Drug Abuse Can Be Contributed to by Teen Drinking | drugeducationandrehab

Forty percent of people who began drinking at age 13 or younger developed alcohol dependence later in life. Ten percent of teens who began drinking after the age of 17 developed dependence.  Teens that drink are 50 times more likely to use cocaine than teens who never consume alcohol.  Alcohol kills 6 ½ times more teenagers than all other illicit drugs together.

These are some stats that should get the attention of parents who don't think it is a problem when there teen drinks alcohol.  Surprisingly, many people, adults included, do not even consider that alcohol is a drug.  Presumably, the fact that it is legal and, therefore, much more socially respectable leads them to this incorrect assumption.

The truth is that just as any other drug, alcohol is a poison and if you drink too much of it in too quick of a time it will kill you.  There are also, undoubtedly, ramifications that are less severe than death such as a hangover.  This phenomenon is what occurs when a person drinks too much alcohol .  It burns off the supply of vitamins in one's body, particularly B vitamins, and the resulting shortage is extreme tiredness, lethargy, a ill feeling and quite often a bad headache.  When a person does this too often they will start to develop a dependency on alcohol, both physically and psychologically.

A person can even get to the point where if he drinks often enough and regularly he will burn off so much of the body's store of vitamins that he will produce what is called DTs or delirium tremens.  The signs and symptoms are intense, shakes and hallucinations.  When you get to that point death is not far behind.

Of course, burning off your body's vitamins is only one of the results of alcohol abuse.  It affects every major organ in the body, including the brain.

No matter how one may justify it drug abuse and alcohol addiction are very serious matters, one that will affect a person's life negatively in many ways.  The further travesty is that it affects those around them nearly as much. The alcohol abuser is not only a liability to himself but also to those around him.

Alcohol addiction can be handled and normally drug rehab is the answer.  But in choosing a rehab program make certain it is one that has a good track record for effectiveness.  Not all programs are created equal.