Two speakers discuss why drinking young damages your brain, body, and mental health. Early alcohol use can harm developing brains and increase risks for addiction and depression later on.
Growing up alcohol free is part of that.
I think actually what we know through the research, the younger that children drink, the much more likely they are to become problematic drinkers as they age, the later they start drinking. It's a huge percentage in the difference between, let's say the 13 year old that starts drinking and the 21 year old like I described. You're actually having to learn all those skills to deal with the social events, to deal with the heartbreak, to deal with the upset, the celebrations, without the drug that is alcohol.
I also have yet to have a conversation that starts with, man, I'm so happy I got drunk yesterday because this awesome thing happened.
If you set the right conditions, you know that for all the beautiful work that you do mentally and physically, spiritually, you get into this beautiful place and genuinely alcohol can't live in there. I just, I personally, I don't believe it can live in amongst all that good stuff because it's the thing that's undermining it all in many ways.
