various bars.

49-17 = 32 years.

wanna guess where I'm at right now?

 

[JamesU]

And now he's an Apehx Twin fan too! We are the music makers.

That I am...also, I've been back for a few months now.

 

[TR345]

I like to drink enough to get wasted by myself about once a month and listen to all my favorite songs at full volume. I always feel real bad the next day though. I don't like drinking too much around people because I sound like a blabbing idiot when I talk. Sometimes you think your being cool, and others are thinking, what an idiot. Some people drink a lot to get courage to be social and outspoken, it helps me with that, but only when the music is too loud to talk.

Of coarse, I'm not 14. At 14 I got really drunk and got in the back of a truck and fell asleep, woke up flying through the air as the truck smashed into a tree. I flew over the whole truck got up, ran to my friends house, and then puked all over myself in my sleep.

 

[Cyrus]

I like to drink enough to get wasted by myself about once a month and listen to all my favorite songs at full volume. I always feel real bad the next day though. I don't like drinking too much around people because I sound like a blabbing idiot when I talk. Sometimes you think your being cool, and others are thinking, what an idiot. Some people drink a lot to get courage to be social and outspoken, it helps me with that, but only when the music is too loud to talk.

Of coarse, I'm not 14. At 14 I got really drunk and got in the back of a truck and fell asleep, woke up flying through the air as the truck smashed into a tree. I flew over the whole truck got up, ran to my friends house, and then puked all over myself in my sleep.

If you get drunk when your alone you need to get help. Thats honestly quite sad.

 

[TR345]

I don't want to advocate drinking to a 14 year old, but I don't think that a grown man drinking by himself once a month is sad. What kind of help should I get, should I take some kind of drugs from the psychologist to dampen down my personality so I don't feel anything.

 

[TR345]

Some people who are very uptight or perhaps stuck up loosen up and feel what it is like to remove the stick from their rear when they drink. If you have one of those, I suggest at least trying to remove it at least once for a change.

 

[Cyrus]

Some people who are very uptight or perhaps stuck up loosen up and feel what it is like to remove the stick from their rear when they drink. If you have one of those, I suggest at least trying to remove it at least once for a change.

I would work on your personal skills dealing with others and get more comfortable in your own skin if I were you. Drinking is absolutely NOT the answer. You are just setting yourself up for alcoholism in the long run.

If you want to learn not to be uptight, then I recommend you start going out to places and dealing with people in an adult setting, such as a bar, but without the drinking. Learn how to talk and deal with people.

You are an alcoholic, wake up!

 

[TR345]

I agree with that, and that is why I only drink once a month and by myself. I do better socially sober, but sometimes I like to be alone when I have the blues or something.

 

[Cyrus]

I agree with that, and that is why I only drink once a month and by myself. I do better socially sober, but sometimes I like to be alone when I have the blues or something.

Its not normal to get the blues once a month. Thats very frequent, in my opinion.

 

[cristo]

Yes, it is that young. I would expect kids that are seniors in high school to start drinking, like 17 or 18.

It would be good if things were like that over here, but they aren't. The drinking age is 18, and no-one wants to wait until they're legal (like with anything), so kids start trying alcohol at quite an early age.

That's how me and most of my friends were. I think we all started at 17. However, I knew a lot of people who started drinking at 14/15. I don't think any of them are going to a University right now...

Again, this must be a culture thing, because I know people that started drinking at around 15 or so and have gone on through university to become doctors, dentists, lawyers, etc.. Of course, there are the people who took to alcohol way too much, and messed up their exams at 16, and thus dropped out of school.

 

[Kurdt]

I wouldn't call TR345 an alcoholic. I'd say they drink irresponsibly since drinking to get wasted is irresponsible. Certainly not alcoholic though. An alcoholic can't say no to alcohol and will use it at any given oppourtunity. Cyrus would be closer to alcoholic with his one beer a day policy.

 

[Cyrus]

I wouldn't call TR345 an alcoholic. I'd say they drink irresponsibly since drinking to get wasted is irresponsible. Certainly not alcoholic though. An alcoholic can't say no to alcohol and will use it at any given oppourtunity. Cyrus would be closer to alcoholic with his one beer a day policy.

But when I drink a beer a day I drink it because I enjoy the taste, not because I am trying to supress any bad feelings in my life, which is what he's doing. And that's dangerous.

 

[Moonbear]

Yes, 14 is young to start drinking, and it's young to start smoking, and young to start having sex, and young to start drugging, but the reality is that kids DO start that young. And it's horribly dangerous and stupid, because they are inexperienced, don't know their limits, don't fully understand the hazards, don't understand the addiction risks, and their growing body is so much more vulnerable to the ill effects, but that will not stop them.

Like many things young teens start doing and dare one another to do, there is also a lot more bragging than reality involved in the quantities described. For an inexperienced drinker, ONE drink can easily be too much and leave them feeling drunk, even a couple drinks could leave them passed out, and 10 could very well be fatal. It's as bad as the "kids" here who turn 21 (the legal age for drinking in the US) and celebrate by doing 21 shots, served with a puke bucket. How it's fun to drink to the point of illness, to the point where you're poisoning your body, I have no idea, but what it is is really, really, really dangerous and stupid. I wonder how many spend the night of their 21st birthday in the ER getting their stomach pumped and being treated for alcohol poisoning?

On the other hand, I think some of this immature attitude about alcohol comes from inexperience as well, and the illusion that it must be a "cool" thing because it's an "adult" thing and taboo for kids. And one is also more likely to drink to excess when their first experiences are with peers than with someone more experienced like parents. So, my suggestion is that if you're just curious about what alcohol tastes like or want to see how a drink affects you before you're in a situation where losing your control could be dangerous, ask your parents. Unless your parents still support prohibition, they're likely to find it easier to talk about alcohol than sex or drugs or any of the other trouble they know kids get into.

As for the "thirsty" part, no, it has nothing to do with thirst. Alcohol is actually a diuretic, and if anything, it will dehydrate you, which is why the idea of a cold beer on a hot day is not a very good one. People don't drink alcohol in large quantities to quench one's thirst. When you reach legal age and head out to a bar, if you're thirsty, start with a glass of water so you aren't tempted to drink too quickly due to your thirst. But, most of the bragging by kids is simply that, all for the sake of bragging rights, mostly fiction, and I doubt they're even enjoying what they do drink because they're focusing on proving themselves to someone else for some reason rather than doing something for the sake of enjoyment.

 

[rootX]

I think because we tell them that

Yes, 14 is young to start drinking, and it's young to start smoking, and young to start having sex, and young to start drugging,

so, they

start that young.

Doesn't kids always wish to do things more that are prohibited or considered dangerous?

 

[Kurdt]

The person that can invent something that replicates the effects of alcohol with none of the damaging side effects, will become the richest person ever.

 

[TR345]

I think that a 14 year old is going to want to try everything adults do no matter what, and it is best to just treat them like adults and let them drink a little every once and a while, so that they know and give them advise and stuff so that their outlook on those things is shaped by your advice rather than their friends. Teach them to be responsible at that age, and give them the respect they think they deserve being so old and all so that they respect you and think your cool and model your behavior and stuff.

 

[mgiddy911]

I feel like beginning drinking earlier probably helped me a bit actually when I came to college.
I started drinking in high school. By the time I headed to college I had experienced just about everything drinking had to offer save for anything requiring medical attention, never went that far.
When I got to college for a week or so it was like, alright cool I can drink an party whenever now. But that quickly faded, and I got to witness the loads of teens just beginning to experience alcohol and making fools of themselves.

Now I can say I drink a lot of beer but do so because I like the taste. I've become somewhat of a connoisseur of it and have just recently moved on to brewing my own. I very rarely touch hard alcohol anymore in any quantity more than one or two drinks.

 

[moose]

If you get drunk when your alone you need to get help. Thats honestly quite sad.

I think it's ok to drink by yourself once a month...

Of course it depends on the reason, but still.

 

[Pythagorean]

The truth is, I probably don't have the genes for alcohol dependency, so I could sit here and rag on people that do like I have superior willpower or I could just be honest and thank the chaos that I didn't get that gene from me mum.

Not to say I don't enjoy a beer or two every once in a while.

The only reason I ever drank when I was in high school was because I was told not to. I snuck out and did all the 'normal' rebellious things at night. My father had me enrolled in about five hours of extracurricular activities after school every day of the week, so I just went out at night for my own time. Needless to say, I slept through most of my morning classes.

 

[TR345]

Its not normal to get the blues once a month. Thats very frequent, in my opinion.

There are some circumstances in which it would be abnormal to not have the blues at least once a month.

 

[mcknia07]

I kind of agree with TR345, but drinking won't solve the matters at hand.

 

[Cyrus]

There are some circumstances in which it would be abnormal to not have the blues at least once a month.

?....maybe if your on your period.

 

[TR345]

Good joke, but that wasn't what I meant. I just mean that every time someone has the blues it isn't because they have some kind of psychological problem like you imply. There are perfectly good reasons for people to depressed.

 

[mcknia07]

?....maybe if your on your period.

Hahahaha, WOW...who would have ever thought that would come from you

 

[Cyrus]

Good joke, but that wasn't what I meant. I just mean that every time someone has the blues it isn't because they have some kind of psychological problem like you imply. There are perfectly good reasons for people to depressed.

Whats your bloody point, man!?


Too much? Tap tap tap...this thing on? Erruuuuuuuuuuu.

Yes, but if they get depressed every single month, sometin' ant right.

 

[chaoseverlasting]

I think in a certain crowd, with people you know and are comfortable with, its ok to get a bit buzzed, but beyond that, its pretty stupid.

 

[Cyrus]

I was at the bar tonight, and I saw a very pretty girl with a nice dress wOoOoObly and fell over KUNK almost hit the back of her head because my friend standing next to me, and her friends had to catch her.

....yeah, I hate drunk people. Period.


Last week there was a drunk girl screaming "DONT DO DRUGGGGGGGGGGGGSSSSSSS" to everyone that walked past her, and cars driving past her.

"She's a keeper!"

I no longer like girls that drink, any of them. I just can't stand watching it anymore. It gets old real fast.

 

[undrcvrbro]

Whenever someone says they drank like 10 glasses of wine or 6 beers i alway think "geez they must have been thirsty" because no one would drink that volume of water/coke at one time.

Haha, you are my hero. I wish I had that kind of sense when I was 14.

 

[binzing]

Whatever they may think, it's not cool to come to school sleepy, drunk, high, or with a hangover. In fact, maybe being sleepy, drunk, high, or hungover isn't cool at all.

Ha ha, ha...the stoners at my school get stoned, under the BLEACHERS INSIDE the gym.

 

[moe darklight]

I no longer like girls that drink, any of them. I just can't stand watching it anymore. It gets old real fast.

ugh. I know what you mean.

I don't know if it's like this where you live, but, while most of my guy friends have at least slowed down their drug/alcohol consumption since leaving high-school— for some reason most of the girls I know just get worse with time!

I am sick of drunk girls. maybe it's my town? I don't know. but it's all I see.

What is it with girls now a days that they just get progressively... well they are just freaking train-wrecks, to be honest. It's so hard to meet interesting, level-headed girls. at least where I live (then again, this is Hamilton, Ontario: the armpit of Canada).

I mean... the overall idiot/not-idiot ratio in males is about the same as in females, but I'm talking about a specific subset of idiot: the drunken-idiot— which, at least from my observations, is about 70% female dominated past the age of 20.

Either way, seeing as I've no interesting in french-kissing men, dumb drunken guys don't bother me nearly as much— so maybe they just fly under my radar.

It's such a turn off when I try to talk to a girl and she can't string a freaking cohesive sentence together... or is "*mumblemumble* omg! like, *mumble*" actually a growing dialect whose poetic subtleties elude me?

If girls at bars aren't bad enough, there is always the god-awful club scene, which my friends always try and convince me is fun. I've been. Twice. Performing my own brit-milah sounds like more fun.

no. I don't want to "grind." I just met you.

call me old-fashioned, but a stranger sticking her beer/cooler/cigarette-tasting tongue in my mouth while Soulja Boy yells inane rhymes over a repetitive beat whose bass is a decibel from puncturing my right lung is not my idea of sexy.

I'm just glad I'm moving this fall and getting the hell out of this town.

/rant