Alcohol is a drug found in all alcoholic drinks like beer, wine and spirits such as vodka and whiskey. Alcohol slows down various sections of the brain and the central nervous system.
This affects your ability to control your behavior and your bodily functions, like thinking, talking, walking and even breathing. Alcohol is also described as a psychoactive drug. This means a drug that affects the mind or mental processes.
While some drinks have more alcohol than others, the type of alcohol in all alcoholic drinks is the same – it’s a type of alcohol called Ethanol. Alcohol is a colourless, odourless and inflammable fluid.
The brain is still developing throughout your teenage years & alcohol is linked to toxic damage in the brain.
Teenage drinking can result in significant changes in certain parts of the brain & the regions most affected are responsible for learning, memory & decision making.
The earlier a young person starts drinking, the greater their risk of becoming dependent on alcohol.
A person is 4x more likely to become dependent on alcohol if they start drinking before the age of 15 as opposed to those who wait until the legal drinking age.
Alcohol use can harm young persons mental health. Rates of depression and anxiety in young people are significantly higher when they are drinking to harmful or dependent levels. Drinking alcohol can cause young people to make poor decisions or lead them into harmful situations including:
There is no safe level of drug use. Use of any drug always carries risk.
The effects of using Alcohol with other drugs including over-the-counter or prescribed medications can be unpredictable and dangerous.