Alcohol is a depressant, which means it slows the function of the central nervous system. Alcohol actually blocks some of the messages trying to get to the brain. This alters a person's perceptions, emotions, movement, vision, and hearing.

In very small amounts, alcohol can help a person feel more relaxed or less anxious. More alcohol causes greater changes in the brain, resulting in intoxication. People who have overused alcohol may stagger, lose their coordination, and slur their speech. They will probably be confused and disoriented. Depending on the person, intoxication can make someone very friendly and talkative or very aggressive and angry. Reaction times are slowed dramatically - which is why people are told not to drink and drive. People who are intoxicated may think they're moving properly when they're not. They may act totally out of character.

Summary: Those who start drinking at an early age have a fourfold chance of becoming alcoholics. Many who enter treatment will not succeed in their search for sobriety but there are some treatment programs that can improve one's chances of success.

Two new reports issued by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration give parents all the reason they need to crack down on teen drinking as a way of preventing alcoholism.

One of these new reports, Quantity and Frequency of Alcohol Use among Underage Drinkers, states that the ten million young Americans (ages 12 to 20) who report consumption of alcohol are drinking an average of six days a month, an average of nearly five drinks apiece each day. This compares to 2.8 alcoholic drinks per day for drinkers aged 21 or older. This report also states that underage drinkers consume more than 11 percent of all the alcoholic drinks consumed in the United States.

The other new report, Substance Abuse and Dependence Following Initiation or Alcohol or Illicit Drug Use tells us that the overwhelming majority of those who start using alcohol are still using it a year or more later.

One of the most compelling statistics related to young alcohol consumption is this one: Alcohol consumption starting in the teens results in alcoholism four times as often as alcohol consumption that starts at twenty-one years of age. Each year nearly three-quarters of a million people are admitted to treatment for alcoholism. And nearly 40 percent of those will enter treatment five or more times in an attempt to recover from their alcoholism.

"When you work with those who seek rehab for alcoholism, you see before you the destruction that alcohol consumption does to a person's life when it becomes habitual or addictive," stated Ryan Thorpe, Director of Admissions at Narconon Arrowhead, one of the country's leading drug and alcohol rehabilitation centers, located in Canadian, Oklahoma. "Education for underage drinkers is an essential part of saving thousands of these young lives. And effective rehabilitation for alcoholism needs to be available so that our citizens can be restored to drug and alcohol free lives."

Asking alcohol manufacturers to stop marketing to youth is asking them to lose the $22.5 billion dollars a year they make from underage drinking. Parents can be effective in protecting their children from problems with alcoholism.

If you know anyone who needs help to break their alcohol addiction, please contact http://www.stopaddiction.com