Beer, Wine, Coolers, Spirits: By Any Name They’re a Brain Drain

Pathway to Poor Grades

Alcohol can negatively affect your son’s learning process. Using alcohol during his teen years damages the part of his brain that is responsible for memory, learning, ability, decisionmaking, and reasoning .

Depressing Truth

In addition to learning, alcohol affects the part of your daughter’s brain that causes social problems, depression, and suicidal thoughts. For example, if she begins using alcohol before the age of 13, she is more likely to think about and attempt suicide than her friends who do not use alcohol⁸. All teens experience normal behavioral changes. Some changes may indicate your child is using alcohol. The most common changes include loss of positive friendships with peers and family, as well as consistently arguing and breaking rules.

Trail to Truancy

Alcohol use often leads to violence and other delinquent behaviors.

Alley to Addiction

Alcohol, at least in small quantities, often acts on the part of the brain that makes your daughter feel good and less nervous. This may make her more likely to drink again when she wants to avoid feeling nervous. When alcohol leaves her body, it can cause feelings of stress that can be lessened by drinking more alcohol. This roller coaster of effects caused by alcohol use and withdrawal can contribute to your daughter continuing to drink, even when she knows that it is not good for her . The same amount of alcohol can affect females faster than males. That is, if your daughter uses alcohol in her early teens, she is at greater risk of alcohol dependence at some point in her life. She is also at risk of becoming dependent more quickly and at a younger age.

Green Light

• Help him learn ways to refuse alcohol if it is offered.
• Make rules about alcohol use and enforce the consequences of breaking them.
• Monitor his friends and meet their families.

Helping your child to protect his brain from alcohol is one of the most important ways you can help him live a healthy, happy life. Be sure he knows how important it is to you—and to him—that he does not use alcohol.

Factoid

Alcohol use interacts with conditions such as depression and stress to contribute to suicide, the third leading cause of death among people between the ages of 14 and 25. In one study, 37 percent of eighth-grade females who drank heavily reported attempting suicide .