What are the effects?

Alcohol use among teenagers can have serious effects on their physical and mental health. These include:

Hangover: When teenagers are ‘hungover’ they are experiencing a type of alcohol poisoning. They become dehydrated and as a result, feel sick, have headaches and become irritable.

Poor school performance: Teenagers who use alcohol may remember less of what they have learned. This has knock-on effects at school, especially around exam time. Alcohol use can be the result and cause of difficulties at school. It can also hinder the development of other skills, such as decision-making, personal and social skills.

Anti-social behaviour and mental health: Heavy drinking and binge drinking are linked to anti-social behaviour, mental health problems and permanent brain damage.

Drinking, smoking and taking drugs: Teenagers who drink and smoke are more likely to take drugs.

Premature death: The main causes of death among 16 to 25 year olds are accidents, suicide and violence. Alcohol is often involved in these cases.

Unsafe sex: There is a definite link between drinking alcohol before sex and not using contraception. This can lead to crisis pregnancy and an increased risk of getting a sexually transmitted infection (STI).

If a teenager drinks before they are 15 they are:

• four times more likely to develop alcohol dependency than those who wait until they are 21;
• seven times more likely to be in a car crash because of drinking; and
• 11 times more likely to suffer unintentional injuries after drinking.

Heavy use of alcohol during teenage years can impair brain development and cause loss of memory and other skills.

Fact or Myth

Alcohol problems are mostly caused by 'alcoholics'.

Myth: Immediate problems like motor accidents, violent assaults and accidental injury are mostly caused by moderate drinkers who occasionally overdo it.

Drinking coffee sobers you up?

Myth: Your liver is like a car with one gear. It can only work at one speed. So there is only one cure for drunkenness - time. Drinking coffee will make you wide awake and drunk. Taking a cold shower will make you cold, wet and drunk.

A 'blackout' is when you pass out from drink?

Myth: It's a type of memory loss. Your friends can recite what you did, but you can't. It is an early warning sign to cut down.

It is not safe to drink when you're pregnant?

Fact: The alcohol enters your baby's bloodstream, therefore the safest thing for your baby is not to drink at all. Regular heavy drinking can cause foetal alcohol syndrome, which causes serious developmental problems for your baby's development.

Women can't 'hold' their drink as well as men?

Fact: Men have more bodily fluids than women, so alcohol is more diluted in their systems. This goes even for women and men of the same height and build.

Alcohol causes as much damage to society as heroin?

Myth: Alcohol causes much more damage than heroin and all the other illegal drugs put together. It is a factor in 88% of public order offences, 34% of marital breakdowns and 33% of fatal road accidents.

There's nothing to do around here except drink?

Myth: Drinking is a big feature of Irish social life, but is not the only pastime. Take a minute to think of three non-drinking things you could do. It's just a matter of looking at things differently.

Fact Myth

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