Posts Tagged ‘Youngsters’

How to Prevent Drunk Driving In Young Adults?

Posted on Dec 29, 2011

Preventing drunk driving in young adults is a question that worries every parent with teenage kids. The best solution is to handle the situation at home. A young adult driving drunk is a scary scenario and is a parent’s worst nightmare.

Adolescent DUI Scenario

It is half past ten and your child has not returned. After a worrisome hour or so, you hear a thud on the door and you recognize it as a police officer’s flashlight. When you open the door, you see the blue and red light flashing in the background and horrible thoughts go through your mind. The police officer tells you that you have to come down to the station to pick up your adolescent that has been arrested for drunk driving. After your initial thoughts, it is almost a relief to hear that your child has just been arrested and is not in a drawer at the morgue or comatose in ICU.

Key to Preventing Drunk Driving In Young Adults

After this scenario you and your kid need to sit down for a talk. You should give them the facts first. Start with the statistics and the end results of many DUIs. Do not do all the talking; give them a chance to explain themselves. If you listen long enough they may come to some positive conclusion on their own. Parents are not experts on the subject but they can prepare themselves before hand by reading up on all the advice that advocacy groups offer for free. Being involved at your sons or daughters school will go along way also. If you are extra vigilant and have a good relationship with your child, this conversation would have happened long before the patrolman’s knock on the door. The key is to begin early and stay involved in your adolescent’s life.

When It Comes To DUI, Somber Parental Choices Are the Key

Do maintain a good, positive bond with your child but don’t become the best friend who never really brings up serious issues with them. It’s good to understand your children but don’t be the cool mom or dad that buys alcohol for their adolescent children. The other extreme to avoid is the extremely authoritative parent that does not really listen to their concerns. A happy medium is needed to help prevent drunk driving in young adults.

Alcohol Abuse and Young People

Posted on Apr 24, 2009

What do you mean by Alcohol Abuse?

Alcohol abuse means different for different people. While students enjoy heavy dose of alcohol and its consequences as a part of teen treat, those restricted by their religion consider even taking a sip of it as alcohol abuse. Activist view young couple consuming alcohol after dinner as abuse, while the enforcement officers at national highways, consider an accident by the driver of a vehicle under intoxication is viewed as an extreme example of alcoholic abuse.

Alcohol viewed in cultural back drop

While our cultural celebrations talk about enjoying alcohol with family which includes small children, prohibition and related activities consider alcohol to be a killer drink which is the root cause for all miseries. A sense of fear was cultivated in the minds of people against alcohol. Again, the problem starts only when alcohol is consumed excessively so as to loose control over one’s self that you tend to falter due to impairment. Later when prohibition was slowly repealed, a portion of them continued to abstain from drinking alcohol while the remaining population enjoyed drinking in moderation, mainly due to the fear of extreme consequences.

Alcohol Abuse and Youthful Drinking

Youthful drinking especially those under the age of 21 are increasingly targeted against consumption of alcohol. A zero tolerance is practiced against them in order to ensure that individuals below 21 years of age are appropriately protected against the consequences of alcohol and related beverages.

Recently a senior at Park View High School at Loudon County was suspended was usage of alcohol based mouth wash in school premises. Complete intolerance is practiced against alcohol with students to drive home the point that even a trace of alcohol usage will not be entertained. During the ten day suspension he was sent to Substance Abuse Program held in the county.

How far such zero tolerance programs will be effective in restraining youngsters from the usage of alcohol is a big question mark. Loosing personal touch with students, it becomes very difficult to implement such restriction and even if done the effectiveness of the rule will be questioned. Alcohol Abuse has become a challenge for everyone

Youth and their drinking habits

Every article and alcohol advertisement, TV show and claim report talks about increasing drinking habits among youngsters. But an analysis pertaining to the percentage of youngsters involved in drinking among a larger population has been declining steadily. Records from 1980 till 2006 reveal that various analysis show that there has been a steady decline in the percentage of youngsters involved in alcohol. Various classifications namely

Percentage of high school seniors who have ever consumed alcohol

Percentage of high school seniors who have consumed alcohol in the previous year

Percentage of high school seniors who have consumed alcohol in the previous30 days

Percentage of high school seniors who have consumed alcohol on a daily basis

All these figures and analysis show that the percentage has been down over the period of time.

Drunken driving law

There is a drop in the drunken driving related accidents over a period of time say from 1982 -2005, considering the years for which the statistics is available. Alcohol related traffic fatalities have reduced from 60% to 39% in 2005 which indicates the effectiveness of DWI Laws and their implementation. The intoxication related deaths per 100 million miles has reduced from 1.64 deaths to .56 deaths in 2005. The overall alcohol related fatality among total traffic fatal cases has reduced 35% while other sober cases account for 53%.

Health Issues

Heavy consumption of alcohol over a period of time will lead to serious health issues finally resulting in death of an individual. Diseases such as Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) which is an irreversible condition related to excessive alcohol consumption by pregnant women. Cirrhosis is the most widely recognized extreme illness due to chronic alcoholism. Pitiful condition leading to progressive replacement of healthy liver tissue with scars and resulting in liver failure and death.

Help from Alcoholic Abuse

Those who wish to seek help from alcoholic abuse can visit the following websites that offer support and guidance

Alcohol Abuse, Drunkorexia4 Comments »Alcohol Abuse Youngsters Zero Tolerance