Alcoholism & Addiction Prevention

While addiction treatment programs can and do work, reducing drug or alcohol use before addiction takes hold is always a preferable course of action – and best of all are prevention interventions that convince people to avoid excessive use before it becomes a problem in the first place.

1. Prevention is important. Prevention starts in the home and parents play an enormous role in keeping teen children free from drug and alcohol abuse.
2. Prevention is best done consciously and it requires an investment in the lives of those you care about.
3. There are no guarantees, and some people, even those raised by loving and attentive parents will experiment with drugs and alcohol. Fortunately, prevention programs such as brief interventions and social norms programs can help those that are drinking or using heavily reduce their consumption. These prevention programs are easy and cheap to administer.

Who Is at Greatest Risk of Addiction?

Although no one is immune to addiction, some people are at an increased risk of succumbing to this brain disease. That being said, no one, no matter how ‘at risk’ will develop addiction or alcoholism without first experimenting with drugs or alcohol – those that choose abstinence from alcohol and drugs are at no risk of substance abuse or dependence.

People who may be at an increased risk of addiction include:

• People with a close genetic relative who has had an addiction to alcohol or drugs
• People who start using drugs or alcohol at a young age ¹
• People with friends that use drugs or alcohol
• People who do poorly in school ²
• People who require more alcohol to feel intoxicated
• People with mental illness
• People living in an environment with easy access to drugs or alcohol, acceptance of use or modeling of use
• People who use very addictive drugs, like opiate pain medications, heroin, cocaine or methamphetamine
• Those growing up in a very permissive or neglectful family

Because research shows that the earlier teens start experimenting with drugs and alcohol the greater the chanced of substance abuse problems, one of the most effective prevention strategies for parents is to delay for as long as possible the age of initiation of use.

People who wait until the age of 21 to start drinking alcohol have extremely low odds of ever becoming an alcohol abuser or alcoholic. Teens that start drinking before the age of 13 have a whopping 43% chance of becoming an alcoholic – while those who delay their first drinks until the age of 21 have a less than 10% chance! ³

Although some people have a genetic predisposition to substance abuse, environmental factors are undoubtedly the stronger influencer towards or away from abuse and addiction.

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse and Addiction (NIDA) some factors that protect a person from addiction include:

• Having involved parents and developing a strong attachment to these parents
• Growing up in a community that does not accept or support drug or alcohol abuse
• Doing well in school
• Learning behavioral self control as a young child (as opposed to relying on aggression)
• Learning effective social skills

While parents can never protect teens from temptation and exposure to drugs and alcohol, parents do have influence in the fight against drug or alcohol abuse.

Keeping Teens Drug and Alcohol Free:

• Maintain an involved interest and open dialogue with your teen children
• Do not model substance use practices unless you want them copied
• Support academic achievement and outside hobbies, sports and interests
• Provide a safe home and community environment that does not accept the use of drugs or the abuse of alcohol
• Talk to your children about drugs and alcohol and make the consequences of use known

Eating Dinner with Your Children

Parents that stay actively involved in the lives of their children do a lot to protect those kids from the dangers of drugs and alcohol – and according to Columbia University researchers, keeping kids safe from addiction is as easy as eating dinner together as a family, 5 or more times a week!¹

Two prevention programs that have been extensively studied and research proven effective in helping drug or alcohol abusers or binge drinkers cut down are:

• Brief interventions
• Social norms prevention programs

Social Norms

Social norms programs have been studied amongst college binge drinkers and have been proven an easy, low cost and effective way to persuade heavy or binge drinkers to reduce their intake.

College students tend to have a misperception about the drinking habits of their peers – overestimating how much other students are drinking and how much other students approve of heavy drinking behaviors.

When heavy drinkers are given access to accurate information about the alcohol intake of their peers and how other students perceive heavy alcohol use, they are very likely to cut down their own alcohol use.

(At Florida State University, a social norms campaign is credited with reducing heavy drinking by 15% amongst male students since 2002) ¹

Brief Interventions

A brief intervention is a quick meeting between someone who is possibly drinking at an unhealthy level (alcohol abuse) and a counselor, a doctor or another professional.

These meetings take only a few minutes and are typically non judgmental or coercive in nature. The drinker is given information about the health consequences of heavy use and about what is considered safer use.

Using motivational interviewing techniques, brief interventions get people who may be abusing alcohol (but who aren’t yet dependent) thinking about how alcohol may be harming health and well-being and provides some tools for reducing consumption, if desired.

It only takes a moment, it costs very little to provide these types of brief interventions and study after study shows how effective these interventions are at getting people to reduce the amount they drink.

(Studies are typically performed in health care settings such as in hospitals, or in college environments)

Don’t Rely on the School to Keep Your Son or Daughter Safe!

While a lot of money and time has been spent on school drug and alcohol abuse prevention programs over the last couple of decades – recent research suggests that schools are not well suited to play a primary or effective role in preventing drug or alcohol use.

The Join Together group at Columbia University came to this conclusion after surveying teachers from kindergarten to grade 12 about the realities in the classroom and the effectiveness of the prevention programs they are mandated to teach. ²

Drug and alcohol prevention is the family’s responsibility!