FREE ESSAY ON ALCOHOL: A FATAL ATTRACTION

ALCOHOL: A FATAL ATTRACTION

According to Lang nine out of ten high school seniors have used alcohol, one out of twenty
use it daily, and one out of three will get drunk during any given weekend (back cover).
Teenage drinking is a very serious problem that is growing by the day in our country. I
want to know what kids who drink are getting themselves in to when they decide to start
in high school or junior high. What types of health and psychological problems will they
be facing? What are the chances that they will become addicted to alcohol, or to some
other drug, for life? My father is an alcoholic and has been so for most, if not all, of
his life. He began drinking at about the age of twelve, while an altar boy for his
church/school often drinking the wine and beer remaining from past festivals. My father's
drinking has had a major effect on my life, since he spent lots of money drinking and
would then come home and fight with my mother. Alcohol has long-term effects on a person
and to their family that one should know about before anyone begins drinking.
The bulk of my research consisted of the five books and five Internet sites along with
personal experiences. My primary resource in my search was the web site run by the Brown
University Research Center and The Addiction Research Foundation. After that came the
entries in the Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Drugs, titled "Alcohol: Teenage Drinking," by
Alan R. Lang. I also gather information from Getting Tough on Gateway Drugs, by Robert L.
DuPont, Jr.; Teenagers & Alcohol, by Roger E. Vogler and Wayne R. Bartz; Alcohol: Use and
Abuse in America, by Jack H. Mendelson, and Nancy K. Mello; and Alcohol: Uses and Abuses,
by Margaret O. Hyde. The best source I found, as far as statistics went, was the web site
Alcohol and Addiction Studies. All five books that I read pertaining to this paper
consisted of the same information. Some of them had more information that the others did
not; for example, Getting tough on Gateway Drugs centers on alcohol as a first step in
the addiction process for most children who become alcoholics (Dupont). They all helped
me answer my important questions and agreed on the information they gave.
I started out my search at the local library, looked through some books about alcohol,
and found several ranging from its uses and abuses to teenage drinking. I did not bother
looking in the encyclopedia because I figured that the people who wrote these books had
already done it for me. The first book I looked through was by Alan R. Lang (February 29,
2000); I skimmed through the table of contents of the book and saw that it had a section
devoted to the short term as well as the long-term effects of alcohol. So, in order to
get a better understanding of this issue I turned to the specified page and found that
the effect of alcohol is directly related to ones BAC, or blood alcohol concentration
(Lang 39). This is what makes different kinds of people engage in a wide array of
behaviors, such as when two people drink the same amount of alcohol but the person who
has more body mass does not feel the effects of the alcohol. The other person, who has
less body mass will get 'drunk" faster and is said to have less of a "tolerance for
alcohol".
In Volger's Teenagers and Alcohol, I found an excellent table outlining the effects of
alcohol in relation to the BA level of the consumer. At a BA level of 75 the subject is
at a stage where he/she begins to have a "buzz." During this time coordination is poor;
at 150 the person is drunk and shouldn't be allowed to walk, much less drive (Volger 24).
This information is good to know, but it still was not answering my question. What
happens to a person that makes them need this drug?
Margaret O. Hyde believes that teenagers may become alcoholics in order to "defy their
overprotective parents or to prove themselves to their cool friends who are doing it"
(42). Many of these alcoholics will become anti-social alcoholics, the ones who like to
fight and argue when they are drunk. In a study published by the National Clearinghouse
for Alcohol and Drug Information, researchers found that this type of alcoholism is on
the rise for both men and women alike (Alcoholism).
In much of my research, I found that genetics often plays a factor in one's path to
becoming an alcoholic-That usually when a persons family background shows a history of
alcohol abuse that that person has an increased chance of becoming a user. In my case,
with much of my family using it, this was not the case. In fact, having a father and
other family members to look at and analyze during their alcoholic escapades, drove me
from even trying it until I was about sixteen and luckily I really did not like it so I
guess I broke the cycle of abuse. But I hope that my offspring does not begin a new cycle
after not having to see the effects of it.
Nevertheless, what are the effects of it? The real, long-term effects of drinking.
Chronic use of alcohol can cause a person to acquire a sense of immunity to the effects
of the drug, requiring the users to consume more of it in order to get the "high" they
are looking for when they drink (Lang 57). This increase in tolerance occurs because the
body has adapted to the alcohol in it and is able to digest it faster, delaying the
effects since it is not in the stomach long enough to run into the blood stream. Adapted
drinkers, as a result, drink more. This causes deterioration in the liver, brain, muscle,
stomach, nervous system, and other organs due to the "lose of vitamins that the alcohol
robs from them" (Lang 60).
Constantly having alcohol in it, the body starts to become physically dependent when
there no longer is any alcohol in it, the user starts to "shake, sweat, vomit, and/or has
an overall irritation about them sometime after ceasing to drink" (Lang 59). In addition,
the use of alcohol on a regular basis is also a cause of Coronary Heart Disease,
according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (Alcohol and Coronary
Heart Disease).
When looking through the books I chose, I noticed that some of them also included
information on how to keep teenagers off alcohol and, if they are already using it, how
to help them get off it. In Teenagers & Alcohol, Volger & Bartz instill that teaching
children while they are still pre-teens is best because this age is when they begin to
develop their morals and ideas about what alcohol is. They stress that the parent must
first clarify their stand on alcohol and whether it is a somewhat acceptable pastime for
their child to be around. Then they should be prepared to answer common questions and to
answer them in an honest and simple manner, since the child often know more or less the
reason for others actions and can loose trust in the parent (Volger & Bartz 116).
In 1994 a study was performed with adults over the age of eighteen, and of those tested,
82.1% of them had drunk alcohol within the past year (Alcohol and Addiction Studies).
Many of these people are alcoholics and will never quit, and not because they do not want
to. After continued use of alcohol, the abuser often has a very hard time quitting the
habit without the aid of counselors of some sort who themselves are not also using the
drug. Mendelson (January 28, 2000) claims "There is a potentially effective treatment for
everyone who suffers from alcoholism today," but unfortunately this goes beyond the scope
of my paper (319).
In conclusion, I have answered all the questions I originally set out on my journey to
answer. I found that when teenagers decide to begin to drink alcohol, they are exposing
themselves to a potentially deadly substance and that their using alcohol may have a
relation to their family history. Alcohol can cause a person to act in a manner that he
or she would not have normally. The effects of alcohol are directly related to the blood
alcohol level of the individual, which is calculated by how much the person weighs, how
much they have drank, and how fast they have drank it. These actions can cause a person
to damage the inner organs and permanently kill brain cells from lack of blood supply to
the brain. It is actually hard for a person to really become addicted to alcohol because
it is not really an addictive drug like smoking. But after chronic use of the drug, the
body develops a physical need for it and going with out the drug will cause withdrawal
symptoms such as shaking, sweating, vomiting, and/or an overall irritability.
I would like to do further research on the many places where individuals dependent on
alcohol or some other drug can obtain the help they need to remove their need for the
substance that is controlling their life. I did not go in to depth on this area because I
found it answering one of my original questions, if I had the chance though, I would like
to go further and learn more about how these facilities work to free the abuser of the
burden of using alcohol. It would be interesting to learn about the different steps or
stages alcoholics go through to accomplish their goal of "kicking the habit."
Bibliography
Alcohol and Addiction Studies. 2 Feb. 2000. Brown University Research Center and
Addiction Research Foundation. 6 Feb. 2000 .
Alcohol and Coronary Heart Disease. Oct. 1999. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and
Alcoholism. 4 Feb. 2000 .
Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. 4 Feb. 2000. The National Clearinghouse
for Alcohol and Drug Information. 5 Feb. 2000 .
DuPont, Robert L. Getting Tough on Gateway Drugs. Washington: American Psychiatric,
1984.
Hyde, Margaret O. Alcohol: Uses and Abuses. Hillside: Enslow, 1988.
Lang, Alan R. Alcohol: Teenage Drinking. New York: Chelsea House, 1985.
Mendelson, Jack H., and Mello, Nancy K. Alcohol: Use and Abuse in America. Boston:
Little, Brown, 1985.
Volger, Roger E., and Bartz, Wayne R. Teenagers & Alcohol: When Saying No Isn't Enough.
Philadelphia: Charles, 1992.