When I was in the tenth grade in high school, I took a substance abuse class. At that age, I did not grasp the fact 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 over the world. I also learned a lot about alcohol treatment and the various alcohol rehab facilities that are frequently available to people who engage in hazardous drinking.

Some of the damaging end results related to alcoholism and alcohol abuse that I learned about in this class undeniably terrified me. The ruined lives and frequent problems experienced by most alcohol dependent individuals made me feel like I never wanted to drink alcohol when I became old enough. In a word, I did not want to face the damage and devastation that alcohol dependent people almost always experience.

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

What teenager wants to deal with alcohol withdrawal symptoms when he or she tries to quit drinking? Why would an individual 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 focuses on irresponsible drinking?

These issues were so meaningful that I talked about some of them in class during the school year. What was absolutely amazing to me was the number of students who basically didn’t care about the injurious outcomes of irresponsible drinking that I talked about. It was almost as if they couldn’t be troubled with the facts and how these results can ruin their lives. For the first time in my life I started to grasp something that my grandfather used to emphasize all through my adolesence: you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink.