PARENTS – TALK TO YOUR KIDS ABOUT ALCOHOL BEFORE SPRING BREAK
PARENTS – TALK TO YOUR KIDS ABOUT ALCOHOL BEFORE SPRING BREAK
For many students, spring break is a carefree time away from classroom pressures. Unfortunately, for many it is also a time of excessive drinking and dealing with its aftermath—violence, sexual aggression, and even death. As your high school or college-age sons and daughters prepare to celebrate their spring break escape, take the opportunity to talk with them about the consequences of binge drinking and alcohol poisoning.
What is it? Alcohol depresses the nerves that control breathing and the gag reflex, which prevents choking. Someone who drinks a fatal dose of alcohol will eventually stop breathing. Even someone who survives an alcohol overdose can suffer irreversible brain damage. Binge drinking, which often happens with a bet or a dare, is especially dangerous because the victim can drink a fatal dose before losing consciousness.
Blood alcohol concentration can continue to rise while someone is passed out. Even after a person stops drinking, the alcohol already in the stomach and the intestine continues to enter the bloodstream and circulates throughout the body. Someone who appears to be sleeping it off could actually be in real danger.
What should I look for? Signs of alcohol poisoning include mental confusion, stupor, coma, or the inability to be roused; vomiting; seizures; slow (fewer than eight breaths per minute) or irregular (10 seconds or more between breaths) breathing; and hypothermia (low body temperature), bluish skin color, and paleness.
What should I do? Know the danger signals. If you suspect an alcohol overdose or alcohol poisoning, don’t wait for all the critical signs to appear. Call 911 immediately. Eventually, everyone who drinks to excess will get sleepy and pass out. They could then vomit and choke to death or simply stop breathing because reflexes like gagging and breathing can become suppressed.
Research shows that parents do make a difference. Talking with your teenage sons and daughters about alcohol now could prevent serious problems later. Drinking too much can mean trips to the emergency room, arrests, sexual assaults, and putting themselves and their friends in real danger. Ask them to consider—is that any way to celebrate?
Resources are available for parents who want to talk to their kids about the consequences of underage drinking. For more information, contact the Coalitions Department of the Bay Area Council on Drugs and Alcohol at coalitions@bacoda.com or 281-212-2910. BACODA is a community based organization that has provided substance abuse prevention and intervention services for over 30 years. The coalition department consists of 4 coalitions serving Matagorda, Brazoria, Galveston and Southeast Harris counties. The coalitions are funded in part by the Texas Department of State Health Services. BACODA is a United Way Agency.
BACODA Healing Field – A Memorial
It takes the entire community each year to memorialize those lives lost in Texas due to alcohol-related motor vehicle fatalities. Thanks to everyone who helped make BACODA’s 2009 Healing Field Flag Memorial a huge success. Find out how YOU can be involved in BACODA’s 2010 Healing Field and join efforts to stop drunk driving. For more information go to www.bacoda.org.
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