A heated debate currently rages about the real dangers of alcohol. The idea of NEVER tasting alcohol may sound like a strange precaution. Hollywood and pop culture ignore the wisdom of abstinence and constantly portray heavy drinking lifestyles as normal. However, there are many thousands of individuals whose lives have been DAMAGED by alcohol who would whole-heartedly advise teens, “Please don’t ever touch the stuff!” Here are some good arguments for avoiding alcohol.
1. Consuming alcohol is unpredictably addictive.
If you will avoid EVER tasting a drop of alcohol, I can personally guarantee you will never become an alcoholic. In contrast, if you do try a taste, there is no way to predict how your mind and body will react to the drink. Alcohol works chemically to increase dopamine in the brain’s reward system; that means almost every drinker will experience a mood elevation and also feel a twinge of desire to repeat the experience. Some drinkers aren’t aware how prone they are to addictions, and that twinge of desire builds to leave them hooked. It is usually very difficult to break a drinking habit. Please guarantee for yourself an addiction-free life — don’t taste alcohol!
2. The intake of alcohol ALWAYS affects your reasoning and decision-making skills. If you’re a ‘rookie’ drinker, understand that light and moderate drinkers will start feeling an effect after just ONE drink. The alcohol effect is usually described as a feeling of relaxation, but this is closely tied to a lapse of good judgment; so a drinker should NOT trust his relaxed senses to accurately determine important things, like his ability to drive. Keep all your senses “sober” — don’t taste alcohol!
3. Bad decisions (made under the influence of alcohol) leave behind much waste and many regrets. Unplanned pregnancies, violent outbursts, missed career opportunities, academic failures, and moral dilemmas can all follow situations where someone chose to drink. Lifetime drinkers usually have more than one sad story to tell of situations they ruined because of the influence of alcohol. Avoid the heartache — don’t taste alcohol!
4. Younger kids are really watching you and being influenced by your choices. If you say, “Don’t worry, I’ll just drink moderately and I will NEVER become an alcoholic”, you still cannot guarantee that a younger sibling or a cousin or someone else you influence won’t follow in your footsteps, only to find themselves with less willpower. Would you want to be the person who encouraged an alcoholic to try their first drink? How many parents have said they will drink a little… only to find their children one day drinking a LOT. Teach by example and avoid the guilt of being a bad influence — don’t taste alcohol!
5. Alcohol abstinence is a golden opportunity for you to orchestrate real positive change. Young people dream of finding a cause, one where they at a young age can TRULY make a difference. Why not take a stand against alcohol? Alcohol is a plague in America; this is the MOST widely consumed substance of abuse in the United States. Alcohol is a huge problem, and almost no one speaks against it! Think about it — have you seen anyone at your school with the guts to fight alcohol; what about anyone willing to speak about it to your youth group? In most places there are not even many adult voices speaking against alcohol, but what this conversation REALLY needs is more youthful voices. Teens speaking with passion against alcohol would get more airtime and be more convincing to other teens than any adult’s lecture. When you become a vocal abstainer, people will begin to consider there is a real alternative to drinking. Adults will take notice and listen and realize that young people are calling them to action. Seize the moment to really make a change– don’t taste alcohol and speak against it!