You’ll be fine. You’re only having one drink. You can control how many drinks you have. You can only have fun if you’re drinking too. That’s what they all say. They are probably six feet under the ground by now, or lying in a hospital bed from alcohol poisoning. One drink is too many. The moment the alcohol touches your lips, you are no longer in control.

Underage drinking is not only illegal it is a widespread public health problem that has many risks involved. Drinking is all fun, and games while you’re at that party, but the aftermath is permanent. The consequences of drinking affect everyone, not only yourself. When you’re drunk there is no way to control your behavior. Many people say drinking doesn’t really have an effect on your body, or that it doesn’t change the way someone acts or behaves, but they’re living a lie. Drinking affects your behavior, how a person would act during and afterwards. It also affects school habits. A student who drinks no longer can focus on the tasks in school. All that student is worried about is how much their going to drink at the party after school. Drinking also affects your driving skills. There are many teens who think driving after having had a few drinks is not really any different than driving when you’re completely sober. Most teens are not the safest drivers to begin with.  Having one drink makes your surrounding hazy. You began to not notice sings, animals, other cars, and people. The reaction time to these things is not as quick as a person who is sober. The affects increase with the more alcohol a person consumes.

The effects on your judgment, reaction time, and behavior are some of the short-term effects. The long-term effects are much worse. If a teen continues to drink there are many consequences that may occur. Liver damage, heart damage, brain damage, overdose, emotional problems, anxiety, and depression are all effects that can come from drinking for a long period of time. If anyone drinks it has effects on all aspects of their life.

Many teens, and adults, don’t realize that drinking does not only affect the person that is doing the drinking. Drinking affects everyone around them. Drinking has a big impact on behavior. As a person consumes large amounts of alcohol they tend to become more aggressive and agitated. That aggressive, and agitated behavior could become a danger.  People tend to become more distant. They no longer have the desire to hang out with their friends, or be around their families. Friends, and family notice that they are changing. By the time anyone notices it’s already too late. The habit of drinking has taken over, and has already begun tearing the life you once had apart.

There are many people are under the conception that there friends, or son/daughter do not drink. In reality it’s just the opposite.  Over 40% of all high school students drink alcohol. That’s 8.7 billion teens’, grades 10th -12th that are drinking. The majority of high school students started drinking as a social activity. As children mature, it’s completely normal for them to begin to want their independence. They want new challenges. Try taking new risks on their own. Underage drinking is a risk that attracts teen like a magnet. Many teens just want to try alcohol to see what drinking is like. The problem is too often teens do not fully understand the effects alcohol has on their health, school activities, and behavior. Other reasons teens want to drink alcohol are, peer pressure, increased independence, or stress.

Teens often view drinking as a social activity that starts off at parties. Going to parties with your friends, seeing them drinking. It might be fun, maybe I should try it sometime. That when the drinking begins. You began to think that the drinking make the pain go away. That all the stress, drama, everything is gone. That is right. All of the pain is gone, but only for the moment. The second you wake up tomorrow, all of the problems you tied to drink away last night at the party are still here. That’s when teens start to drink more and more. They go to more parties, because they think it’s making them feel better. They think that the drinking is what solves all their problems, that’s when the depression starts. When that person wakes up the next morning, and realizes that everything is just the same as it was yesterday. The drinking didn’t solve anything, the only thing left was a hangover. Another big aspect in teen drinking is peer pressure.
“Peer pressure disclaimer is the social influence to adopt a particular type of behavior, dress, or attitude in order to be accepted as part of a group of one’s equals.”   Peer Pressure is a major influence to underage drinking “Who needs you as a friend anyway?” “You’re such a baby!” “It won’t hurt you!” These are all peer pressure taunts that many teens receive when they choose not to drink. These kind of taunts make it hard to say no, even if you really are not interested in drinking. 

As children become older each year they want more, and more independence. Which makes sense right? When growing up, you should be able to start making your own choices. The only problem is sometimes the choices teens make are not necessarily the right choices. Many teens choose to drink because they think it makes them seem mature and grown up. Teens often make this misconception. Drinking actually makes you seem as if you are less mature. Someone who is drunk would say/do would be the very first thing that comes to your mind no matter what it may be.  Being drunk means a person would no longer have control of what is happening to you, or anything else for that matter. Anything could be happening at any given moment, and you wouldn’t have the slightest clue. You could be jumping in to a car, starting the engine getting ready to make your way home. Missed texts, and calls asking where you are light up the lock screen.  You never make it home because you’re laying on the side of the road thrown from your vehicle because you drifted into the lane of oncoming traffic. You hit another driver. Drinking doesn’t make anyone seem grown up at all, it marks you for death.

Most students think it would be “fun” to drink and party. They hear about how much “fun” these parties are that happened over the weekend. People talk these parties up, which gets other teens interested. They begin to wonder what it’s like to party, how much “fun” it actually is.  After hearing form their friends how much “fun” it is to drink teens began too only hear that. They don’t realize what the real effects are. They only think it’s all “fun”, and nothing at all could possibly happen. Many teens don’t think any harm can come from just trying a drink. What they don’t realize is that one drink leads to another. Then another. Pretty soon you’ve had to many drinks to count.

Is drinking really worth it? Going out with friends to one party, for one night. Is that one night of partying worth losing everything? Did you tell mom I love you today? What about your dad, sister, brother, and friends? What if today was the last chance to tell family, and friends I loved them? What if today was the last chance you had to fix any mistakes you ever made? What if the last text that was just sent was the last text you would ever send?  What if tomorrow you didn’t wake up, and your parents were calling the rest of the family, and friends to let them know when the funeral will be?   I don’t know about you, but a lifetime of memories and adventures seems a whole lot better than going out for one night of partying.

Alcohol is nothing to play around with. The dangers of drinking are all around. You  open your eyes and realize it. Teens don’t seem to understand that one drink can change your life, for the worst. Drinking, and partying is really not worth the affects it has on your family, friends, and you. Don’t be a teen drinker, there is too much going for you in life to waste time on drinking. Before you pick up that can or bottle, just think about everything you did today. Think long and hard, because today could be today last day you have if you drink.