High School Students and Alcohol Use

Since the beginning of time, alcohol has endured. From the Middle Ages, when it was utilized in religious rituals, to Prohibition in the early 1900s. Sadly, alcohol abuse has also increased. In fact, alcohol has surpassed all other drugs as the substance that youths abuse the most throughout time. This has had a negative impact on many high school students' lives today. Here are the aspects of these high school students' lives that were most impacted.
The impact of alcohol use on students' academic performance has generated a lot of discussion in this field. While some researchers have concluded that alcohol use in teens affects their academic performance, others have arrived at a centrally conclusion indicating that the effect is insignificant. However, the teen alcohol abusers are often susceptible to some immediate negative consequences such as hangovers, blackouts, and advanced neurodegeneration that directly affect the retention capacity of their memories and impair their brain activities (Sussman, Dent, and Stacy, 2002). In most institutions, the GPA is the basis of determining academic achievement. There is no evidence directly linking alcohol use by teenagers and their GPA although combined with other effects such as absenteeism the performance may be poorer.

According to Brown, Mott, and Myers, (1991), research has also confirmed that there may be a negative correlation between academic excellence and alcohol abuse. It reduces the amount of time that a student dedicates to the studying and doing their homework as well concentration in class, not to mention that it affects their school attendance.



Drinking and Driving

Teenagers’ involvement in drunkenness and driving is a reality in the 21st century that no one can ignore. Statistics on the ground are alarming and therefore call for an immediate response from all the stakeholders. For instance, recent researches have confirmed that 70% of the schools going teens have admitted to drinking alcohol (Esser, Clayton, Demissie, Kanny, and Brewer, 2017). What is even more troubling is the fact that every 15 minutes a young teenager is likely to die globally while driving thanks to alcohol consumption. Although the number of high school students who drink and drive is on a downward trajectory it is still significant given that it approximates 10% (Esser, Clayton, Demissie, Kanny, and Brewer, 2017). The number of accidents involving teenagers is higher due to their lack of experience.

A national survey that was conducted in the year 2015 confirmed that 26% of high school teens had at least engaged in driving while drunk for at least once every month, which is quite a facade. More than half of this population involved in this form of driving usually does not put on seat belts while driving which increases their susceptibility to accidents (Stigler, Neusel, and Perry, 2011). Given there are laws that restrict driving until attaining a minimum age, parents ought to be more involved in ensuring discipline for their children and in case they allow them to drive it should only be under strict supervision to eliminate the cases of teenagers driving under the influence of alcohol.

Suicide Attempts

Suicide has over time been the third leading cause of deaths among the American high school teens. This has affected many families across the divide. Tragically, alcohol abuse has been the primary causative agent of these suicides attempts. This can be attributed to the fact that alcohol abuse affects the brain reward pathway that results in very high feelings, which most teenagers are often after (Swahn, Bossarte, Ashby and Meyers, 2010).

Alcohol abuse has been found to dramatically change the chemistry of the brain which involves placing an individual teen to a more risky feeling of intense depression as well as depression. This goes a long way to invoke the suicidal instincts among the teens, and it is from here that they try to execute their thoughts in line with their feelings. The other link involving the alcohol abuse and teens suicides is the fact that it leads to physical dependency on the part of the abuser. That sense of dependency often leads to hopelessness, more so if the supply is limited. As the body transitions from being high to low, the intense feeling of depression and anxiety chip in which in the end increase the risk of suicide among the teens (Bristow, 1995). Access to alcohol may also provide some incentive for the teens to want to commit suicide as shown in the substances abuse plus mental health services administration records.

School Violence

Recently researchers have established a very close relationship between alcohol abuse and violence in school amongst teenagers. The violence can be in various forms, which include; sexual violence, bullying, fights in bars, and formation of gangs. The violence can be hazardous with statistics indicating that deaths occur daily with others requiring medical attention as resulting from this vice. Alcohol causes some violent behaviors since the aggressive teens are most likely going to be involved in heavy drinking. Alcohol abusers, in this case, suffer mental distortions leading to indecisiveness in the event of an argument or any misunderstandings. In addition, alcohol abuse leads to loss of patience among the teens that result in reckless violence in an attempt to make their targets address their demands including friends, parents, or even teachers (Stigler, Neusel, and Perry, 2011).

Binge Drinking

Despite the minimum age for drinking being 21 years old, more young people are getting into binge drinking not only in the United States but also globally which is such a worrying trend. Minority of this young population may meet the statistical mental disorders criteria for dependence on alcohol which is catastrophic. The primary cause of this alcohol consumption change from normal usage to abuse is often associated with the psychological factors affecting these high school going teens.

While binge drinking starts in the formative stages of teenhood, its usage tends to increase over time to include the young adults or high school students. In fact, a study which was strictly focused on the problems associated with alcohol abuse found out that among 4000 high school seniors and dropouts within a given preceding year, about 80% of them reported having engaged in binge drinking. Half of this population also reported having fallen sick severally due to alcohol abuse in the same duration that the research was conducted (Monti, Suzanne, and Tracy, 2012).



Treatment for Alcohol Use in Teens

School Based Programs: Prevention and intervention

Schools are very important stakeholders in this issue and thus represent the best setting for any interventions aimed at reducing or preventing any form of alcohol abuse among high school teens. Because of their reliability, schools have initiated a range of school-based interventions, which are aiming at reducing the onset of alcohol abuse among the school going population especially those in high school. Most of these measures are geared towards reducing individual risk factors for alcohol abuse whereas the other forms of interventions are designed towards addressing the environmental or social risks (Esser, Clayton, Demissie, Kanny, and Brewer, 2017).

However, not all of the interventions have been found to be effective, which means more and more initiatives need to be hatched up to arrest the situation on a timely basis. These alternatives need to be theory driven and address the exact social norms that are around the abuse of alcohol not forgetting that they need to build personal and social skills, which would help the affected students to desist effectively from giving in to the pressure of abusing alcohol.

Some the current most successful school-based programs are Project towards No Drugs Abuse, Project Northland, Keep in it REAL, Life Skills Training and Midwestern Prevention Project (Sussman, Dent, and Stacy, 2002). They represent a glimpse of hope that indeed alcohol abuse by the high school teens can be tamed if the approaches are restructured to fit the specific requirements of the teens.

Rehabilitation Centers

Due to the chronic nature of alcohol abuse among the teens, professional care and treatment in the form of rehabilitation is inevitable. However, this form of treatment takes quite some time to be effective enough and ensure complete transformation of the affected individual. They treat the addiction to alcohol by offering well-structured and intensive treatments geared towards ensuring that the victim is able to sustain their abstinence and reclaim their normal life after the rehabilitation period expires.

According to the data provided by the SAMHSA in the year, 2013 close to 30% of the alcohol addicts were teens mostly of high school age. Of this population, slightly over half of them got treatment in the form of rehabilitation which means quite a huge number remains unattended. This calls for an addition of more rehabilitation centers on the already existing ones to serve a bigger population (O’Malley and Johnson, 2013).

Medications

Being among the greatest causes of mortality among the school going alcohol abusers, there is urgent need to develop some reliable medication a course that several researchers have undertaken. Drugs that have an effect on the individual's neural pathways and moderate the activities of cortico mesolimbic system by altercating the drinking patterns of the affected individual have been found to very effective; they include drugs such as baclofen. These drugs have successfully helped in attaining optimal therapy by inducing psychological triggers and mood patterns. They, therefore, can be administered among the affected high school teens in conjunction with other forms of medication so as to achieve the desired outcome of a free alcohol abuse high school system (Esser, Clayton, Demissie, Kanny, and Brewer, 2017).

Supportive Counseling

Supportive counseling is very necessary as it helps an addict outlive the addiction. The first step is often admitting that indeed alcohol abuse has become a problem that needs urgent solution. This is very important because most of the teens will always try to justify their alcohol addiction, which is quite dangerous as these thoughts may force someone to continue abusing alcohol without any care at all. A serious problem that inhibits counseling is the denial of the alcohol consuming habit by high school students. The secretive manner in which they engage in the practice makes it almost impossible for counseling to be effective.

Counselors in this case attempt to understand the victim and therefore offer the most suitable way which would lead the victim to establish a good living lifestyle anchored on follow-up checkup sessions. High school going teens who abuse alcohol need counseling as it can easily unearth whatever the causes and postulate reliable recovery plans (Stigler, Neusel, and Perry, 2011).

Psychological Therapy

This form of therapy offers guidance by outlining some clinical guidelines and recommendations which are backed up by some medications so as to ensure that the desired outcome is achieved. This is in the form of reduced alcohol dependence more so among the school going teens that represent the most affected cadre of the population. These recommendations often regards to treatment of the affected victims. They include planned to withdraw from this alcohol abuse and psychological treatments, which involve the use of medication to ensure that the high school teens are reclaimed from this menace of alcohol abuse (Swahn, Bossarte, Ashbyand Meyers, 2010).

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

This is the arguably the most effective form of treatment to alcohol abusers. This is because this treatment tackles thought patterns of the individuals as well as their behaviors which go a long way in breaking psychological and emotional ties to these habits of alcohol abuse. By developing an understanding of the underlying feelings and the thought processes which result in alcohol abuse the victims can develop some repulsive control against alcohol abuse. Soon the victims can address their fears and insecurities without having to partake alcohol. This form of therapy would be easily administered seamlessly to the high school population of teens who are easily accessible in large numbers and yield the desired goals (Monti, Suzanne, and Tracy, 2012).





Family Therapy

Family therapy is another alternative form of treatment which can prove most effective if well utilized in taming alcohol abuse among the high school teens. This is because this form of therapy rides on the family ties and bonds which create trust among the victims and the other family members. In regards to this parents being the overseers of family should make it their initiative to start these therapy sessions with the affected kids because there is a very high possibility that the victims are more likely to heed to their parents calls and advice and therefore shun any form of alcohol abuse. The family members could also enquire the help from a professional counselor with whom they can together offer counseling and guidance to their affected teens (Vidourek, King, and Merianos, 2016).

Conclusion

Alcohol among high school teens continues to be a huge problem among the high school going teens whose roots are the elementary school level. The treatments and interventions highlighted above need to be implemented faithfully. For instance, the cognitive behavioral and the respective adjunctive forms of interventions provide the counselors with practical and very effective treatments pathways and options which can be implemented with the already existing population of alcohol abusers. As much this may prove problematic to some counselors, the other forms of approaches could be adopted and yield the desired results of having an alcohol-free society.



References

Bristow-Braitman, A. (1995). Addiction recovery: 12-step programs and cognitive-behavioral psychology. Journal of Counseling and Development, 73, 414-449.

Brown, S. A., Mott, M. A., & Myers, M. G. (1991). Adolescent alcohol and drug treatment outcome. Drug and alcohol abuse prevention, 373-403.

Esser, M. B., Clayton, H., Demissie, Z., Kanny, D., & Brewer, R. D. (2017). Current and Binge Drinking Among High School Students -- United States, 1991- 2015. MMWR: Morbidity & Mortality Weekly Report, 66(18), 474-478.

Monti, P. M., Suzanne M. & Tracy A. Adolescents, alcohol, and substance abuse: Reaching teens through brief interventions. Guilford Press, 2012.

O'Malley, P. M., & Johnston, L. D. (2013). Driving After Drug or Alcohol Use by US High School Seniors, 2001-2011. American Journal Of Public Health, 103(11), 2027-2034.

Stigler, M. H., Neusel, E., & Perry, C. L. (2011). School-Based Programs To Prevent And Reduce Alcohol Use Among Youth. Alcohol Research & Health, 34(2), 157-162.

Sussman, S., Dent, C. W., & Stacy, A. W. (2002). Project Towards No Drug Abuse: A review of the findings and future directions. American Journal of Health Behavior, 26(5), 354-365.

Swahn, M., Bossarte, R., Ashby, J., & Meyers, J. (2010). Pre-teen alcohol use initiation and suicide attempts among middle and high school students: findings from the 2006 Georgia Student Health Survey. Addictive Behaviors, 35(5), 452-458.

Vidourek, R. A., King, K. A., & Merianos, A. L. (2016). Impact of School Violence on Youth Alcohol Abuse: Differences Based on Gender and Grade Level. Children & Schools, 38(2), 99-106.