The Hidden Epidemic of Adolescent Alcoholics
Mary Brennan downed her first vodka screwdriver at age 10. Her dad was at work and her mom hadn’t lived with the family since Mary was 5. She found her older brother, an eighth-grader, drinking in his room with some friends, and someone offered her a drink. By age 12, Mary was drinking most weekends, sometimes blacking out. At 14, she was drinking every day with friends, getting the booze from the oldest of her three brothers or from kids whose parents looked the other way.
“I got to be an expert at acting sober in front of my father,” says Mary, now 18. “And I made sure I didn’t let him smell the alcohol on my breath.” By 15, she was taking vodka to school in Gatorade bottles. “I couldn’t go to class without being drunk,” she said. “I have no idea how I did any schoolwork, but I got decent grades. I was always amazed that the teachers didn't know I was drunk."
During the fall of her sophomore year, Mary drank an entire bottle of vodka and smoked marijuana. After blacking out, she woke up two hours later and felt horribly ill, but no one would call for help because they were afraid of being arrested. She later learned she had suffered from alcohol poisoning. The next day, she was back to drinking.
Mary’s story, chronicled on GoodHousekeeping.com, highlights the hidden epidemic of underage drinkers. The number of underage drinkers has remained steady since the early 1990s—about 20 percent of eighth graders and 58 percent of 12th graders report having been drunk at least once in their lives. And some studies show that kids are starting much earlier than that.
According to Susan Foster, director of policy research for the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University (CASA), a third of kids ages 12 to 17 had their first drink before 13. “That’s about 6.4 million kids, many more than there have been historically. Very young drinkers are a huge concern,” she said.
Although there haven’t been any large, nationally represented studies that specifically track drinking before age 12, a national survey conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan shows that a significant number of 13-year-old drinkers reported starting at age 11. Another study, sponsored by the Partnership for a Drug-Free America, says that nearly 10 percent of 9-year-old boys have had more than a sip of liquor, suggesting that about 427,000 9-year-olds have tried alcohol.
Kids who start drinking before age 15 are four times more likely to have problems with alcohol abuse later in life than those who start at 21, according to a survey by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Young drinkers are also setting themselves up for abuse of different drugs, possible impairment of developing brain areas, accidents, suicide, and homicide. They’re more likely to be a victim of a crime, have unprotected sex, contract STDs, and get pregnant. In addition, they are four times more likely to be involved in car crashes than kids who don’t drink.
Many kids get liquor through older friends or siblings, and others live in households where alcohol isn’t considered dangerous. In two nationwide surveys sponsored by the American Medical Association, two-thirds of underage drinkers said it was easy to get alcohol at home without their parents finding out, and one-third said they could get it easily with their parents’ knowledge.
Signs that your child may be drinking include making a new friend who makes you uneasy or a new friend you’ve never met; adopting a “nothing matters” attitude; withdrawing emotionally and becoming depressed, anxious, or secretive; having trouble at school; and hiding bottles or cans in a backpack or closet. The most obvious tip-off is smelling alcohol on his or her breath or in a soda can or sports drink bottle.
Many kids who abuse alcohol don’t get effective treatment or any treatment at all. The NIAAA reports that of the 3.7 million kids ages 12 to 17 who abused alcohol (and/or received some treatment for it) in 2004, only 232,000, or less than one-tenth, were treated in a specialty facility.
Carol Loveland-Cherry, Ph.D., a professor at the University of Michigan School of Nursing who has studied alcohol use among young school-age children, says that treating teen and preteen drinking “requires work at multiple levels—with the adolescent, the school, the family, and the community."
This kind of "whole-person" approach is labor-intensive, and thus often expensive. For example, residential programs—often the most effective treatment for teen drinkers who didn’t succeed with outpatient programs—involve a regimented daily schedule: breakfast, school, lunch, art classes or recreational therapy, individual therapy sessions, chores, dinner, and a 12-step meeting that can last up to two hours. Such programs often aren't covered by insurance, but they are invaluable in saving lives.
Mary told her father she thought she needed help after her frightening bought with alcohol poisoning, but she says she thinks he was in denial. "He said, 'You're only 15. There's no way that it's already out of hand. It can't be that bad.'" He sent her to an outpatient treatment center in their town, but Mary recalls it being hard to take the program seriously, as many kids there were lying about their drinking and wanting to quit. For two years after her unsuccessful time at rehab, Mary continued to drink while her father and counselors thought she was in recovery.
When she was 17, Mary again asked her father for help. This time, he flew with her to California, where she entered a residential treatment program with only five other teens. She found enough peace and individual counseling to begin working through the pain and rage she felt when her mother left their family, and formed a relationship with her dad. “Every day I get up and make a conscious decision not to drink,” she said.
