Teenage alcoholism is a very common problem, about 20.2 % of teenagers in a study conducted by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Health admitted to drinking on one or more occasions in the past 2 weeks. Drinking before or during puberty can cause permanent impairment, physical, mental, and emotional, as well as long term memory and thinking problems. Since your body is weaker to alcohol during puberty, there’s an increased risk of contracting Hepatitis, liver failure, mental impairment, and even death.

Short term effects of alcohol include blurred vision, slurred speech, poor balance, and very poor judgment. Alcohol also gives the person a false sense of invincibility. Poor judgment and invincibility alone are a great risk. You might think you’re fine and try to swim, or someone might also think they’re Superman and take a flying leap. You can tell where that ends, usually, with a spotlight on 1000 Ways to Die. Overuse of alcohol causes your gag reflex to stop working, making it extremely possible to drown in your own vomit or your brain forgets to breathe and you suffocate. Internal damage is dangerous as well, and is usually fatal.

The first organ to take damage from the alcohol is the liver. The liver’s job is to filter poisons out of the blood, and if you put too much strain on it, you can hurt or disable your liver. You can also contract Hepatitis from a damaged liver. Your brain takes a lot of damage from the alcohol, since the alcohol changes the structure of your brain, often impairing memory or thinking skills in the process. Alcohol is a poison, by all definitions. If you drink enough, you slip into a coma that you might not wake up from, called alcohol poisoning.

Death is a common end for many underage drinkers, sadly. Annually, 5,000 people die from underage drinking related situations. 1,900 were car crashes, 1,600 were homicides, 300 suicides, and 1,200 other causes, such as alcohol poisoning and accidental death. There are more deaths listed under a disease or liver failure that are not counted. Underage drinkers are at more danger because they are still developing and the effects become worse as time goes on. How do you stop this problem?

In short, you really can’t. If they want to drink, they will find a way to drink, undoubtedly. It will always be a problem, but educating children and teenagers about what alcohol does to their health can help them choose against drinking. If you understand the affects and problems it causes, you would decide for yourself if it is worth it. Alcohol is very dangerous, choose wisely.