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The dawn of the twenty first century has ushered in a new age of optimism and wonder. Despite the proclamations of television, all is not in well in our part of the world. Our societies have succumbed to the modern holy war on drugs. Being fought against our own citizens and citizens abroad, an international effort to eradicate drug production and use has undoubtedly failed leaving in its wake social unrest and political chaos. Assault, property crime, racial and economic marginalization, murder, corruption and many other undesirable things are burning through society fueled by the drug war's cold and inhuman policies. In this paper I want to talk about two major social problems that teenagers and their parents face today: alcoholism and drug use.
My purpose is to analyze what issues and situations bring young people to alcohol and drugs. Teenager alcoholism is a huge problem that I consider to be a part of drug problem. Teenagers today have no idea what alcoholism really is. They think that they can never become alcoholics.
They think that it could never happen to them, but they are wrong. Stress, Family problems and the desire to be popular are wrong the cause of teenage alcoholism. After reading the book Drinking: A Love Story by Caroline Knapp I understood that indeed teenagers alcoholism is a huge problem and there are so many reasons that might bring a young person to it. This book reveals to the reader the roots of alcoholism in the life of Caroline Knapp who was from an upper-class family. The author describes how the distorted world of her well-to-do parents pushed her toward anexoria and then alcoholism.
Indeed this is the life story of a woman who finally realized her addiction to alcohol. This whole book is like a saga of the alcoholic addiction of a young girl. Caroline Knapp started drinking when she was 14. It began with her first, early-teen drink with Dad. In a setting of formal family dinners Knapp becomes addicted to drinking. She secretly guzzles liquor before dinner.
She keeps miniature bottles in her bathrobe pockets. Looking closely to her problem I realized that Knapp's addictions develop before she begins to drink. She was a twin in her fathers second marriage. She feels a mysterious chill between her parents and warms her own spirit by rocking herself. She rocks until she's 16, when she begins to seriously drink. The rocking and the drinking were her security in a family guided by a father who reached out to Knapp by staring at her and asking, "How are you?" Her addictions continue, with an eating disorder and later unhealthy relationships with men.
She's anxious, an achiever with no sense of self. She spends almost 20 years as an alcoholic. Throughout the 1980 s she maintained a good front, holding down a high-pressure job at the Boston Phoenix and keeping her addiction under wraps. Much of the time she managed to hide it even from herself. It lasted until the early 1990 s, when she finally entered a rehabilitation program. "Drinking.
But what really interested was the fact that no one from her family, neither her twin sister no her mother made her stop drinking. How could her mother, upon seeing her hung-over child at the breakfast table and commenting: "Honey, your head is shaking, " not press her to act? How could her friends, her colleagues, her men watch her? Knapp's addiction started from her yearly adolescence. And these years of a persons life are usually filled with unsure time.
Intense pressure to perform and succeed is felt by many youths. Perceived failure at home and / or school can lead to the need for escape. Teenagers often see their parents react to stress by drinking. This basically gives an example for them. They also see their favorite movie actors or actresses getting drunk when they go to a movie so they think that it's OK for them to do it but what they don't know it really hurts them in the long run.
This book proved me that family problems are number one that might bring a young person to an alcoholic addiction. Teenagers might be having marital problems with their papers that can usually drive a teenager to drink. The damage that could result from a parents lack of understanding in the meaning of their child's drug and / or alcohol abuse can often be worse than the results of the child actually taking the drugs! Marin and Cohen lay the groundwork for this understanding with a discussion of adolescence in America today that makes many parents realize they play an important role in helping their children react to situations. With sensitivity and genuine feeling, discussion can open up new areas of understanding, revealing some of the fundamental impulses that motivate our young people in today's society, and perhaps parents will be better equipped psychologically to relate to what really troubles their children. Most parents must assume that their children will attempt drugs and / or alcohol at least once in their adolescence, and attempts to suppress their use entirely "are doomed to fail, because children react to actions of parents and peers." (P.
Marin, & A. Cohen, 1998. ) The authors instead suggest ways to minimize drug misuse and teach specific ways in which parents, teachers, community leaders, and others can assist children in education on the negative results of abuse. Another reason that might bring a person to an alcoholic is the desire to be accepted and popular among their friends. This encourages many to begin drinking as well. The ability to consume a lot of alcohol is associated with being a "real man or woman" (Lang 1996. ) When teens see adults drink heavily and movie stars on screen getting drunk, the message that gets through is that "it's cool to drink" which is the wrong one to be sending. Almost one half (47. 9 %) of seniors drink alcohol at least once a month, 19. 8 % drink at least once a week.
Nearly one third (30. 7 %) of ninth graders drink some kind of alcohol monthly or more often 12 % drink at least once a week. 13. 2 % of seventh graders and 6. 6 % of sixth graders drink alcohol regularly. (Casey, 1990). Another huge problem that is closely connected to the drinking problem is teenagers drug use. The percent of young people and pupils using drugs and alcohol is rising each year. Adolescence is much like a midpoint in ones life; when a person is neither a kid nor an adult. At this period, teens have passed the age when they were called kids but are not yet qualified to be adults. Teenagers want to think like adults, behave like adults and also start to view themselves as independent beings in decision making.
All this hormonal changes also come with the negativity of maturity such as drugs and alcohol. The statistics show that the percentage of teenagers using drugs and alcohol in the last decade has increased. Why is this? The answer is that teenagers are under pressure by their peers, mass media and also the influence of parents. (Bazin, 1999. ) Peer pressure plays a major role in the harmful behavior of teens. Teens who want to fit in among their friends are most especially prone to this. They try to make friends and they get friends as much as possible.
Of these friends there are the good ones who give them the knowledge and information you want need or inquire and there are the ones who give them information about not too good things like drug, alcohol, parties, etc. (Dolan, 1992) This influential communication between a teen and his / her peer may be directly or indirectly. Directly such as conversations with their friends or indirectly such as listening to classmates discussing of a party which occurred a night before. Then they begin to mention alcohol, drugs and violence obviously from what have experienced they talk about it in a way possible. Then you would like to see how good it is the next weekend you go to that kind of party.
If you can not resist such as a temptation you will begin to do harmful deeds that will definitely have adverse results in the future. Lets not put all the blame on teens and their peers alone. The mass media is also responsible in an understandable way. The media has proven to be a lot damaging than useful in the type of information meant for mature audience but end up with the immature audience.
Soap operas and frivolous shows shown on TV contain immoral and untrue images of the world as it is more of the writers imagination or the way directors direct them to act. Most teenagers are probably old enough to watch this shows but not mature enough to comprehend with the fictitious nature of movies and soap operas. (McCormick, 1999) Though movies and soaps are rated, underage people are still able to access them. The responsibility then shifts to the parents whom are meant to control their children from getting misleading information about drugs, alcoholism and lots more. This can be done through the use of V-chip for TV and Parental Controls for Internet. Parents who I would disparage of because most parents have and are taking care of their responsibility and it has worked tremendously. Although many teens dont use drugs because it is unacceptable, there is an increase in drug use among teens today, because sports athletes, movies, and music make it appear acceptable.
Many young people consider athletes, actors, actresses, and musicians as role models. They try to model their lives after them, this, many times includes the celebritys drug use if they have used before. There are many biographies on television that deal with a celebrity and their drug use. Young people see these bios and think that drug use is just a part of growing up and that they will have to do it sometime so why not get it out of the way.
In the book Understanding Drug Use, An Adult's Guide to Drugs and the Young, by Peter Marin and Allan Cohen, we find that education in our youth today is vital. In a few short years, drug taking by younger people has become a fact of life in America, and for hundreds of thousands of families this fact poses a profound problem with wrenching social, legal, and psychological implications. Faced with an upsetting and unfamiliar experience when they discover that their children are experimenting with drugs or alcohol, parents search frantically for solutions-often coming up with the wrong ones, thereby intensifying an already sensitive situation. This book seems to attempt to help parents and others understand why some people put themselves in these types of situations. Concluding my essay I want to say that these two problems are indeed huge ones. We all need to understand the seriousness of these problems and try to stop this happening.
If parents, instructors, and of course government take these issues in their hands Im sure we can stop it. Adolescence is given to us by God to get and learn the best things in our lives but not for hurting ourselves and coming down. References Knapp, Caroline. Drinking: A Love Story. New York. 1999 Goode, Erich.
Drugs in American Society. New York. 1998 Marin, Peter & Cohen, Allan. Understanding Drug Use, An Adult's Guide to Drugs and the Young. New York: Wiley. 1998 Lang, John. Teenage Alcoholism. New York: Graphic Society. 1996.
Casey, Christopher. Alcoholism. New York: Harcourt Brace & Company. 1990. Bazin, German. Drug and Alcohol Abuse.
New York: Praeger. 1999 Dolan, Edward F. Drugs Nowadays. New York: Franklin Watts, 1986 & 1992. McCormick, Michelle. Teenager-Drug Abuse. New York: Franklin Watts, 1999.
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Research essay sample on York Franklin Watts Drugs And Alcohol
