SOCIAL PROBLEM IN COLLEGE I believe that drinking must be limited to persons 21 and above because I have seen its effects on teenagers who are run out of control and become alcoholic at an early age. I feel that addictions serve the purpose of removing me from my true feelings and providing a form of escape. This underlying purpose remains true no matter what underlying mechanism creates the addiction. It seems that drinking alcohol serve the function of helping me avoid the real anxieties of live by disengaging me from reality. Unfortunately my love for alcohol has some interesting similarities as well. The most obvious was my lack of control. I remember once when I saw a group of teenagers in a huddle in school whose ages range from 15 to 17 and they one of them clutching a bottle of alcohol.
They managed to slip it in the school premises without school authorities noticing about it. They were practically binge drinking and passing the alcohol to each other. It was really a sad sight to see how very young teenagers were addicted to alcohol at an early age. I managed to whisper to one of them that they must never bring any bottle of alcohol to school even if they were so sure that they would not be discovered. They seem to have placed their addiction at the center of their lives and everything else revolves around it. It determines their lifestyle, their recreation (or lack of it).
The Essay on Alcohol Among Our Teenagers
This is a letter i wrote last christmas when i was bored addressed to the editor of a local newspaper in The Bahamas, where i live. Hope you enjoy. Dear Editor and my fellow Bahamian public, I am disturbed, disgruntled and shocked at the magnitude of carelessness that the public shows for the well-being and security of our youth. Recently, I was invited with a few friends to join them to celebrate ...
Where they go and what they do. I think that in a sense, all addictions are really difficult to remove and needs a lot of will power. When I tried alcohol before, I experienced extreme physical discomfort, often resembling the withdrawal symptoms of drug addiction. When I abstained from certain activities, it also points to the possibility that many of my behavior addictions also have underlying chemical basis. As I think about it, there was really a rush of good and feelings of elation that engulfed my being as I drank to my hearts content. Sometimes I would ask myself how I could probably get out of it but as I drank, I knew that I was enjoying every minute of it and I did not really want to quit. My health was already suffering and I would often have ulcers because I just preferred to drink instead of eating food.
I was under the spell of alcohol as one is under the spell of a witch. My appearance became haggard and my friends, those who were concerned about me, just wanted me to stop all together cold turkey. I would nod in approval but the next morning, it was almost automatic, I would reach out for the bottle of alcohol and have that for breakfast. That was why I understood the disadvantages it would come upon any teenager who carried on the habit for days and weeks. I was so concerned about the different ways that young people were drinking too much after their school work, especially on Friday nights. It seems that they just let everything out, have all the fun and then regret that they ever drank too much the next morning.
They would not remember what they did the night before. I could put myself under their shoes and commiserate at their plight, I want to tell them that the habit can be very addicting. That is why, even if I could be rejected or driven away, I would risk approaching a group of young teenagers and tell them that that it is not worth it at all–and that they are talking to someone who had been there before..
