{YOUTH & ALCOHOL}
Alcohol abuse and excessive drinking also has serious health risks. We are asking you to think for yourself and make a decision for your future because the facts remain the same – alcohol causes the highest number of drug-related deaths among teenagers.
Use of alcohol can lead to:
• Binge drinking or drinking too much on a single occasion
• Unsafe sex leading to sexually transmitted diseases or unwanted pregnancies
• Impaired brain development
• Injury or death
• Liver damage
Any of the following options are able to help any youth to quit alcholol anonymously:
• Your doctor
• Your local health service centre
• Your teacher or a student counsellor
• Or call the National Quit-Line on 1948 where anonymous counsellors will talk with you, provide some healthy guidelines and help you understand your situation.
Continue reading for further understanding on alcohol related health risks.
The Alcohol Industry
Did you know that 28 billion litres of wine and 150 litres of beer were produced last year? The alcohol industry exceeds one trillion USD. The alcohol industry thrives when we continue to purchase liquor – but they keep losing their customers each year to liver diseases, road traffic accidents, cancers and other gastro intestinal disorders leading to death. Harmful effects of alcohol accounts for nearly 5.9% of all deaths worldwide.
For each person dying they have to recruit another to maintain this profitability. This means they work doubly hard to make newer generations pick up the habit of ‘drinking’ so that they can continue to drive sales. Newer generations mean especially the ‘youth’.
Parents might do their best to shield their kids from advertising related to alcohol, but alcohol marketers are doing their best to reach them anyway. Alcohol advertisements are placed in magazines with a substantial youth readership and are found to frequently show alcohol being consumed in an irresponsible manner. They want the youth to associate ‘alcohol use’ and ‘FUN’. They also create iconic characters and spend huge amounts of money sponsoring their brands on sports personalities. This is why they make alcohol seem inviting and exhilarating. This is why the alcohol producers like to market their products in places such as parties, sports events and entertainment. The bottom line here is that youth are getting hit repeatedly by ads for spirits and beer in magazines geared towards their age demographic,"
BINGE DRINKING
Binge drinking is the term commonly used to describe drinking heavily over a short period of time with the intention of becoming intoxicated/high. This can be very harmful to health, wellbeing and increase health risks. While youth may not realize that, binge drinking can lead to health risks and put yourself as well as the others face dangerous situations.
Some common binge drinking episodes could include the following:
• Hangovers
• Headaches
• Nausea and vomiting
• Shakiness / tremors
{ALCOHOL & IMPAIRED BEHAVIOUR}
• Date rape
• Sexual intercourse without a condom (With unknown person )
• Exposure to sexually transmissible infections (STIs)
• Possible pregnancy
• Fighting or brawling
• Drowning
• Drug overdose
• Self-harm or suicide.
{ALCOHOL & IMPAIRED BRAIN DEVELOPMENT}
- • Start learning about alcohol and its effects from a young age
- • Know the downsides of heavy drinking, such as vomiting, head spins, passing out and hangovers.
- • Educate yourself on the links between drinking and dangerous behaviour, such as unsafe sex.
- • Learn sensible tactics such as how to say no to alcohol
- • Know about the dangers of drink-driving and make sure not to let anybody consumed alcohol to drive
- • Talk with your friends about the dangers of alcohol, so you can come up with ways to look out for each other.
Learn more on risks of alcohol
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