In our adulthood, we are expected to maintain a certain level of decorum and willpower when it comes to alcohol consumption, but the glaring facts show that we don't always do. What's more is that we often let our drunkenness spill over in the home in front of our children, who are yearning for adult examples of how to behave and react. This isn't a good precedent to set in the least and the fact remains that we are seeing the evidence of this poor influence in our pre-adolescents and teens today. Our kids have been looking on and absorbing the messages we send to them personally as well as the messages that are being transmitted to them through pop culture media. It would seem that drinking and getting drunk are glorified as rites of passage and as coping mechanisms and our children have been lapping up these messages for some time.
Parents are also in staunch denial about what age their children start experimenting with alcohol. While some feel it happens in their mid or late teens that truth is kids are now experimenting in their early teens, by the age of twelve. There have been reports of children reaching full blown alcoholism by the age of thirteen. These facts are both startling and upsetting and they are the reason that so many rehabilitation programs are now catered too or developed around the special needs of young alcoholics. One of the most beneficial developments in treating alcoholism in children and young adults is the establishment of
residential treatment centers.
