When I was a sophomore in high school, I registered for a substance abuse class. At that time period, I did not understand that alcohol abuse actually was a sub division of drug abuse. While taking this class and learning more about drug and alcohol abuse, I read a lot about Alcoholic Anonymous, their meetings, how their programs have twelve steps, and how successful the Alcoholics Anonymous recovery program has been for people all through the world. I also learned a lot about alcohol treatment and the different alcohol rehab clinics that are normally available to abusive drinkers.
Some of the harmful end results associated with alcoholism and alcohol abuse that I learned about in this class undeniably scared me. The ruined lives and many problems experienced by most alcohol addicted individuals made me feel like I never wanted to drink alcohol when I became old enough. That is, I did not want to face the damage and ruination that alcohol dependent people almost always go through.
Think about this for a moment. What fifteen-year-old individual wants to face premature death due to his or her drinking behavior? What adolescent wants to become so out-of-control regarding his or her drinking that ingesting alcohol becomes the object of one’s life? What young person wants to go to one of the local alcoholic rehabilitation centers to deal with alcohol-related problems before he or she becomes an adult?
What teenager wants to deal with alcohol withdrawal symptoms when he or she tries to stop drinking? Why would a person engage in drinking to such an extent that it would cause problems in every area of his or her life? Drinking later in life after a person has a career, a family, and develops personal responsibilities makes sense. But why would a young person want to sacrifice his or her education, employment, finances, and relationships for a life that focuses on hazardous drinking?
These issues were so meaningful that I talked about some of them in class throughout the school year. What was utterly amazing to me was the number of students who simply didn’t care about the dangerous outcomes of excessive drinking that I talked about. It was almost as if they couldn’t be bothered with the facts and how these outcomes can ruin their lives. For the first time in my life I started to understand a saying that my grandfather used to articulate throughout my youth: you can lead a horse to water but you can’t force it to drink.
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