If you want to know does peer pressure lead to alcohol abuse, this article is a must read for you. There are a lot of ways in which peer pressure can affect you. More interesting facts in the information are stated below!
Nowadays, children have started drinking every early than they usually would. Frequent drinking at a friends’ and overnight rave parties have confused and worried parents beyond their own imagination. For the children, this is a very normal concept. So What? Everyone does it! is the patent answer. However, is this justified? Doing something wrong just because everyone else does it, is not only wrong but plainly stupid.
This answer has however lead one conclusion to light. Peer pressure does play a major role in getting children addicted to various habits. The effects of peer pressure are too complex to understand, aren’t they? Let’s find out! Before that, let’s just know exactly what the terms ‘peer pressure’ and ‘alcohol abuse’ mean.
Peer Pressure
Peer pressure is when a group of peers pressurize you to behave and/or think in a certain manner by influencing you. This pressure may lead to a certain degree of change in you, specially in your values and in your attitude. Your peers are the members of the groups you belong to in school or in other social circles. In schools and colleges, you aren’t mature enough to handle this pressure in the right way, so it may lead to some wrong values being inculcated in you.
Many people think that peer pressure affects individuals in the wrong way, but that isn’t the case. Sometimes, peer pressure works in changing a person for the good. For example, if 2-3 peers of the group are good with their grades or in some art form, they influence the others in the group too.
Alcohol Abuse
According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders – IV, alcohol abuse is a psychiatric diagnosis. When an individual indulges in alcohol abuse, he knows the consequences it is going to have on his health, but he can’t stop himself from drinking more. Alcohol abuse can be drinking in spite of knowing how you are going to be affected. Most of us have heard of binge drinking.
This is again, another form of alcohol abuse. Binge drinking every now and then, getting severely drunk in spite of knowing the consequences, drinking a lot without any occasion as such are all relevant to alcohol abuse. Alcohol abuse can also be termed as alcoholism, in this article only. Otherwise, alcoholism is not a very specific term. Now that we know these terms, let’s understand what peer pressure can lead you to do.
Is Alcohol Abuse a Result of Peer Pressure?
- A lot of children start drinking in school only because they find it cool to do so. They know that alcohol isn’t really good for them in large quantities, but getting sloshed is something you ‘must’ experience.
- Similarly, most people who indulge in alcohol abuse have started drinking at a younger age. This shows us that if not alcohol abuse, the consumption of alcohol sure begins at an earlier age and again, due to peer pressure.
- If the peers in your group offer you a drink and you say NO, you look stupid, right? Like a loser who hasn’t got the guts to try something new. Children who don’t behave in a manner that seems acceptable to the group they belong to, often face harassment and ragging later on.
- Sometimes, peer pressure also tells you that drinking is an escape route. This means that whenever you have a problem in your personal life, you can drink to get rid of it. Once you start drinking so casually and so frequently, you get addicted in no time.
- Movies and television shows in general, portray addictions like smoking and drinking as very cool and glamorous. Since these two attributes increase your popularity in school, children pick them up immediately.
- Even in the elders, a person who doesn’t drink at a party isn’t really welcome. These people are teased and ridiculed many times, specially the men. Only a few can handle this pressure properly and ignore it. The rest, give in and start drinking themselves. The intensity of this pressure increases when in a married couple, the wife drinks and the husband doesn’t. The husband then, as a revolt or to give company, might start drinking more than necessary.
- Some people do not have the capacity to drink a lot and throw up in just a few bottles or pegs. These people are ridiculed by the other peers, who can drink a lot. The ridiculed then starts drinking more and more, only to show that they have the capacity to drink more as well. This leads to alcohol abuse.
- Some people also think that ‘it’s okay’ to behave in a particular manner if you are drunk. It is alright to say a few things and have a particular conduct after you are drunk. This psychological thinking leads to alcohol abuse.
We no longer have to wonder if peer pressure leads to alcohol abuse, as after reading the above information, it is safe to say that it does. Peer pressure works in a very different way. It can change a person completely, for the good or for the bad, depends solely on the person and the circumstance. It is very important that parents counsel their children to handle peer pressure and not let it affect them in being who they are!
