Alcohol and its worrying effect on children and adolescents

The alarming ascent of the bottle made by children-adolescents between 12 and 16 years old is demanding a consistent and reassuring response to parents.
At present, Many parents ask themselves with bewilderment and anguish why their children drink minors, without finding a precise and conclusive answer.

The truth is that the reasons for the alcohol intake of adolescents do not differ from those we would find to justify it in adults, there being a fundamental one: it is not so much the pleasure of its taste and tasting as the derivative of its effects. Verónica Rodríguez Orellana, therapist and Director of Coaching Club explains that "adolescents see alcohol a ticket in the first class to disinhibition, to daring, to relaxation; in short, freedom without barriers, which is a fascinating temptation. "


The difference is that adults, although not all, usually have the capacity to manage consumption by applying a moderation and self-control that children lack completely, because in those early ages one has the feeling of invulnerability, impunity and even omniscience; in short, of absolute power.

Why adults can not prevent young people from drinking alcohol?

According to Verónica Rodríguez Orellana there are several possible answers:

1. Because they believe that facing the situation with forcefulness establishing clear and resounding rules is tantamount to indoctrinating, so that they are retracted so as not to be taken and conceptualized as "carcas"


2. Because they do not know how to deal with minors when they begin to grow older (perhaps because they also did not find the answers that the adolescents are looking for or perhaps because they are so different from how they were at their age that the displacement prevents them from putting themselves in their place)

3. Because they are not a role model for their adolescent children, since they also overindulge in the drink, being the smallest eyewitnesses of such action. We can find a parallel in the widespread complaint of parents about the scarce reading habits of children when they will never see them with a book in their hands.

What effect does alcohol have as a drug?

Like all drugs, alcohol has a diverse and variable effect on personality and not only on the organism. Some people get euphoric, some people get dizzy, some people feel very sleepy, some people get fun and get close to the person they like; there are also those who, on the other hand, become aggressive and fight even with the friends they love the most.


"The most immediate and perceptible sensation is that of disinhibition: it makes lightweight previously complicated situations to confront and socialize the drinker to an extreme degree, and it seems that consumption could be evaluated positively in the case of people subjected to high demands, but there is no doubt that it requires strict control of the dose ingested, "explains the director of Coaching Club.

Why do some children reach the alcoholic coma and others not?

We can think that there are circumstantial unmanageable reasons, but it is also true and verifiable that adolescents who do not know how to take care of themselves are usually those who are not being well-liked, that is, those who do not feel the contact, the closeness, the intimacy with adults comprehensive and mature

"The children who run the most dangers are, consequently, those who do not have emotionally close adults that help them to understand each other and to understand the always complex world that humans have to face", explains Rodríguez Orellana.

The director of Coaching Club proposes solutions for this problem that affects all parents, "the best way to help a teenager overcome the difficulties posed by alcohol (the need to find a measure, the power to refuse the pressure of his social environment, avoiding the search for a quick solution to the anguish of the stage of development) is talking to him, his emotions and his own (that is, adults do not place themselves in a superior position as if they already had everything resolved and also open their truth to the debate) ".

Nothing can save children from the dangers of the world, but intimacy well lived with adults, cults emotionally, is the closest thing to a protective power that will always accompany them.

How to do then to solve the problem?

In addition to restrictions on the sale of minors, it is necessary to increase strict controls in discotheques, recreational games centers, etc. But these measures are not the complete solution.

In order to take care of children from the dangers of excessive intake, hooking up to alcohol or an early habit, it is necessary:

1. Understand why the effect of alcohol is so persecuted (do not simplify this point, which is key, in a moral fog lack of reality).

2. Provide realistic information about the dangers, that is to say, to teach to drink in case the incitation takes place: do not mix, do not drive, drink a lot of water, in time, to refuse is not a weak person, but quite the opposite.

3. Help them improve control over their actions: collaborate and participate in its maturation process, dealing not only with the alcohol issue but with each and every one of the issues that concern them

4. Encourage the development of your sense of responsibility by an awareness of their true desires and needs, because the insistence on duty and, above all, doing it in an unjustified and authoritarian manner was never an effective or effective procedure.

Verónica Rodríguez Orellana. Director of Coaching Club

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