Evaluate the impact of binge drinking and the development of alcoholism in young people?

Binge drinking is having a massive impact on many young people’s lives, not only affecting them during their younger years but also when they grow older. Alcoholism is a serious issue amongst people especially adolescents as they are still developing and the human body can be affected in main different ways. This report will be looking at why young people decide to binge drink and the consequences it has on them during and after being under the influence of a lot of alcohol. There are a variety of different reasons why young people decide to binge drink, including the influence of close friends and family. Lots of young people don’t realise that  binge drinking doesn’t only impact them but also can have a strain on the health services during their adolescent years and later life. 
For many years adolescents binge drinking has been increasingly high however over the past 15 years the research suggests that the percentage of 15 year olds who drink once a week has significantly dropped. According to ( NHS digital 2017) in 2000 the percentage of 15 year olds drinking was 48% compared to 18% in 2014. Even though this data shows a decrease in teenage drinking other sources suggest that countries in the UK especially Wales are one of the highest for binge drinking throughout Europe. The telegraph data, from ( The world health organization, 2018) shows that 33.6% of teenage girls in Wales binge drink.
There are a number of reasons as to why adolescents binge drinking is still an issue in the UK. There are a large number of websites who deal with the issues of teenagers drinking, including ( partnership for drugs-free kids, 2017) they suggest that the main reasons are, friends and family, to help escape real life, get rid of problems, lack of confidence and rebellion. Are teenagers being educated enough to realise that binge drinking isn’t going to help make all their problems disappear in actual fact binge drinking can develop all these problems.
Drinking alcohol is seen as a social activity which many teenagers participate in regularly however for some, these binge drinking sessions can have a detrimental effect on their lives. Consuming alcohol can cause many accidents and extreme cases can cause fatalities. Worrying statistics from ( Local Alcohol Profiles for England, 2017) states that hospital admissions for young people under 18 under the influence of alcohol was 11,987 from 2014 to 2017. In addition to that a study by (Moores. J, 2013) shows that for 16-24 year olds, 21% of deaths in males and 9% of deaths in females have been attributed to alcohol consumption. 
The impact of binge drinking for adolescents can have both a mental and physical effect on their lives. Lots of teenagers don’t think about the effects it can have on their body while they are drinking both short and long term. Downshen, S.(2016) suggests that there are roughly 150 calories in an alcoholic drink, which is a lot of calories consumed in one go. Meaning that teenagers are increasing the chance of becoming obese and having high blood pressure at a young age. Furthermore binge drinking can lead to more serious problems for teenagers such as liver damage. According to Hopf. F ( 2017) you don’t need to excessively drink alcohol for years to have liver damage, this can happen over a short period of time with not a huge amount of alcohol being drunk, so you can imagine the effect of binge drinking is having on young people whose bodies are not fully developed. As a person's brain is not fully developed until around the age of 25, binge drinking can affect the functions of the brain. (Tapert.S, 2018) suggests that alcohol consumption during adolescence when the brain is in it developmental period may have profound effects on the brain structure and functions. Heavy drinking has been shown to affect brain performances such as memory function and impaired growth. Young persons school or university studies could be seriously affected and impair greatly on their future. 
Alongside the physical impact binge drinking has on young people, there is also a serious impact on young people's mental health. Before bringing alcohol into the equation, ( NHS digital, 2017) stated that 1 in 8 younger people have at least 1 mental health disorder which include anxiety and depression. As previously stated young people believe that binge drinking alcohol will help relieve their problems and troubles however research from ( Royal College of Psychiatrists, 2016 ) suggests that alcohol is a depressant which means it can disrupt that balance, affecting our thoughts, feelings and actions and some time our long term mental health. Alcohol can be linked to depression, anger and anxiety. Unfortunately depression and anger could become a long term issue for many young people in the future. 
Looking at this report it is clear that teenagers are beginning to drink at an early age. The question is, is enough being done to make teenagers aware of the impact of binge drinking at an early age. Educating teenagers and parents at an early age could be very beneficial. ( NHS Digital, 2019) states that young pupils who live with adults who drink alcohol are more likely to drink alcohol themselves, also that the parents are more likely to buy them alcohol if they drink alcohol themselves. Parents and teenagers need to look to the future and realise the long term effect it can have on them. 





References - 

Donnelly, L. ( 2018) ‘British teenage girls among the heaviest drinkers in Europe’, The Telegraph, 26th september. Available at : https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/09/26/british-teenage-girls-among-heaviest-drinkers-europe-have/

Downshen , S. ( 2016) ‘Binge Drinking’, Teenshealth. Available at : https://kidshealth.org/en/teens/binge-drink.html last reviewed ( september 2016) 

Hopf. PHD,F. (2017) ‘Binge drinking may quickly lead to liver damage’ ,UCSF. Available at: 
https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2017/01/405561/binge-drinking-may-quickly-lead-liver-damage
Local Alcohol Profile for England, (2017) ‘ facts and figures’ alcohol education trust. Available at:
https://alcoholeducationtrust.org/teacher-area/facts-figures/

Moores. J ( 2013) ‘facts and figures’, alcohol education trust. Available at: https://alcoholeducationtrust.org/teacher-area/facts-figures/

NHS digital. ( 2017) ‘Underage drinking in the UK’, Drinkaware. Available at : https://www.drinkaware.co.uk/research/data/uk-underage-consumption/ 

NHS digital ( 2017) ‘ how many children have mental health problems’, mental health. Available at : https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/blog/what-new-statistics-show-about-childrens-mental-health - reviewed 28th november. 

NHS digital ( 2019) ‘ smoking, Drinking and Drug Use among Young People in England’ available at : https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/smoking-drinking-and-drug-use-among-young-people-in-england/2018/part-7-young-people-and-alcohol-the-context 

Tapert. F ph.D, Caldwell. L, Burke C. ( 2018) ‘Alcohol and the adolescent brain’, National Institute on Alcohol abuse and alcoholism. Available at: https://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/arh284/205-212.htm

The Partnership. ( 2017) ‘Top 8 reasons why teens try alcohol and drugs’. Available at:
https://drugfree.org/parent-blog/top-8-reasons-teens-try-alcohol-drugs/

The royal college of psychiatrists ( 2016) ‘ alcohol alters your brain chemistry’ alcohol and mental health. Available at https://www.drinkaware.co.uk/alcohol-facts/health-effects-of-alcohol/mental-health/alcohol-and-mental-health/