Why are so many younger people being diagnosed with an alcohol addiction
Young people are now facing abstinence from alcohol for life
I can truly understand the reluctance of anyone in their 20s not being willing to fully accept that their relationship with alcohol needs to end in order for them to get their life back. This is not just about there being a short period of time being abstinent from alcohol. There needs to be an acceptance of a complete removal of alcohol and not ever thinking that the odd alcoholic drink would be “OK.” In a way it is similar to our body having an allergy and, if we do not continue to avoid the thing that we are allergic to, we could cause serious harm to ourselves and our life.
There has been a dramatic increase in the numbers of young people needing help for alcohol addiction
Why is it that there is now a higher percentage of younger people in their 20s and 30s seeking help for alcohol addiction than ever before? Only 10 years ago the majority of people in residential rehab treatment for alcoholism were aged in their 40s to 60s. There has been a sudden and not even a gradual drop to a younger person now seeking help.
The relaxation of licensing laws
One of the contributing factors could be the relaxing of the licensing hours and conditions when it is possible to purchase alcohol. Perhaps unbelievably alcohol can now be purchased from a garage, with some advertising an off licence facility open 24 hours. Local newsagents can also sell alcohol and it can be delivered to the home address by any number of food delivery apps – even via Amazon.
It is strange to think that not that long ago no one could buy alcohol on a Sunday afternoon between 14.00 and 19.00 as none of the pubs were licensed between those hours to sell alcohol. Now the pubs are closing at an alarming rate and this is, in part, down to the price of the alcohol they are serving and the change in the drinking pattern of the youth of today.
The effect from the covid pandemic
The rise in younger people seeking help is also related to the Covid pandemic and the introduction and continuing practise of people working from home. The effect this “perfect storm” has had on people’s health is well documented although not so much the effect it has had on people’s drinking habits. In the past there was more of an element of a binge drinking culture, whereby people were working during the week and drinking to excess at weekends. By having to go to a place of work this imposed an element of structure which acted as a degree of restraint for the majority of drinkers. This degree of restraint was removed by the working from home culture.
The cost of alcohol purchased for home consumption
It is much cheaper to be drinking alcohol in the home environment. For example a one litre bottle of vodka which contains 37.5 alcohol units is cheaper than a large pizza delivered from Dominos; for the price of a standard cinema ticket you could instead buy two bottles of wine and have a bit of change leftover. So, the third restraint of cost has also been reduced by drinking at home. Also in a pub environment we receive a set measure of alcohol which again we do not do at home or if we are socialising at a friend’s house. Therefore, our general alcohol consumption will increase from a far younger age under these evolved set of circumstances.
Not everyone caught up in this new drinking regime will develop problems with alcohol but anyone with a pre disposition for an alcohol dependency will. Basically, this set of circumstances is shortening the timeline for any individual developing an alcohol dependency thus helping to explain why far younger people are seeking help for their addiction.
Mental health risks of alcoholism for younger people
There are very clear health risks also attached as the brain does not fully mature until a person reaches the age of around 25 years old. An increase in alcohol consumption can be associated with mental health disorders such as anxiety and depression. It is quite common for family members to inform us at The Haynes Clinic that the person with the alcohol problem has depression and that is why they drink.
Alcohol itself is a depressant and people do not always realise that if they were to stop drinking alcohol the depressive episodes would go. It is also an apparent current trend that GPs will prescribe anti depressant medication without fully establishing that the real problem is alcohol. Anti depressant medication does not work with alcohol so the individual becomes more depressed and drinks more and cannot understand why his prescription medication does not work.
Research has proven that heavy drinking changes the normal developmental patterns in the connections between the brain regions and weakens connections between brain areas that regulate emotional and cognitive functioning. It is also common for a young person who drinks heavily to suffer from blackouts. Alcohol induced blackouts are gaps in a person’s memory for events that occurred whilst they were intoxicated. These blocks happen because alcohol temporarily blocks the transfer of memories from short term to long term storage in an area of the brain called the hippocampus. The more alcohol is consumed the more the memory is impaired.
For a young person consistently drinking on a daily basis, this will impair decision making and can make it difficult to control impulses and make healthy choices. Drinking alcohol produces an excess of Dopamine in the brain which creates a pleasurable feeling. However, over a short period of time the brain recognises it is producing too much Dopamine so will produce less which leads the individual to drink more to try and get that same pleasurable feeling again.
In time, and that time will be different for everyone, our body gets used to being ‘fed’ alcohol, will expect it and will start to exhibit withdrawal symptoms if we try and cut back or stop. It is generally at this stage that we find that whatever we try and do to stop or cut down, we fail. We may continue to keep drinking or may stop for one or two days and then relapse back into the addictive behaviour.
Help for young people with alcohol issues
The Haynes Clinic offers a free assessment to help people come to terms with their addiction. The clinic offers support and empathy, especially for someone who is young and finds the situation they are in very frightening. The clinic also offers hope that there is a route to Recovery.
