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THROUGH MY EYES
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Dedication
To Brookings/Harbor students who have
been injured, abused, violated or have
died in alcohol related incidents.

Preface

Jason Bay
Anonymous 1
Jessalyn Breen
Anonymous 2
Jake Buehler
Anonymous 3
Dee Dee Christensen
Anonymous 4
Kristian Demian
Anonymous 5
Mayra Garcia
Anonymous 6
Brian Hodge
Anonymous 7
Dillon Jenkins
Anonymous 8
Rachael Murphy
Anonymous 9
Alexis Purvee
Anonymous 10
Brianna Rose
Anonymous 11

Acknowledgments

 

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Jason Bay
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Part of being a teenager is learning how to deal with peer pressure. I'm sure that just about everybody has been offered alcohol by one of their friends, but the true test is if and how you turn them down. I have been offered alcohol on numerous occasions, and have turned down the offer each time.

Personally, I disagree with under age drinking. This is just my opinion, but I have many reasons for it. I feel that there are better things to do with my time than to go get drunk and party. There are too many things to worry about while you're in high school. From experience thus far I know that your senior will be the busiest of all school years just because of all of the college stuff that you have to worry about. Filling out application after application can be a major drag. Why throw away all of those opportunities by getting drunk with your friends some night and getting in trouble for it? High school students should be focused on what they want their futures to be like, which hopefully isn't turning into some drunk.

The most effective thing that I have found against fighting peer pressure in general is to not be around those situations in the first place. Why even put yourself in a situation that can damage your reputation and your eligibility for sports? The other thing that I have found is that your true friends will never pressure you to do anything that you don't want to do. I try not to become close friends with anybody that I feel will try to pressure me to do something that I don't want to do. Yes, you will probably lose many friendships this way, but those people probably weren't good friends anyways. If there's one thing that I try to do, it's to make decisions on my own.

Peer pressure is just some hyped up word that has such a negative connotation because it's usually used when talking about drugs or alcohol. Things like this shouldn't affect you; make decisions on your own. If you get into trouble, make sure you're accountable for a decision that you made. Don't let your supposed friends talk you into something you don't want to do.

 

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Anonymous
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A couple of years ago, my brother and his wife got divorced. Since then, there have been so many things going on with our family that hurts so much deep down inside. It started out with my ex-sister in laws cheating on my brother with some other guy (which was not the first time); they met at a bar, which, at the time, was the place that she worked. After the divorce was finalized, she went off to do whatever she wanted to do, without a care in the world about who she was hurting, or what was going on with her kids (who are now four years old.) She was into all different kinds of drugs and doing whatever she felt like doing. This was extremely hard for me, because she used to be my best friend, and now I feel like I hardly know her.

Now, switching the view to my brother, a little while after the divorce, he found another girl that he started seeing. She lived with him most of the time, but when she had too much to drink she would become extremely violent. My brother was physically abused in this relationship so many times, but he did not want to let her go. There was one specific time I can remember when things were going all right, but then at my brothers' house, his girlfriend was there, drinking too much and getting extremely angry with my brother for no apparent reason. She kept calling him telling him everything that she was breaking in his house. When my brother finally went home, his house was completely trashed, broken glass everywhere, and blood from his girlfriend walking on the glass without shoes on. This is just an example of one of the things that went on during their relationship. It was extremely hard for us all to figure out what we should do. Eventually my brother finally told her that he would not allow her to be around until she stopped drinking. Since then, she has stopped drinking and is living with him again.

There was one time that I was sitting in my room and I wrote something to my brother after I heard him and mom talking. It has been sitting in my journal since then, I never showed it to him. This is what it was:

I stood with my door open listening to the faint voices of my mom and brother
The longer I stoop the colder I got. The colder my brother's voice got.
My fingers turned numb from the cold air reaching me again.
My eyes stung from holding back the unwanted tears.
"She can't find a job; she won't take a drug test."
My best friend, look what she has turned into.
I heard the door close and the mumble of my parents' voices.
I walked into the bathroom and started the shower.
Washing all of my fears away; surrounding myself in the comfort of the warm water.
But even then I couldn't get my mind off of him.
I imagined talking to him, hugging him, just being there for him.
But there I was in this warm rain of comfort.
And there he was, standing outside in the wet, cold, dark world alone.
My brother, this is my brother.
I can imagine being in his situation, wanting to give up, wanting it all to be over.

He's strong, stronger than me.
When I step out, he's already gone.
I imagine a few years from now raising his kids.
It wouldn't be so bad.
But now, I want to yell, I want to scream, I want to cry, I want it all to stop.
It's raining outside again, once tears of joy have become tears of sorrow, anguish.
Disappointment floods the ground.
People keep saying things will be all right, they keep saying life's so simple.
But they don't feel the emptiness, the hurt, the pain.
They don't see the tears when the rain has covered your face.
This isn't how you planned your life to turn out.
But I love you and always will.
I know things are hard, but imagine heaven.
The rain will soon turn into sunny mists of raindrops.
You will spin around and around. Feel the pleasure of joy again.
And God will be there, so proud that you made it through, so sure that he loves you.
Giving your problems to God could be one of the hardest things to do.
It may even seem impossible, like a finger length away from being able to grasp.
So close, yet so far. I know, but please try. Pray, I know I am.
I love you, and God does even more, never forget that.

 

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Jessalyn Breen
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My uncle was only thirteen when he was diagnosed as an alcoholic. It took just one sip of beer to get him hooked.

This sweet-faced, chubby boy named Kevin was the youngest of seven children. His family was raised Catholic. They loved him almost as much as he loved them. It was customary to see Kevin playing hopscotch with his sisters or racing on bikes with his brothers. He was a good student and fair citizen.

Suddenly Kevin changed. He began sneaking off late at night, driving without a license, and stealing from his aunt and uncle's liquor cabinet. He was addicted. He was obsessed.

Fortunately, his parents weren't blind. They noticed Kevin's behavior and sent him to an alcohol rehabilitation center. Unfortunately, their attempts were futile.

Over the next three decades, Kevin would check in and out of rehab centers twelve times. He dropped out of school, and was unable to hold a job, friend, girlfriend, or even sit through an AA meeting very long. His family was exasperated. It seemed that everything they tried failed. Even the threat of death could not cure Kevin. In one instance, he entered the hospital facing a zero percent chance of surviving, miraculously pulled through it, and drank again within three weeks.

Today Kevin is in jail for crimes he committed while under the influence of alcohol. I haven't seen him for five years. Yet he still has influence over me. After watching his life go to shambles due to alcohol, I have vowed never to drink. I know that the risks are too devastating. I know how much harm he has done to his family. I hope that others realize that when they drink, they are holding not only their own life in their hands, but many others as well.

 

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Anonymous
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I have this friend...well, let me rephrase that...I had this friend, his name was Jeff.

Jeff and I grew up together, and from playing capture the flag in the dead of night to swimming for hours upriver, we always had a good time. Jeff had always told me that he wouldn't let himself fall into a bad crowd, and I believed him.

"I'm above that." He would tell me...but now I know he was only trying to convince himself.

It wasn't until our freshman year that things went bad. We went to a couple of parties before Jeff had his first drink.

"I earned it." We would tell himself. But with every drink he took I could feel the fears slipping away. All that we built between us became worthless to him. I would try and talk him out of it, try to remind him of what he had said years ago. Tried to remind him of the vow he made to himself.

"I was stupid back then." He would laugh to himself. "I never actually meant it."

But I knew it was a lie.

I watched Jeff slowly go down hill. Everyday I could see the brightness in his eyes grow dull, until finally, I didn't look into those eyes anymore. I could see Jeff standing there, laughing and talking, but I knew that he wasn't the same person I knew all those years ago. I couldn't even recognize him anymore. The Jeff I know was dead...

It is that thought that scares me most...Dead. Jeff was dead. I still blame myself that I couldn't save him, that I couldn't remind him in time.

It's my fault he died.

If he had never drank that night, then maybe he would still be here.

Maybe the car would have stopped in time.

Maybe my friend would still be alive.

"We'll never drink" we promised each other, knowing even at a young age what it could do.

"We're smarter than that!" but we weren't. I see now we truly weren't.

We were stupid kids.

I couldn't hold on by myself, and shortly after Jeff's first drink, I took mine.

I was driving the car that night.

I'm the one who couldn't turn in time.

It's my fault he's dead.

Jeff paid for our mistakes, our broken vows, with his blood. With his life.

And it's my fault.

 

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Jake Buehler
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My encounters with alcohol have been limited throughout my brief life. I have never partaken in becoming intoxicated at a party, and from the few times I sipped the substance I have ascertained that the taste simply doesn't suit me. My immediate family has no problems with alcohol, and never did, sparing me the hardships of living in a dependent household. However, I will not decline to say that alcohol hasn't affected my life. My experience with the true effects of alcohol come from being the observer and watching from the furthest sidelines how drinking can spread to form a much more vast, enveloping, destructive umbrella than with a single individual. There is a larger picture to alcohol's effects than tarnishing the lives of the drinkers and even their friends and families. It can work its way into the fabric of a school; of a community.

For seven years of my life I lived in an agonizingly small town in central Idaho. It was little more than a wide spot in the road; a minor clearing of the sagebrush and dust for nine-hundred people sprawled out across the valley floor. Trekking across the desert for nearly three hours was necessary to reach the nearest mall, as well as the nearest hospital of any caliber. It was the epitome of isolation, where the only sounds for miles were the dry summer gusts and the muted hiss of wheel-line sprinklers.

It didn't take long for me to realize that there was very little to keep a youth entertained during idle times. For many children there, life consisted of schooling and ranch chores, accompanied by sports to fill the free time for those not old enough to snatch one of the scarce employment opportunities in town.

It was by the end of middle school that most of my peers, many of whom I'd played basketball and ran track with for years, started to fill the hollow hours with episodes of getting plastered. At first it started slowly, each realization of the commonness of alcohol use in my fellow fourteen-year-olds being sparked by incidental eavesdropping and awkward assumptions of my knowledge of this 'fact' in my school. My freshman year was when much of it came to light, and I started to see a path towards irresponsible drinking behavior developing in a surprising majority of my classmates. One by one I saw them fall. A boy in my class periodically came to school bruised and broken from combinations of a mild hangover and the injuries inflicted upon him the night before. He also showed up to a public benefit for an ill member of the community; drunk and reeking of beer. Shortly after the school year, he almost died of alcohol poisoning. The year progressed with tales of intoxicated wrecks during the weekends and keggers popping up in the remote reaches of the mountains. Had I not seen the effects myself, I'm not sure I would have taken the information to be as accurately presented. During finals, I saw the first foreshadowing of the degradation that would come to the school as a whole after I moved to Oregon. About six members of the class above me had left campus during lunch to go do shots of whiskey and didn't return on time to begin their testing. Unfortunately, they did return to school, and all six ended up vomiting all over their exams before drooping out of consciousness.

I moved to the coast early that summer, but kept in touch with some of my closer friends there, as I still do today. As time went on, news came in from my old home of how alcohol was eating away at the vision of the town and school I once knew. A friend of mine was thrown off the basketball team for giving drunken comrades safe rides home; he had become guilty by association. There were stories of kids breaking into houses in search of liquor, vandalizing the school and other properties while intoxicated, and multitudes of students being suspended or expelled. As collectively the teenagers of this tiny town accepted the notion that there was nothing better to do than drink, almost the entire school became loaded with problem drinkers. It began to take on a bigger meaning when three quarters of the varsity boys basketball team were dismissed, leaving an enraged coach and some disappointed team members who had hopes of perhaps a district or state title. It progressed until the alcohol use was the norm and that almost all extracurricular activities were hit by the discharging of members from alcohol. The town lost faith in backing sports and the general importance of the school due to all the problems, and the students, in response sunk further into a lifestyle that had become expected by every young person around them; that beer was the only entertainment worthy in this dreary place.

These conditions continue there today. I occasionally check in on some of my friends through the tool of MySpace, and see that alcohol has centered around the lives of nearly every last member of my old class by viewing pictures and reading quotations hailing the partying scene.

I am grateful that I left, for the power of peer pressure, especially in such a condensed situation of little escape, is quite influential. I like to believe that I am strong-willed and could stand up to such a pressure, but I would not want to test it in that environment. It would be very easy to start, being as how the alternatives of keeping oneself busy were so limited, and there would be no way possible to escape the pressure to drink unless one could take themselves out of the school system. Today I look back and can see the destructive aftermath that alcohol has left on the lives of so many students, and I am confident that I shall never take the steps down that road.

 

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Anonymous
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I still remember that warm summer's night as if it were yesterday. A brush fire had sparked and was burning through the neighboring hills. My Dad and my sister left to go check it out, and as a four year old, left all alone, my imagination soon got the best of me.

I ran upstairs and began to pack everything precious to me away in a suitcase. No clothes, no jewels...just my stuffed animals. They were my only friends and to me, more important that something as silly as a shirt. Tick, tock, the clock continued to tease me and still no Dad. I panicked. The minutes passed like hours and I began to fear that perhaps their way home had been blocked off by the fire.

Suddenly, I hear a thump from upstairs. It's my Mom and she's wasted. I can hear her calling my name from the top of the stairs and I panic. I'm only four, but I know she's drunk, and I know that she could hurt herself. My imagination has taken over again and all I can think of is my Mom falling down the stairs and breaking her neck.

I call back, pleading with her to just go back to bed, but she notices the panic in my voice and wants to help me. She doesn't understand that the panic she hears is from my fear of her death. This time I scream at her, but she still doesn't understand. I have to pull at her arm for her to finally go back into her room.

I wander back to the front door, wondering if my Dad is ever coming back for us. I think to myself, that maybe this is how I'm going to die, and how my Mom will die because I'm too small to help her. The warm tears stream down my cheeks as I curl into a ball and just wait. The clock ticked on for what seemed like an eternity until finally they arrived home.

I spent many sleepless summer's after that incident, lying awake in fear that another fire may start. Nightmares of my burning neighborhood haunted me repeatedly. I couldn't even sleep with a heater in my room because I was terrified at the possibility of a spark catching something. But most of all, it was my Mom's alcohol abuse that scared me, because I know that she was drunk again that night, and I didn't want to loose her.

My youthful years were full of fear and worry; worries a child that young should not have to deal with. I was forced to grow up a few years early, and learned to wear a mask to cover the pain I felt inside. I would never let my Mom know how unhappy my childhood was as a result of her alcohol addiction.

 

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Dee Dee Christensen
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"Hey, who wants a drink?" "Oh come on, just one drink won't hurt you. It's fun." "It's cool. Everybody drinks, right?" These are examples of what a peer might say to persuade you to try some alcohol. It's called peer pressure. Kids feel the need to be included and popular, therefore they accept the alcohol. Yet, what they don't realize is that the choices they make today will affect the rest of their lives.

Alcohol is a combination of fruits, vegetables and grain that has been fermented. Fermentation is a process in which sugars from food are changed into alcohol. Alcohol has many uses such as an antiseptic or a sedative. It is very useful in many products. Yet, drinking alcohol is a depressant. It greatly slows down the central nervous system and prevents some messages from reaching the brain. It alters a person's vision, memory, perception, movement and hearing.

Drinking small amounts of alcohol results in a relaxed and calm state, but too much alcohol can result in intoxication. People who abuse alcohol lose their coordination, slur their speech and delay their reaction time. Drinking and driving leads to hundreds of deaths each year. When large amounts of alcohol are consumed in a short time period, alcohol poisoning can occur. The body has become poisoned by the amount of alcohol, and the first sign is vomiting. Other symptoms include extreme tiredness, unconsciousness, difficulty in breathing, seizures and even death.

According to the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, about 80% of high school students have tried alcohol. Alcohol experimentation is common in the teen years. Kids decide to drink because of curiosity, to relax, the need to fit in, or to feel older. Movies show drinking as all right, satisfying and glamorous. Advertising messages show that drinking alcohol all the time is okay. Parents are also a number one reason why kids try drinking. They may have easy access to alcohol and their parents act "cool" when using alcohol socially. Alcohol seems harmless to teens.

Recognizing the dangers of alcohol can prevent an individual from drinking. Teens believe everyone else has tried drinking, but that's not true. Not drinking keeps you healthy and out of harms way. Alcohol abuse can lead to criminal records, health problems like obesity, unwanted pregnancies, car crashes, homicides and even suicide.

Resisting the temptation to drink will pay off in the end. You may not be popular or have the same friends, but not drinking will help you make better life decisions. Research has proven that teens who exhibit good decisions while they're young make better choices later in life. Drinking can lead to bad habits. Participating in a sport or acquiring a new hobby can take your mind off peer pressure. You can meet new friends that share your view. Deciding whether to drink is a personal decision that we each eventually have to make. Hopefully we can all make the right one, not to drink.

 

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Anonymous
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Another mindless, meaningless essay that may score me some temporary publicity in the local newspaper. Sweet. I can watch television, eat Hot Pockets, file some tax returns, and write this essay at the same time. And pick out my outfit tomorrow. Killer. All right, let me just get out the assignment...and the $64,000 topic is...oh. Oh, it's---it's...alcohol.

So this essay topic is a bit heavier than the others. All right, who am I kidding, to me the word alcohol is like a blow to the stomach. Just the word alone brings back gut wrenching, fleeting flashbacks of my abnormal childhood and the reminder that my family is broken, my relatives are missing or dead, and my psyche is permanently scarred...because of alcohol. Because of a single product regularly distributed in Oregon, and throughout the U.S., like it's no big deal; like it's just a normal drink--in fact, an incredible drink, that enables you to party like it's 1999 and never remember who exactly you knocked up last night, or how ugly she was. An incredible drink, than ruined my life...and I've never even tasted it.

Going back to those days now is harder than it used to be. After spending so long trying to block them out, they've become sort of a blur of manic yelling and being left on my own. My father left the house when I was 6, and I was to stay here in Brookings with my mother...who, which I wouldn't figure out for a number of years, was a raging alcoholic. I know it's hard to understand, but when you're little and an only child, and the only concept of social interaction is your mother stumbling around the house eternally screaming at you for no reason, you can't grasp the concept of alcoholism, and things don't turn out right. Don't get me wrong. I lived in a huge house, had lots of pets, and friends would come over every so often to play with me. I was well off. But it never really made up for the fact that my mother was really the only person that I had in the world, and she was never, ever there.

Bottle after bottle of white wine would pour into glass after glass, and she and her friends would be completely wasted by 5 pm. I would ask for things or try to tell a story about what happened in my day, and all I would get in response was a string of expletives or complete ignorance coupled with unexplainable manic laughter. I went on thinking it was completely normal, and lay in bed ever night ignoring the sounds of breaking glass downstairs and the rabid banging on my bedroom door late every night.

But as I grew up, it got worse and worse. Friends stopped being able to come to my house, by their parents' orders. I couldn't really ask my mother to drive me anywhere, for fear that we'd instantly wreck. So I grew up one of the infinite amount of teenagers in Brookings that are forced to raise themselves, because their parents fall victim--or shall I say, choose to fall victim--to alcohol. No matter how many times I screamed at her to stop drinking, no matter how many jugs of wine I emptied into the sink, there was nothing I could do, so I eventually gave up. But it killed me; it killed me to go through ever day to a virtually empty house crying myself to sleep knowing that the incoherent, incompetent woman downing bottles of wine downstairs might have actually been my mother once.

What got me the most, though, wasn't that she annoyed me to death. It wasn't that I'd come home from school with my mother nowhere to be found, forced to clean the puddles of blood from her theoretically self inflicted injuries gathered around the house. It was that she didn't know me, that she didn't remember what I did one day to the next. The cool, exciting things that would happen to me--and the worst. The sickest, most horrible things could happen to me with her there, right in the room. And she would never remember. And that--that is what I will never forgive her for.

Despite the twisted nature of this story, it does have a vaguely happy ending; a little over a year ago I gathered up the courage to leave the house for two months, giving my mother the ultimatum of getting clean or forcing me to stay out forever. And she did it--she sobered up, she joined AA, and she found a good boyfriend who's part of the counseling office. I'm one of the lucky ones--never did I imagine she'd gather the willpower to beat the alcoholism, but miraculously, she did it. But it will never make things right. I met my mother for the first time a year ago when I came back home. Since then, it's been strange...like living with a new roommate I thought I might have seen once before. Living on my own has forced me to become independent, and disregard any presence of a guardian figure in my life. It's caused me to be quick to judge, to take charge of situations, and hate anyone who chooses to have their mind clouded by alcohol of their own free will.

The drink has ruined my life. It broke up my parents, it took my mother from me, my uncle from me, and my aunt from me, and most recently it showed strikingly similar effects in my ex-boyfriend's family. Which brings me to the fact that nearly ever single teenager I know in Brookings lives in a family seriously and negatively impacted by alcohol. We all have our own horrible stories about being left alone, or beaten, or put through horrible dysfunctional situations. Leave it to someone who's usually apathetic to tell you--to yell it in your face--that yes, Brookings does have an alcohol problem. A very serious alcohol problem. But if I can do something...you can too.

 

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Kristian Demian
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Alcohol is a crazy thing. A lot of my friends have started using it as I have gotten older. Some starting as early as seventh and eighth grade. I can remember telling them it wasn't a good thing, to stop and wait until they were of legal age. Some listened, others just turned their back and continued down the path of drunkenness and self destruction. In high school it has only gotten worse. Kids go and party all the time. When kids get to partying, there is no limit to the things that go down. Most of it probably wouldn't happen if they weren't under the influence. That is the worst thing about it. When kids drink, it is to get drunk, and that is when bad things happen. Most are too immature to drink and not do stupid things. I personalyy have never drunk. Not that I think it is intrinsically wrong, but I have a bad enough time making "the right" decision, I don't need the influence of alcohol to further cloud my judgment.

I think that you should always try and be in control of your actions. That is the only thing you really can control in this world, and when you surrender that, you are very vulnerable. That isn't a position I want to be in. I don't have anything against alcohol, but I will probably just wait until I can enjoy it without worrying about "getting caugh." College will have a lot of drinking I am sure but I will have no problem turning down even the kindest of offers. I don't want to end up like all of my "fallen souljahs," victims of peer pressure and finally caving into the seductions of the fermented fruit.

 

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Anonymous
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Alcohol is involved in many parties, but there have been few that I know of where people have been in harms way. Alcohol can cause people to do stupid things, but it can also be the life of the party. It can make girls pretty and get you in serious trouble.

Alcohol can be someone's best friend when they are down or it can be something to relax them when they are feeling stressed. I know many people that have had a beer or a glass of wine because they like the taste or need to take it easy. It has helped many people make friends at parties because they have a common bond.

Many peoples' lives have also been messed up by alcohol. I feel sorry for all those kids who have been messed up by alcohol; such as people with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. These kids didn't have a chance to start with. They have been affected by it before they have ever been born or a chance to change.

Alcohol has ruined many families and torn them apart. This is one of the big problems with it; causing people to not be themselves. This is a major problem with alcohol. At parties people are having sex and doing things that they end up not remembering the next day because they were wasted.

I believe that alcohol if used quietly in ones own home isn't a problem. It is only when it starts to affect other people, and ruin lives that something should be done about it. I have a serious problem with people who use and abuse the substance just to make themselves feel good. In their own homes is fine as long as they don't beat and mess up their family.

In conclusion alcohol can be used to help people mellow out, to not do something stupid and hurt others but it can have the opposite effect too. Alcohol if used in an appropriate manner is fine and appreciated, but it is those who misuse it that gives it the bad name.

 

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Mayra Garcia
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In my life, I've been fortunate enough to not have alcohol related problems in my family. My parents do have an occasional drink after work, but they don't get drunk. I think this has greatly influenced my behaviors on alcohol because I don't drink and I don't let all the pressure of drinking get to me.

The dangers of underage drinking are tremendous and the number of underage kids drinking keeps increasing. I already know of several 14 year olds that had to be rushed to the hospital because of alcohol poisoning. This is a problem that has to be stopped before it gets out of control and I think the only solution is for the parents to sit down and talk to their kids and to tell them the extreme dangers and consequences of drinking that can take your life and the lives of others.

Most kids my age can't wait for the weekend to come so they can get ridiculously drunk. I'm not one of those kids. When I get invited to go to drinking parties, I courteously decline and tell them that I don't drink. They usually don't believe me because I'm known as being the crazy hyperactive one. My idea of a good time doesn't involve alcohol or anything close to that. My friends and I always have a good time whether it's hanging out at someone's house playing video games or going out to see movies and causing chaos in some arcade because we get a little out of control because some of us are very competitive and don't like to lose.

My greatest memories have been when I'm sober and I want it to stay that way. I know that when I get older I will still have my beliefs despite the many temptations in college and in the real world.

The pressure to drink is everywhere. From your friends, to advertisements on television. It's your choice to ignore these pressures, or let them influence you. I've made my choice, have you?

 

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Anonymous
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Hi, I am a seventeen year-old senior at BHHS, and I have had to deal with alcohol for most of life. Even though I have never drank, most of the experiences have been sobering and will most likely keep me that way for the remainder of my life. There is only one that I am going to tell you about today, and so the tale begins...

When I was four my mother married my stepfather. He was the father of her third child, and she hoped to provide a stable home and environment for all of her family. He was a good man, at first, who taught me many things. It wasn't until after his accident that he became abusive. For four more years I endured his physical and verbal abuse that were the result of his drinking and remorse over the loss of his functionality to the family. I endured to the very day that my mother divorced him, but the story doesn't end here. In fact, it skips further ahead another two years. For you see, my mother stopped all visitation between my stepfather and my sister out of fear that he would abuse her just as he did us. She said that it was until he lightened up on the drinking and had a safe place to stay. Finally that day came, but of course it wasn't one of pleasure for me. I hated the man, but, for my sister, it was one of joy. She loved her father and never once had been hurt by him. I had to go along to make sure that nothing happened with my sister. When we arrived at his friend's house, where he was staying, everything was cheery (he ever looked better than he did before his accident) and my sister began to be with her father. The visit was very nice. He had cut back on his drinking and was very congenial. It wasn't until the trip back that things began to get scary.

On the trip home he was so angry that he had such little time with us and that he had to drive three hours to bring us back that he began to drink. As the trip progressed and he had drank more and more, his driving abilities became impaired. He would drift into other lanes, speed into merging traffic, and other terrifying mistakes. When I finally had to turn the wheel to stop us from hitting the dividing barrier on a sharp turn, I gave up. I told him that I had to go to the bathroom, and he promptly pulled over at a gas station. I got out and called my older sister, telling her where we were. I then went and took the keys from the ignition, hiding them so that we couldn't leave. Then we waited. Soon enough, my sister arrived and picked us up. As we drove away, he didn't even dare to look at us, knowing that he had done wrong again and blown his chance of seeing us in the future.

This, among many events, has shown me what alcohol can do to a person. It can ruin situations and take lives. If I hadn't have been paying attention to what was going on around me, I am not sure that I would be here to write this up. In the use of moderation, I realize that it can be an enjoyable thing. Fortunately for me, I have the choice of whether or not I want to use it. I don't ever want to be the one on the other side of any child, yelling and screaming. Alcohol is a person's right to use, but I personally detest the substance in all forms. It ruined my childhood and robber a little girl of her father. No one deserves having those injustices wrought upon them.

 

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Brian Hodge
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Since middle school I've witnessed peers rise to positions of respect and, occasionally, power. On the other end of the spectrum I've seen perfectly respectable friends of mine drop out and become burdens on society. There are several factors that lead to these kids taking the paths they have in life. One dominant factor that I have noticed, time and again, is alcohol.

As far as I'm concerned alcohol, when used in moderation, is perfectly fine. The thing is, kids in high school don't drink in moderation. Kids in high school drink to get drunk. Decision-making skills are greatly reduced while under the influence. Obviously this can lead to bad decisions.

Another problem with underage drinking is that it seems like there is no moderation whatsoever. If a kid parties, chances are they party every weekend. Chances are they go to parties and get drunk. Chances are nothing happens most of the time except maybe for some minor drama. Every so often, though, something big will happen, a car crash, a rape, a death.

Alcohol is what I call a gateway drug. This is defiantly disputable but it seems to me to be. An example could be found in an eighth grade boy. He doesn't know whether or not he wants to drink but his friends talk him into it. After doing it a couple of times the doubt leaves him, no longer does he think it's so bad. After all, nothing bad has happened to him yet. Maybe he'll try smoking, since drinking has turned out to be fun. So the kid tries marijuana. Maybe he moves onto harder drugs from there, maybe he doesn't. The fact of the matter is that this theoretical eighth grader is well on his way to being an unsuccessful nothing. One bad decision has perpetuated into a wave of negativity that is washing over his whole life and will likely continue to do so for the remainder of it.

 

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Anonymous
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I sit on the sidelines and listen to the idle chatter of the friends I've known for years, wondering what happened to the days in the past when I had so much in common with them. We used to play outside, in the woods, exploring the land and building forts. Every day was filled with new adventures. Nowadays, all they want to do is go out with guys they barely know and party. Their idea of fun is to get laid by some random guy who they find interesting while they're drunk and hate the next morning. The possible consequences of what could happen don't matter in the slightest to them. It's all about living for that one, brief moment of fake happiness.

I've seen it happen over the years. They slowly forgot who there were and what they deemed important. Little by little, they were sucked in by the opinions of the larger, popular crowd. They began to try everything that was offered to them, thinking that a small amount of experimentation wouldn't hurt them at all. Everyone failed to notice how much more they were consuming as the days went by, but it didn't matter. As long as they were having fun, everything else was unimportant.

A girl that used to call me her best friend has almost forgotten about me as well. We used to chat all the time about anything and everything that popped into our heads, unafraid of being ourselves. We were young and carefree. She began to hang out with a different crowd a few years ago, however, a group that was into the drug, sex and alcohol scene, leaving me behind. The group attempted to get me to join their ranks at first, telling me that I needed to try the things that they did, that it was weird of me to not want to do something new, but I ignored them. It wasn't my wish to even risk becoming addicted to something I'd only abhor later.

The girl moved farther and farther away from me until we were almost completely separated. Her friends are now none other than the people she parties with, and they endlessly chat about the next big event. I only see her because we share a class at school and we have nothing in common any more, save for the fact that we both have boyfriends. Our ways of viewing what they are there for are far different from each other. I'm with mine for the long run, but her guy is there only for momentary fun. She tells me about him, her partying, and a little bit of the other things happening in her life sometimes. I pity her for what her life has become. Eventually her bad habits will catch up with her, and one can only guess at what will happen then.

 

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Dillon Jenkins
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Alcohol is rated among the highest killers in America whether it is driving under the influence, alcohol poisoning or other reasons. It causes cancer and can make you do things you may regret in the morning. For women it can cause Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) to the unborn fetus if they are pregnant. Fetal Alcohol Syndrome causes the newborn to have learning disabilities as well as physical abnormalities. For men it damages sperm and egg production, plus it decreases the level of testosterone in the body, which could lead to shrinkage in penis size.

In the brain, alcohol boosts neurotransmitters such as dopamine and serotonin, but when you stop they go back down. It also causes brain cells to swell up, causes depression and increases the risk of stroke dramatically. Alcohol effects your attention span, sleep, coordination and memory as well. Plus it causes cancers in the mouth, voice box, pharynx and esophagus. Alcohol is just like an anesthetic in such ways that it relaxes your arms and legs, but at the same time it reduces the body's ability to absorb calcium, which leads to weakening of the bones and diseases like osteoporosis. Chemicals called nitrosamines, that cause cancer in the mouth, voice box, pharynx and esophagus are found when you consume alcoholic beverages.

The liver has to deal with about 90% of the alcohol that enters the body. When the liver breaks it down, acetaldehyde is produced which is almost two-times as strong as the alcohol itself. If large amounts of alcohol are processed, regularly, it can lead to the scarring of the liver, damaging its ability to function and restricts the blood flow to cells. Many alcoholic beverages contain high doses of sugar, calories, and carbohydrates. In the digestive system this can lead to peptic ulcers, inflammation of the pancreas, and the small intestines ability to process nutrients and vitamins.

Moderate doses of red wine can aid in protecting against colds, heart disease and keep arteries unclogged, to reduce the risk of heart attacks. In the long run though, it weakens heart muscles and its ability to pump blood through-out the body. Believe it or not, drinking can also cause hepatitis, and one in ten drinkers will develop cirrhosis, and only a transplant is the cure.

A 12-oz can of beer, a 5-oz glass of wine, or a shot of whiskey are all considered one drink. Women will feel the effects of alcohol more than an average man, for multiple reasons. Women have less overall body water, regardless of their weight. They also have less dehydrogenates (a liver enzyme that breaks down alcohol) than men do. Plus women are at a greater risk of liver disease, damage to the pancreas, high blood pressure, and breast cancer. Being a woman has no affect on whether the drinker becomes an alcoholic or not. That has to do with heredity, actually males are at higher risks than women are for that disease.

Hangovers are the body's reaction to the withdrawal of alcohol from the body. They usually take from 8-12 hours from the last drink to kick in. To help prevent hangovers, try to eat a good meal and snack throughout the night, also don't plan any drinking games or take multiple shots. One thing not to do if you have a hangover is to drink more alcohol the next day, or have caffeine. What you do need to do is drink plenty of juices and water, and have healthy meals through out the day.

 

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Anonymous
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All the time we're told how bad alcohol is for you. We're made to believe that it's a terrible evil. I don't completely agree with this.

I completely agree with the fact that people shouldn't be drinking if they're underage. That law was made for a reason and it should be followed. I often hear stories of how drunk someone got when they were partying during the weekend. That is something that I think is pretty bad. I'm not a scientist or anything, but I do know that we are still developing. If you're giving your body alcohol, you could be messing with your development. I just think people should wait until they're twenty-one to drink. Not only is it legal, but you're fully developed, so you won't be messing that up.

I also think that with drinking there comes a great responsibility. People shouldn't be drinking to get drunk. It should just be a drink that they drink here and there. I don't understand why people feel a need to drink and drink and drink. Hangovers don't sound very fun, and plus it's dangerous. Alcohol isn't bad, it's just when someone abuses it that it turns harmful. It also turns harmful when someone does something that will endanger other's lives, such as driving under the influence. Someone who drinks alcohol needs to be responsible enough to not put anybody else's life in danger.

Overall I believe alcohol just needs to be treated with respect. It's not something that you should abuse, and you should wait until you're the legal age to drink it. As long as you're responsible about how you drink, then everything should be fine I guess.

 

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Rachael Murphy
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Well let's see, I can state the obvious and say that drinking alcohol is bad and you shouldn't do it...but we all already know that. So why do teens still drink even after they know it is bad for their health? Maybe it could be the reason every adult out there seems to think it is. We all know and love this one, peer pressure.

If you ask me peer pressure isn't there for most teens, a teen is more than likely to drink because their parents drink or used to drink. Peer pressure is an excuse for parents so they can blame it on their child's friends and not their parenting. So why do teens drink?

Well teens could drink because they want to, because they feel that it is suppose to relax them and make them have fun easier. But I was always told things aren't suppose to be easy, you can't learn when things are easy. That's why life will give you sometime when things are easy then give you sometimes when life is hard. Personally I come from a bunch of alcoholics, and I don't have a need to drink, I have friends who drink but they know that I won't because I know what it can do to you.

Alcohol can ruin your life. It can strip you of all your money and it can make you live in a box or under a bridge. I have worked all my life so I could just get out of the mobile home parks and go to school after high school, and one day have my own real house and salon (which is what I want to go to school for...to become a beautician). But if I was to start drinking now I'd probably be a full blown alcoholic by the middle of next year and I wouldn't be able to pay my bills or go to school anymore. So everything I would have worked so hard for all of my life would have gone down the drain with just a couple of drinks! I would have worked all those years and just thrown it away.

Yes, some teens realize that they probably aren't going to go very far in life and that's why they turn to alcohol and or drugs. But I think that if they had a friend to tell them that they didn't need to do that it was just going to ruin them more than help them they might actually do better. But that friend shouldn't be an adult especially when concerning a teenager. An adult would come off as someone just trying to push them around just like their parents. So, who should talk to the teens about alcohol? A teen should talk to a teen. But the teen would have to be able to relate and so you would run into complications but you would run into complications no matter what.

So teens and drinking is a problem but exactly how can you fix it? I don't know...maybe you can't. Or maybe we should look into reverse psychology! I know that if I am told to do something I have an urge to do the opposite. But I know that that isn't just a teen thing either.

Drinking is a problem but only when you aren't responsible. Like if you have one glass of wine at night and that is all the alcohol you have then you are being responsible. But if you go out weekends or even worse during the week, you have an issue and aren't being responsible with your drinking.

I don't know if I have written what you were wanting to hear or not, but I wrote from my heart. I wrote about alcohol and what it can lead to when you are irresponsible. I wrote about how to be responsible. I also wrote about how there are really teens out there that need help. I also gave some ideas on how to help them.

 

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Anonymous
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Alcohol is not a problem if drank responsibly, meaning you're old enough, drinking a reasonable amount, and not endangering anyone else. It becomes a problem when it is not drunk responsibly. So, why do so many people have a drinking problem? They're addicted. Under age drinking is the easiest way to get addicted. Peer pressure is one of the biggest reasons people start drinking.

Most people don't realize that alcohol is actually a poison that is consumed in such a small quantity that it doesn't kill you. When your body is still growing and adapting, it gets used to the alcohol much easier than an adult's body, which is done changing. Your body gets so used to it being there that alcohol actually becomes necessary for it to function properly. Your body is now in a Catch-22. It needs the alcohol, but the alcohol is poisoning it.

To solve the problem, people have to stop it before it starts. Teenagers are the only ones who can do that. No matter how hard adults try to stop them, they will always have access to alcohol. They need to understand what they're actually drinking. They need to be taught at an early age not to poison themselves with it. The phrase "just say no" isn't good enough because it doesn't address the problem. The pressure's still there to drink anyway and fit in. But, if they thought of it as the poison that it is, they wouldn't think it's so cool to drink. It would change the way people see alcohol. I know I wouldn't be willing to drink poison just to fit in. Anyone who tells you to isn't really your friend.

 

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Alexis Purvee
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"Just say no!" Was there ever a more stupid slogan in the history of mankind? I think not. If teenagers now days were to "just say no", we would have more pregnancies, more deaths due to drunk driving and binge drinking, more deaths due to drug use and abuse, and more gang violence than could be conceivable. No one can "just say no", it's not human nature. We are all curious, adventurous, and stubborn animals. We are constantly putting ourselves in danger, just to gain excitement, or that ever-popular abstract noun, "experience". I don't drink alcohol, but it's not because I "just said no", it's because I'm not stupid. I was educated about the harmful effects of using it, realized I had huge potential in my future, and decided to distance myself from any person or situation where alcohol would obviously be present.

I figure if the substance isn't available, it's even less likely that I'll try it. Yeah, sure, we are all tempted, that animal curiosity within us cries out, "but wouldn't it be fun? Don't you want to try new things?" That's just the difference between those people who care about their health and future, and those who do not. Those who care, like me, my family, and my friends, would never dream of just picking up a bottle and chugging away. That's not because of our parents hollered to blaze glory about not drinking, it's because we're just a little bit smarter than the average bear.

We all realized a long time ago that we wanted certain things in life. Most of which don't involve alcohol, and would in fact be severely curtailed if we were to regularly consume or abuse alcohol. Now I'm not against a grown adult, making a conscious, mature decision to enjoy a little something occasionally. Sure alcohol kills brain cells and liver tissues, but so do a lot of other things. No, to these responsible adults, who have fully developed organs, and a mature enough forebrain to be able to understand the consequences of their actions, I say right on; to each his own; and all good things in moderation.

To the teenagers and young adults who consume ridiculous amounts of this stuff, and have no guilt whatsoever about ruining their health and their relationships with the loving people around them, I say poop on you. Sure I could have gone to the extremes, cursed them all to Hades and so on, but when it comes right down to it, I don't care enough. Not about them anyway,. Now if I know them personally, sure, I would be concerned for their well-being. I would try to do what I could to let them know alcohol isn't cool, that it's harmful emotionally as well as physically. We have to be realistic as well. No one person can worry about all the people who use and abuse alcohol. That's why they come up with those tacky slogans. It's so you think they care, but in reality, they're just trying to cover their bases. No parents wants their child to drink, but if it's conveniently the kid next door, and that person has no effect on their kid, then the odds are that they say, "poor child, throwing their life away, if only the parents were more involved."

They wouldn't walk over there and start lecturing the kid, or referring them to rehabilitation, or calling the police when they know the kid is consuming alcohol. Oh no, better to let them deal with their own and repeat those tacky slogans and wave our little pity flags. Better to let the stupid ones kill themselves off and let the bright ones shine through the rubble. Better to let society fall to the demons of drugs, alcohol, and vice than to stand up and make an honest effort at keeping our children educated and healthy. Better to let me and my friends live out our dreams than remind us of our fallen companions that we left behind along the way. Then we remember that they didn't "just say no", and don't feel as bad.

 

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Anonymous
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"Wow that was a really funny commercial" I often say to myself during the commercial break of a sporting event on T.V. This is usually followed by the sudden urge to grab a beer but, I am stopped dead in my tracks. I realize that I am only 18 years old and beer doesn't really taste good anyways. The mass marketing ploy of laughter and jubilation, that many alcoholic companies employ as a tactic to get me to buy their product was almost successful. Years of a staunch law abiding upbringing has done its job, realizing my mistake I forget about it and continue rooting for my favorite team. Although I am often entertained by the comical beer commercials, I probably see seven to eight times on a regular day and more than twenty during a televised sporting event. I have never run to the store to buy myself a cold beer, but why not?

First and most important I don't want to go to jail or get caught up in the law. I can't imagine what a pain in the ass all the paperwork and classes the police would make you go to would be. This incident could follow me my entire life on my permanent records. Who knows what future doors will be closed because of my mistake. Is a beer worth ruining my future monetary excursions? I could possibly binge drink myself into a stupor for the rest of my life or even die from drinking vast quantities.

When I see beer commercials I simply laugh and forget about it. Knowing that I am constantly bombarded with advertisements for alcohol, I don't even pay attention. If I even did begin to think about it, I would have to think about repercussions. The repercussions alone are enough to keep me away from that stuff until I am at least 21.

 

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Brianna Rose
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When I received the assignment from my English teacher that we would have another essay to write, I groaned right alongside the majority of my classmates. Even thought this essay contest was offered as "required extra credit," most of us don't look forward to it in the least bit. We're antsy seniors in the beginning of spring that just want to relax and think about how mortifying yet enthralling our futures are going to be. So I'm not going to lie to you and say that I was full of desire to write this essay.

However, when I sat down to think about what I was going to write, I found that this is a topic I have quite a bit to say about. It is a topic that has affected my family, friends and acquaintances. When anything affects the ones I love, I'm going to have an opinion about it. I just have to dig deep enough to find the words to express my opinions. For a long while I was raised to hide behind a wall of silence when it came to topics of some sensitivity, and to just fit in with the people around me. As I grow older and am exposed to more and more opportunities to make weighty decisions that will affect myself, my future, and my loved ones, I find that my voice is beginning to break through that wall.

I won't base this essay on all the miserable tales of how my life was affected by others under the influence of alcohol. I won't base this essay on how alcohol affects my peers - everyone has already seen it for themselves or will soon enough, there's no way to prevent it, no matter how many anti-drug forces there are out there. Alcohol has become embedded into our culture, and people are going to take advantage of it. I won't base this essay on being a naysayer towards alcohol and to bring doom upon everyone that consumes it. I am simply basing this essay on my voice. I don't completely know what I'm going to say but you asked for a teen's voice, what do you expect; a perfectly orated masterpiece? I'm not writing this essay as a fugure college graduate or English professor. I'm writing as who I am; an empowered teenager.

I would first like to say that it's not just to assume that all teens in high school have consumed an alcoholic beverage before. Even on the essay prompt we were given, it appeared to be assumed that the teens this paper was given to would know what "alcopops" and "yager bombs" were. Personally, I have never touched alcohol, and I never will, and the only way I would find out what those things are would be by hearing it from a friend or looking it up on Google or something to that affect. There is such a thing as a teen that doesn't give into peer pressure, society and all those other excuses for why the youth of America is partially corrupt and in need of a helping hand.

I found out early on that I don't need alcohol, other drugs, or sex to live an exhilarating life. Believe it or not, there are some of us 'troublemakers' out there that don't make as much trouble as the latest statistics may say. I can only guess that the way I live my life is decent enough without alcohol; I have numerous friends that love me, I have a supportive dad, and I am well on my way to a bright future in college. Sure, my life isn't perfect, but I don't need to drown my sorrows in the nearest bottle or keg - and nobody else out there does either.

I have never had to give in to peer pressure, because my peers don't pressure me. I make my views and feelings known, and if they don't respect that, then I'm not going to be around them. I respect their wishes, and I expect the same. If they want to get wasted every weekend or even just once in a while, they'll get an earful of how I feel on the topic, but I won't forcefully stop them. I have a strong voice in my peer group, and if they don't like what they're hearing, my friends know they can walk away and I won't take offense, and I know I can walk away. We all make our own decisions and choices, and we will figure out the consequences or rewards of what we do soon enough.

So I suppose I haven't had a very clear and definite point through this essay...but like I said, I'm a teen. The majority of us aren't known for being perfectly clear and understood. My basic point is that we are who we choose to be, and we do what we choose to do. We all have the power to take control of our lives, and I do everything in my power to encourage the people around me to make healthy choices.

 

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Anonymous
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I have honestly not had that much personal experience with alcohol - my parents don't drink, and besides a few sips, I have never myself. My grandfather was a smoker and an alcoholic, and so my mother never started to drink. My dad used to drink, but after a particularly frightening experience with drunk driving, he stopped. He has maybe a six-pack and a half a year, my mom less than that. I know my brother and his wife do drink, but, to the best of my knowledge, not in excess since they had a son.

I've seen alcohol wreak havoc on many of my friends' families. Some have gotten help, some have just improved, others have sunk deeper. None of my close friends drink themselves, usually because they've seen what it does to their parents. Alcoholism is so prevalent in Curry County, and there isn't nearly enough done to deal with it - preventative measures aimed towards middle/high schoolers or their parents. There certainly isn't enough information out there about what a teen or younger child can do to help a parent with an alcohol problem or get themselves out of that situation if the parent isn't interested in helping themselves. I've watched too many of my friends grow up with parents who are under the influence of alcohol, who were verbally abusive or worse. There are anti-alcoholism programs in place, but I don't think they've been implemented very effectively.

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