When I was in the tenth grade in high school, I registered for a substance abuse class. At that time period, I did not comprehend that alcohol abuse in point of fact was a sub category of drug abuse. While taking this class and learning more about drug and alcohol abuse, I read a lot about Alcoholic Anonymous, their meetings, how their programs have twelve steps, and how successful the Alcoholics Anonymous recovery program has been for individuals all through the world. I also learned quite a bit about alcohol rehabilitation and the different alcohol rehab clinics that are habitually available to alcohol abusers.

Some of the damaging consequences related to alcoholism and alcohol abuse that I learned about in this class definitely frightened me. The ruined lives and abundant problems experienced by most alcohol addicted people made me feel like I never wanted to drink alcohol when I became old enough. That is, I did not want to face the disaster and destruction that alcohol dependent people almost always encounter.

Think about this for a moment. What fifteen-year-old individual wants to face premature death due to his or her drinking behavior? What young person wants to become so out-of-control regarding his or her drinking that drinking alcohol becomes the object of one’s life? What adolescent wants to go to one of the local alcoholic rehabilitation centers to deal with alcohol-related difficulties before he or she becomes an adult?

What adolescent wants to experience alcohol withdrawal symptoms when he or she tries to stop drinking? Why would a person engage in drinking to such an extent that it would cause difficulties in every area of his or her life? Drinking later in life after an individual has a career, a family, and develops personal responsibilities makes sense. But why would a young person want to sacrifice his or her education, employment, finances, and relationships for a life that centers on excessive drinking?

These issues were so important that I discussed some of them in class during the school year. What was utterly incredible to me was the number of students who simply didn’t care about the detrimental consequences of hazardous drinking that I discussed. It was almost as if they couldn’t be troubled with reality and how these results can demolish their lives. For the first time in my life I started to figure out something that my grandfather used to emphasize all through my teen and pre-teen years: you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink.