Underage Drinking
Preteens delve into making television fantasies a reality, but as this new social behavior spills out onto the city streets, it backfires. More young people are now finding themselves in jail trying to be noticed. Paris Hilton is another example of this party craze in America. Being in jail is not "A Simple Life." As it turns out, the now wealthy video innovators of reality shows are young people themselves exploiting their peers without ethical harness. I realize every generation needs to climb higher and feel a sense of worth, but on any given day I find my arms around another sick juvenile who is court ordered to our A.A. meetings. This court ordered phenomenon has forced A.A. into slightly changing its structure to meet the needs of children.

Teen Alcohol Symptoms
I look around at meetings and see young, naïve kids whose only crime is being caught up by a generation gone wild. Now coming to A.A. in droves, most teenagers only suffer from the negative effects of a single drunk driving experience or of expressing lurid conduct while drunk in public and they move on. For the few young people who truly come to A.A. seeking help and stay, most of suffer physical signs of grave emotional and mental disorders. A young girl has a nervous twitch, blurry eyes, and bitten finger nails. She can't make eye contact because her eyes are glued to the front door. She tells us she witnessed her father beat her mother to death, and then took an oath in court that it was an accident so the family could stay together. Only now she runs in fear and is drunk all the time. "What'll I do?" she cries!

There are teenagers dealing with being alone on the streets after their parents have abandoned them. A youngster of ethnic mixture is now coping with racism after switching schools. A 16-year-old girl living on the streets is dealing with the unexplained disappearance of her friend. There is a young boy who is suddenly ignored by his mother after her big strong boyfriend has beaten him up. Each night his mom is drunk in bed with this man, and now the boy is afraid to go home. Another girl is fighting against not taking the easy way out, but suicide is constantly in her thoughts.

Teen Drinking continued on page 2