Alcohol Abuse

Facts about alcohol:

• Each year, students spend $5.5 billion on alcohol... more than they spend on soft drinks, tea, milk, juice, & coffee combined.

• 8 teenagers a day die in alcohol related car crashes.

• Every day (on average) 11,318 Americans ages 12-20 try alcohol for the first time.

• 3 out of every 4 students have consumed alcohol by the end of high school.

• Teens that drink are 50 times more likely to use cocaine than teens who never used alcohol.

• Alcohol kills 6 1/2 times more teenagers than all other illicit drugs combined.

A True Story About What Can Happen:

Rob says drinking has been part of every bad thing that has ever happened to him. Here is his story.

    I was very shy socially & drinking would ease that. I was hooked from the get go. I made a lot of new friends. I drank and drove hundreds of times. Nothing has never happened. It seems like it always catches up to you though. I am now 26 years old luckily. I have been arrested twice for DUI. I went through 26 weeks of alcohol classes. Finally my probation was over- I felt free again.

    Of course, I learned nothing. I went to a bar with a friend. Had a million beers. Didn't think twice about getting in his car to go home. Later that morning I woke up with a broken femur, a broken eye socket. I had no feeling in the left side of my face. Later I learned that the feeling would never come back. The dashboard had gone through my leg, pinning me until the paramedics arrived. I also woke up to find that 12 feet of rope had been placed in my nose, because my sinus cavity was crushed. My jaw was sutured shut. Basically, I was drinking one moment and the next I was laying in bed not being able to see, not able to breathe. My mouth was shut, and my sinus cavity was broken so I was breathing out of one nostril. I couldn't move because I had a major break in my leg.

    How one moment can change your life is amazing. This was two years ago. I'm still going to physical therapy. Oh how I wish I could take that day back. All my drinking buddies, they're gone now. They weren't  "professionals" like me. I was the one at the parties trying to get everyone drunk. My friend alcohol really made me pay my dues. Thank God i never hurt anyone else. Well, physically anyway. Mentally I have done my damage.

    Consequences of Alcohol Abuse:

This is what can happen if a mother drinks when she's pregnant	Accidents are more likely to occur when you drink and drive
If you drink you can develop a disease called cirrhosis which makes your liver look like this	If you drink and drive you can hurt others. This girl was hit by a drunk driver