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Show In Our Opinion What's wrong with us when 50 percent of teenagers drink? The shocking report that more than half the nation's junior and senior high school students drink alcoholic beverages because they are stressed or bored leaves us wondering what this society is doing wrong? Why are so many young people trying to escape from reality? real-ity? In a recent interview with Davis County junior high school girls, they admitted that many of their friends drink. "Some of them do it just to come back to school and brag about it," said one 15-year-old. There have always been a few teens who drank for the excitement and the thrill of "doing something forbidden," but recent statistics show that today's teens are not drinking just for the thrill, or to be socially accepted. ac-cepted. They are drinking to get away from life. How can 10.6 million 7th to 12th grade students nationwide need to drink? Of those who admitted they did drink, 40 percent per-cent said they did so when they were upset; 31 percent said they drink alone; 25 percent said they drink when they are bored, and 25 percent said they drink to get high. The Surgeon General Antonia Novello was quoted as saying "They drink deliberately to change the way they feel. And we know that the use of alcohol will in effect self-medicate and is then trapdoor to full-blown alcoholism. ' Never before have so many teens admitted to drinking. Eight million of the students admitted to drinking weekly, 5.4 million have binged on occasion, and 454,000 go on a binge of five or more drink in a row at least once a week. Many of those binge drinkers are already alcoholics and the rest may well be on their way. Fifty-eight percent of those who binge said they drink when they're upset and 30 percent said they drink when they are bored. What is wrong with a teen's life if he is bored? What can parents do? One local teen said her friend who drinks regularly does so because, "His parents ignore him. They don't even know if he's home. And they don't care." Are we ignoring our children? Are we expecting them to be perfect in an imperfect world? Today's teens have many opportunities to excel and achiev-e, achiev-e, but are we sending the message that if they are not the star little league player, or the best kicker on the drill team that they are worthless? In a Gallup Youth survey, 13 to 18-year-old teens were asked ask-ed to name the biggest problem facing young people today. Drug use led the list. Drugs and alcohol rank high on the list of topics that teens wish they could discuss more with their parents, 42 percent said they wanted more discussions with parents about drugs, and" 39 percent feel the need to talk about drinking. Interestingly, in the same survey adults ranked student drug use as the most serious problem facing our nation's schools. Everyone is concerned about it, but the numbers of abusers continues to rise. What can parents do? One young student wrote, "I felt depressed and hurt all the time. I hated myself for the way I hurt my parents and for the way I treated others, i hated myself the most, though, for the way I treated myself. I just didn't care anymore whether I lived or died. I felt constantly depressed and began having thoughts of suicide, which scared me a lot! I didn't know where to turn." It's time for every parent to take a personal inventory of the relationship with the children in your life. Are you communicating? com-municating? Do you ignore your child? Is your child one of the statistics. Does your child fit into the category or the over 10 million teens who drink? Don't wait until tomorrow to find out the answers to these questions. |
