The good news: Teenage alcohol use is on the decline. Now for the bad news: Alcohol is still the most widely used and abused substance by adolescents, 15 and up. Or so says the experts at Parentandteen.com, who also claim that by age 15, 33 percent of teens have consumed at least one alcoholic beverage. By 18 years of age, that percentage jumps to an alarming 60 percent.
While it’s important to have frank conversations at home with your teenager about the dangers of drinking alcohol, it’s also important to keep in mind that teens are curious creatures. No matter how much you warn them, many are not only going to sneak a drink with their friends or even while alone, a certain percentage are going to get hooked early on. Should the worst happen, and your teen get addicted to alcohol, it’s important to know that it can have adverse effects on your teen’s developing body and brain. It also means you must get them into a teen alcoholism treatment facility/program as soon as humanly possible.
But just because some teens are going to abuse alcohol, it doesn’t mean yours is going to follow suit. The more educated you are as a parent as to how to keep your child alcohol free, the better things are going to be for the entire family.
First things first. You need to be aware of the all the facts about teen drinking.