When I was a sophomore in high school, I took a drug abuse class. At that age, I did not understand that alcohol abuse in reality 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 all over the world. I also learned quite a bit about alcohol treatment and the diverse alcohol rehab centers that are typically 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 undeniably alarmed me. The ruined lives and numerous problems experienced by most alcoholics made me feel like I never wanted to drink alcohol when I became old enough. More to the point, I did not want to face the disaster and destruction that alcohol dependent individuals almost always encounter.

Let this sink in for a moment. What fifteen-year-old individual wants to face premature death due to his or her drinking behavior? What adolescent wants to become so out-of-control regarding his or her drinking that ingesting alcohol becomes the object of one’s life? What young person wants to go to one of the local alcoholic rehabilitation centers to deal with alcohol-related issues before he or she becomes an adult?

What young person wants to encounter alcohol withdrawal symptoms 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 a person has a career, a family, and develops personal responsibilities makes sense. But why would an adolescent want to sacrifice his or her education, employment, finances, and relationships for a life that revolves around excessive drinking?

These issues were so important that I talked about some of them in class throughout the school year. What was entirely inconceivable to me was the number of students who simply didn’t care about the damaging results of excessive drinking that I talked about. It was almost as if they couldn’t be bothered with reality and how these outcomes can ruin their lives. For the first time in my life I started to appreciate something that my grandfather used to tell me all through my teen and pre-teen years: you can lead a horse to water but you can’t force it to drink.

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