While adolescents love to oppose the rules, they on the other hand, in their own way, seek them and need them because they are structures that provide them with a sense of security.
All the evidence tries to show that families in which there are clear rules about drinking (or the consequences of violating these rules) take away children who have a healthy attitude towards alcohol. Since the first outings begin in this age group and the influence of peers is growing, here are some guidelines that can help you talk to your teenager:
Attitude you have towards alcohol.
You know your child well, so consider his possible reactions and be prepared to be able to react appropriately. Be prepared for questions that your child might ask you, for example when did you start drinking alcohol?
Did you get drunk?….
Be honest with your answers. If you have occasionally drunk too much, indicate the consequences this has had. However, if you do not consume alcohol, instruct them how you managed to resist peer pressure, the one that motivated and helped you in this.
Ask your teenager what he knows about alcohol and what he thinks about why young people drink so much today. Listen carefully and don’t interrupt him because the boy will then feel accepted.
- His thoughts on alcoholism will give you a good introduction, which will show you in which direction to lead the conversation.
- Check your emotions if you hear things you don’t like. But indulge in the emotions and address them constructively.
- Give a couple of short and clear facts about the harmfulness of alcohol and the consequences of early drinking.
- Determine together the reasons why drinking is harmful (for example, decline in academic performance, poorer achievement in sports - if the child is active in any sport and the like).
Talk about how the boy can refuse alcoholic beverages in his company without feeling disadvantaged.
We continue to talk about alcohol abuse, a phenomenon present in our society and very often underestimated. Maurizio Tommasini, head of the Operational Unit of General Medicine and Hepatology of Humanitas explains to us what alcohol abuse and actual alcoholism are and what the different classes of drinkers are.
What is alcohol abuse: the “harmless” dose
“It is not easy to define alcohol abuse - explains Dr. Maurizio Tommasini - as the variables to be taken into consideration are many and the categories that can be identified are necessarily general, since for each individual there is a “harmless” dose of alcohol.
- Alcohol is disposed of by the body according to mechanisms influenced by different variables.
- Apart from sick people, subjected to drug therapies and falling into sub-categories that require a personalized approach and for whom alcohol intake is even more critical, healthy people must first of all be distinguished between men and women.
- In fact, there are different genetic characteristics in the metabolism of alcohol by the liver. In principle, women, for the same weight, have a 50% lower ability to metabolize alcohol than men, so the “harmless” dose for women is half that of men.