When I was in the tenth grade in high school, I took a substance abuse class. At that time, I did not realize that alcohol abuse in reality was a sub division of drug abuse. While taking this class and learning more about drug and alcohol abuse, I read a lot about Alcoholic Anonymous, their meetings, how their programs have twelve steps, and how successful the Alcoholics Anonymous recovery program has been for people all through the world. I also learned a lot about alcohol rehab and the various alcohol rehab clinics that are regularly available to problem drinkers.

Some of the damaging end results linked to alcoholism and alcohol abuse that I learned about in this class certainly alarmed me. The ruined lives and many serious issues experienced by most alcoholics made me feel like I never wanted to drink alcohol when I became old enough. Stated differently, I did not want to face the disaster and devastation that alcohol addicted people almost always go through.

Reflect on this for a moment. What fifteen-year-old person wants to face premature death due to his or her drinking behavior? What teenager wants to become so out-of-control regarding his or her drinking that drinking alcohol becomes the object of one’s life? What young person wants to go to one of the local alcoholic rehabilitation centers to deal with alcohol-related issues before he or she becomes twenty-one?

What young person wants to go through alcohol withdrawal symptoms when he or she tries to quit drinking? Why would an individual engage in drinking to such an extent that it would cause serious issues in every area of his or her life? Drinking later in life after an individual has a career, a family, and develops personal responsibilities makes sense. But why would an adolescent want to sacrifice his or her education, employment, finances, and relationships for a life that focuses on excessive drinking?

These issues were so significant that I talked about some of them in class during the school year. What was utterly inconceivable to me was the number of students who essentially didn’t care about the damaging consequences of abusive drinking that I talked about. It was almost as if they couldn’t be troubled with reality and how these results can demolish their lives. For the first time in my life I started to grasp something that my grandfather used to tell me throughout my youth: you can lead a horse to water but you can’t force it to drink.