Alcohol Paper Essay Example

Growing up in a society where alcohol has such a strong influence on judgments is a very hard task to overcome by teens. The effects of using alcohol underage are many, and none of them that I have found have been good. I have seen firsthand the consequences of the use and abuse of alcohol by minors. Throughout high school, and even before, my family has been one where alcohol is prevalent. Because my older siblings, parents, and even friends were drinking, it made the ability to say no to it even harder for me. I constantly found myself drinking at parties; not because I necessarily liked it, but because everyone else was doing it. It was until now that I truly realized how it can affect your life: physically and mentally. I find myself here today after being arrested for alcohol offenses twice and learning what alcohol can do to me before the age of twenty-one, truly regretting my choices. Though the legal drinking age is twenty-one in the United States, the National Center of Addiction and Substance Abuse has found that almost 80% of high school students have tried alcohol. Although drinking is merely a decision; I have found that much more thought should be put into that choice before you decide to do it. First, you must think about the effects on the body that alcohol has. Because alcohol is a depressant, it slows down the central nervous system. That means that it can actually inhibit certain messages that are trying to get to a person’s brain. Things that are altered by this are a person’s perceptions, emotions, movement, vision, and hearing. Experts know that a person’s brain continues to develop well into their teen years, which is why twenty-one if the legal age to consume alcohol. The exposure of alcohol to a still developing brain could potentially have long-lasting effects on intellectual capabilities and may also increase the risk of becoming addicted. Each year the start of drinking is delayed, the dependence to it is decreased by as much as 14%.