When I was in the tenth grade in high school, I took a drug abuse class. At that age, I did not grasp the fact that alcohol abuse in reality was a sub classification 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 individuals all through the world. I also learned a lot about alcohol rehabilitation and the various alcohol rehab facilities that are often available to individuals who engage in hazardous drinking.
Some of the detrimental results related to alcoholism and alcohol abuse that I learned about in this class definitely frightened me. The ruined lives and many serious issues experienced by most alcohol dependent people made me feel like I never wanted to drink alcohol when I became old enough. In a word, I did not want to face the disaster and destruction that alcohol dependent individuals almost always experience.
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 drinking alcohol becomes the object of one’s life? What adolescent wants to go to one of the local alcoholic rehabilitation centers to deal with alcohol-related problems before he or she becomes twenty-one?
What youth wants to experience alcohol withdrawal symptoms when he or she tries to quit drinking? Why would an individual engage in drinking to such an extent that it would cause serious issues 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 centers on abusive drinking?
These issues were so meaningful that I talked about some of them in class throughout the school year. What was downright unbelievable to me was the number of students who essentially didn’t care about the harmful results of hazardous drinking that I discussed. It was almost as if they couldn’t care less about the facts and how these outcomes can demolish their lives. For the first time in my life I started to appreciate something that my grandfather used to articulate all through my teen and pre-teen years: you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink.
