Drinking and Teens

[Miss Z]

I'm 14 and have never ever thought about drinking. Alcohol knackers your brain, poisons your insides and can make you look a real idiot. Of course, having a limited drink for someone over the legal age is fine, but the people who go overboard just make me sick.

Alcohol is a drug, even though it's still accepted in society. It's a depressant, so it slows down the signals to and from your brain. It inhibits the cerebellum which makes you act stupid, and kills brain cells in the medulla which can kill you, even if you only drink heavily once. It's also a poison, and your poor liver has the task of pumping it all out your system, and after a while, it can't take the strain. You can't live without your liver.

Poor George Best suffered due to alcohol, it just shows how dangerous it is.

I don't think anyone at my school drinks, at least not at school, and if they do, I don't want to know them. What's with the rush? Can they not wait for a couple of years? If not, I'll just stick to keeping myself healthy.

[buckner]

I'm 18 and I can say that none of those apply to me. I have never drank with friends or without my dad. My dad has offered me sips of whatever he's drinking ever since I was little - he doesn't think alcohol is bad, and neither do I. He taught us that if we were to drink, to never drink and drive, or get in the car with someone who has been drinking. But I just don't like the taste of the stuff - beer, margaritas, whiskey, etc. It's all butt-flavoured to me. :P But, even though I don't like the taste of it, I have drank sips of my dad's. Usually, everytime he's drinking something new, I'll have a sip. But never more than a sip of everything. Even on New Years Eve, he's poured a glass of champagne for me, I take one sip, go "icckkk", and give it away. He tries new stuff every year, and hasn't found one I like yet. :P

So I can't say I've never drank, but I can say that I will NEVER drink to get drunk, I will NEVER be drunk, and I have NOT had anything more than a sip at a time.

[DrKym]

I drank at parties as a teen, not often and not to much excess, I drink as adult in certain circumstances and I have been known to have an after dinner drink. I raised all my kids to respect alcohol and to ask if they are curious, none of my adult kids drink at all neither does my husband, our 9 yr old has no curiosity about it yet so we shall see if it's a 3 out of 3 thing.

[primabella]

The whole concept of planning to get drunk still confuses me.

I'm 18 and drink occasionally and with friends. I've never been drunk either - I drink for the taste and don't blow my money on things like that so I usually stop at one. Haha. Thing is, I can get totally "drunk" off a good atmosphere. Once I was having a really watered down drink and being my weird self, and my friends assumed I was drunk. Humph. How dare they.

Everything in moderation I say.

[ramanth]

I WAS a teen who never drank. (with friends)

If I had a drink under 21 my parents were present. I just never saw the glamour in getting wasted.

It probably helped that I didn't run with the "in" crowd and didn't get invited to many parties. And what parties I did go to I never had alcohol.

[BOBS DAD]

I guess I will weigh in on this!!!

I remember those teens years (way back when)... and all the pressure to "be cool". I was one of those kids who did not drink and went out of my way to make it known. I think it was a little easier for me though to make my stand than maybe others. I was an athlete (sort of the star baseball and basketball player - AWHHH - those glory days - passed me by) and a popular person in HS.

Around 17 years old and on, my Dad would ask me if I wanted a beer on special occasions - like my brothers graduations, Christmas and other holidays. I would occasionally accept - although like most of you - I found the taste bitter and one that most have to "acquire a taste" for. He always said I could have "1" and that he would rather "see" me drink and introduce me to the experience - than to have me sneaking around, experimenting on my own and perhaps overdoing it and getting into trouble. NO PROBLEM... he didn't realize I was an advocate for not drinking amongst my peers.

Now in College...
Well that's another story! All the pressure of classes and long hours, paying for it myself, working at the Public Relations office full time (pretty much - 30 hours a week) and playing baseball - I found myself enjoying parties and that relaxing, letting go experience with a Beer Induced Buzz. And Yes, good thing I never got into any real trouble because I did overdue it more times than I would like to remember. Thank God I did not own a car!!!

Now... Well now is (and has been) since those days, a time of moderation. I don't think I have been "drunk" for as long as I can remember and I've never been sick (throwup sick, hugging the toilet bowl, praying to the porcelain Gods Sick) since shortly after college. It's an occasional Beer now and then. Maybe 3 during the Super Bowl, but all in all - probably on average - a Six Pack every month.

That's my story!!!

P.S. A note on those HS years and trying to find a place and take a position. Everybody turned out about pretty much the same. Those that started early and maybe went overboard - most (with the exception of a few who developed problems) have come back to the very same state with those who defiantly avoided alcohol and eventually matured into moderate, occasional social drinkers. Seemed to have all evened out for "most" folks.