Getting caught up in what ever everybody else is doing often allows us to change our opinion of what is normal. Just looking at what is going on around us and comparing ourselves to that often gets us in trouble.
We need to be able to back up an look at the bigger scene. Habits can lead to habits that are very hard to break. Teens are drinking more than they used to both in frequency and quantity. We often think "well they are just being kids" and we rationalize in our own minds that what they are doing is is normal.
Our Drug Class Program has been working hard at getting kids to try to change what is normal for them in order to cut down their alcohol use and abuse, and to be real honest most adolescent alcohol use falls into the abuse category.
In order to change what is normal you have to change the pattern. Here are some of the things we encourage kids to try.
1. If you normally drink both nights on a weekend take a night off, go do something else with your friends. Do that every weekend for awhile.
2. One weekend a month don't drink or use at all and again go find something else to do.
3. When you do drink take it easy, see if you can actually control how much you drink, try to keep it to the equivalent of four drinks for the night.
Parents, teachers, coaches talk to your kids about this, you might be really surprised at the reaction, the greater the resistance to trying this kind of change the greater the dependency there is on what has become the "normal" activity.
Remember, if you don't change something, nothing changes.
Be careful out there.
Rand
