If they have difficulty cutting down or stopping, they may have alcohol use disorder. Similarly, 36% of teens have reported drinking and 16% have reported at least one drunk episode by the end of middle school (Johnston et al., 2011). Mixing drinks, doing shots, playing drinking games, and natural teenage impulsiveness can all contribute to binge drinking and increase a Alcoholics Anonymous young person’s risk for alcohol poisoning. This is among the most common reasons for underage drinking. As kids enter their teens, friends exert more and more influence over the choices they make. Desperate to fit in and be accepted, kids are much more likely to drink when their friends drink.

Excessive alcohol use

Teens who drink put themselves at risk for obvious problems with the law (it’s illegal; you can get arrested). Teens who drink are also more likely to get into fights and commit crimes than those who don’t. No content on this site, regardless of date, should ever be used as a substitute for direct medical advice from your doctor or other qualified clinician. You can take steps to lower your risk of alcohol-related harms. Keep any alcohol in your home locked away and routinely check potential hiding places your teen may have for alcohol, such as under the bed, between clothes in a drawer, or in a backpack.

Underage drinking consequences

Children who have suffered abuse or have behavior or mental health problems are at an increased risk for underage drinking. If you think you have a drinking problem, get help as soon as possible. If you can’t approach your parents, talk to your doctor, school counselor, clergy member, aunt, or uncle. It can be hard for some people to talk to adults about these issues, but a supportive person in a position to help can refer students to a drug and alcohol counselor for evaluation and treatment. From a very young age, kids see advertising messages showing beautiful people enjoying life — and alcohol. And because many parents and other adults use alcohol socially — having beer or wine with dinner, for example — alcohol seems harmless to many teens.

NA and Other Peer Support Groups for Drug Addiction

There, it slows reaction time, makes you less coordinated, impairs your vision, and — even at relatively low doses — leads to unclear thinking and problems making good judgments. The less alcohol you drink, the lower your risk for these health effects, including several types of cancer. Acknowledging you have a problem with alcohol is not a sign of weakness or some kind of character defect. In fact, it takes tremendous strength and courage to admit your problem and decide to face up to it. The teenage years can often be challenging and stressful, and it’s not unusual for people to turn to alcohol as a way of coping with their issues. But whatever difficulties you’re facing teens drinking alcohol at the moment, there is help available and there are healthier, more effective ways of resolving them.

Other dangerous behaviors

• It can even be easier to have these conversations early on in your child’s adolescent years, when they aren’t as rebellious and are less likely to be have already been exposed to underage drinking.
• If you have a friend whose drinking concerns you, help them stay safe.
• If you don’t feel you can talk to a parent, reach out to a family friend, older sibling, or school counselor, for example, or call one of the helplines listed below.
• Monitor journalism changes lives because we open that too-small box that most people think they live in.
• We need to create healthy alternative behaviors that can be reinforcing for teens to engage in.
• Young adults increasingly shrugging at alcohol has driven drinking rates down to 58%, slightly below the historical average, even as alcohol consumption among other adults has held steady since 2010.

Because the adolescent years are a time of development, teens’ bodies are less able to process alcohol. That means they have a tendency to get drunk quicker and stay drunk longer than older drinkers. If your teen goes to a party and chooses to have a drink, it’s a mistake that can be rectified.

• For teens ages 15 to 17, less than 30% has drunk alcohol in the past month.
• In very small amounts, alcohol can help a person feel more relaxed or less anxious.
• Teen drinkers also are more likely to get fat or have health problems.

• Even teens who would not normally be tempted to drink alcohol may be drawn in by certain social situations, so don’t assume they have all the facts they need to resist peer pressure.
• Worried about the dangers and consequences of underage drinking?
• Risk factors are things that increase the likelihood that a teen may drink alcohol underage.
• Although binge drinking can have negative health consequences, not all people who binge drink are necessarily addicted to alcohol.

Witnessing your child struggle with a drinking problem (also known as “alcohol use disorder”) can be as heartbreaking as it is frustrating. Your teen may be falling behind at school, disrupting family life, and even stealing money to finance their habit or getting into legal difficulties. Drinking problems affect families all over the world from every different background. Worried about the dangers and consequences of underage drinking? There are ways to help your teen cope with the pressures to drink alcohol and make better choices. While it is common for people to try alcohol in adolescence, alcohol use in teens can be detrimental to health and may affect brain development and mental health.

Risks of teen drinking

Underage drinking doesn’t automatically mean your teen has AUD. Likewise, underage drinking isn’t the same as alcohol misuse. Risk factors are things that increase the likelihood that a teen may drink alcohol underage. Some of these are specific to individual families, while others affect whole social groups. As a result, teen drinking can potentially lead to other risk-taking behaviors, such as drinking and driving, injury, or unsafe sex. Young adults increasingly shrugging at alcohol has driven drinking rates down to 58%, slightly below the historical average, even as alcohol consumption among other adults has held steady since 2010.