My High School Substance Abuse Class
When I was a sophomore in high school, I registered for a drug abuse class. At that age, I did not comprehend that alcohol abuse in truth was a sub division of drug abuse. While taking this class and learning more about drug and alcohol abuse, I read a lot about Alcoholic Anonymous, their meetings, how their programs have twelve steps, and how successful the Alcoholics Anonymous recovery program has been for people throughout the world. I also learned quite a bit about alcohol rehabilitation and the different alcohol rehab facilities that are commonly available to people who engage in abusive drinking.
Some of the detrimental consequences related to alcoholism and alcohol abuse that I learned about in this class definitely terrified me. The ruined lives and abundant difficulties experienced by most alcohol addicted people made me feel like I never wanted to drink alcohol when I became old enough. In a word, I did not want to face the disaster and ruination that alcohol addicted individuals almost always encounter.
Reflect on this for a moment. What fifteen-year-old person wants to face premature death due to his or her drinking behavior? What young person wants to become so out-of-control regarding his or her drinking that drinking alcohol becomes the object of one’s life? What adolescent wants to go to one of the local alcoholic rehabilitation centers to deal with alcohol-related difficulties before he or she becomes an adult?
What adolescent wants to experience alcohol withdrawals when he or she tries to stop drinking? Why would a person engage in drinking to such an extent that it would cause serious issues in every area of his or her life? Drinking later in life after an individual has a career, a family, and develops personal responsibilities makes sense. But why would a young person want to sacrifice his or her education, employment, finances, and relationships for a life that focuses on abusive drinking?
These issues were so significant that I talked about some of them in class throughout the school year. What was totally unbelievable to me was the number of students who essentially didn’t care about the harmful consequences of irresponsible drinking that I talked about. It was almost as if they couldn’t care less about the truth and how these results can wreck their lives. For the first time in my life I started to comprehend something that my grandfather used to tell me throughout my youth: you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink.