Dealing with Teenagers about their Alcohol Abuse Issues

You, as a parent, have a difficult time dealing with your teenager about his alcohol abuse issues. Underage kids drinking alcoholic beverages are a serious health issue across the USA today. This creates problems within the immediate community of the teen and for the teen's whole family.

It is often tricky to figure out when your teen's drinking have turn into a serious issue and that you need to step in to find a solution to this problem. You need to confront him or her immediately upon discovering this problem to prevent him or her from forming bad habits that will haunt him or her later in life. This also is the way to help him or her have a happy, safe adolescence.

Risks that are Associated with Teen Drinking

The CDC performed a study back in 2011 that concluded that at least 39% of teenagers drank some type of alcoholic beverages within 30 days of the study. Consuming alcohol in a safe, controlled, and supervised situation is not a problem. It is the consumption of it turns to abuse that is the issue. As many as 22% of teenagers surveyed participated in binge drinking at least one time during the study period. This figure is serious because the teens are under 21 years of age. Binge drinking and abusing alcohol could cause the teen serious problems including the following:

•     Possible mental problems including depression
•     Withdrawing from personal relationships in and out of school
•     Lower grades and performance in school
•     Little or no motivation
•     Inadequate decision-making skills when drinking often lead to dangerous activities such as   driving while drunk, committing crimes, or riding with a drunk driver
•     Brain developmental, thinking, and memory problems
•     Experimenting with alcohol could lead to using illegal drugs
•     Risk of suicidal tendencies

Confronting Your Teen

Confronting your teenager is never easy, but you must do it with this issue. Your teen could get into more trouble if you just ignore the issue. All parents want to trust their teenagers and provide them with certain freedoms, but you cannot do that with this.

Do not confront your teenager if you know he has been drinking. It does not matter how concerned you are, it will not be the right time to intervene. Let your teen sober up first so you have time to calm down. Then have a two-way conversation with your teen, as he or she will be more receptive at this time to what you have to say. Listen to what your teen has to say do not just lecture him or her.

Tell him or her why his or her behavior is wrong and could even lead to a dangerous situation. Teenagers are at a crucial point in their brain development and over consumption of alcohol could prevent the development from happening in the proper manner. Your teenager's health should be upper most in your mind, and he or she should also be concerned about it. You need to deal with no matter how stressful it is for you.

In addition, teenagers should realize the legal consequences they could face because of consuming alcohol. Do not make your teenager afraid, but do make him or her aware of the legal repercussions that can happen through illegally buying and consuming alcohol such as possible DUIs and even being arrested for consuming alcohol.

In addition, explain how his or her behavior affects you and the rest of the family. Your teen needs to understand this. Because teens do not have that much experience living yet, they are unable to make the right choices all the time. However, if they understand the effects and consequences on other people because of their drinking they learn to consider their actions more closely before doing them.

Many times, parents ask for help from a professional source such as a behavioral modification program or a counselor. Do not be skeptical to go this route if needed. You may even need to place your teen in one of the programs for troubled teens.

Decisions that teenagers make during puberty could affect their adult years if they are not careful. As a parent, you are responsible to offer any necessary support and guidance to your teen since he or she is unable to make the right decisions all of the time.

Learning to Take Responsibility for Actions

One of the hardest things many troubled teens have to learn is how to take responsibility for their actions. They also need to be accountable for the consequences of those actions. Equine therapy has been found to help teens with various problems learn responsibility and accountability. It alos helps with anger, relationship , self-confidence issues.


Part of the reason equine or horse therapy works is because a horse doesn't care what a person has done in the past or will do in the future, they only care about what is done now. When a troubled teen is paired with a horse, the first thing the teen has to learn is how to read the horse's body language well enough to know what the horse's reaction is to what the teen is doing. This helps the teen gain the animal's trust and form a bond with it. In the process, the teen learns as much about him or herself as about the horse they are developing a relationship with.


During the time the teen spends with the horse each day, he or she is responsible for grooming, exercising and caring for the horse. This teaches responsibility and the teen is held accountable if the horse is not properly cared for, often by the horse itself. Horses can be stubborn and if some part of their care is not handled properly, they can be reluctant to cooperate with the person they hold responsible for it.


The bond that forms between the teen and the horse has a calming effect that helps teens handle anger management and stress issues. This makes other therapy used in conjunction with equine therapy more effective as the teen is calmer and often less defensive. Working with a horse, the troubled teen learns to be part of a team in achieving a common goal, whether it is backing the horse into a stall or riding to complete a certain course or trail. Over the course of therapy, the teen learns to translate these skills to daily life.


By the end of the course of therapy, teens have learned to relate better with people because of the relationship they have developed with the horse. It may take several course of therapy for some teens but the overall success rate of this type of therapy is high. Pinnacle Schools Elk River campus offers equine therapy for troubled teens. No matter what issues a teen may be dealing with, horse therapy is worth looking into.

A Helpful Solution for Teens

Emotional problems are common in many teens. Anger and aggression can all be part of typical teenage angst. Then there are times that concerns become troubling and a responsible parent needs to intervene. This includes depression, psychological problems, drugs and eating disorders.

While counseling may provide some help for struggling teens, there may be times when they need more help than the parent can offer. In these cases, a school for struggling teens may be a better choice.

In the schools providing troubled teen help, the students are in an environment that allows them to receive the help they need and find growth. Some of these programs include time in the wilderness while others are more along the lines of a boarding school that provides therapeutic sessions during the course of the day and provides help for struggling teens by giving them easy access to counselors while they live in a trusting environment.

Parents who need trouble teen help and approach these facilities shouldn’t feel as thought they failed. Beyond parenting, there are chemical imbalances and outside influences that can cause a good child to become a troubled teen. Having them attend the schools designed to provide help for struggling teens allows them to get the help they need and is a responsible choice for parents.

There are also some important things as a parent you should do before enrolling your child into any of these schools.

•     Ask questions, no matter have trivial, to ensure you fully understand the school and the program your child will be attending.
•     Check into the credentials of the school and pay close attention to any problems in the school’s past.
•     Verify the specialties of the school and determine if your teen’s needs are an ideal match. You can also check to see if the problems of your teen are similar to the average student in the school.
•     Find out the course of treatment your child will be expected to undertake. Boot camp themed schools are not the best choice for all students.
•     Take a tour of the campus and get a feeling for the environment. Do what you can to interact with teachers and staff to get a feeling for those who will have daily contact with your teen.

With a little effort, you will be able to get your child into an environment that will help them get their life back on track. While it might seem a little difficult at first, you will find it really is one of the best options for them and it could give them the push they need to live up to their full potential.