I live in a college town, and from that perspective I don't really see young people drinking less, as there are always lines at the bars Thursday through Saturday nights. Obviously, alcohol has a LOT of down sides. I stopped drinking to excess, ironically, after my 21st birthday. Though I continued to get drunk occasionally until my mid-…
I live in a college town, and from that perspective I don't really see young people drinking less, as there are always lines at the bars Thursday through Saturday nights. Obviously, alcohol has a LOT of down sides. I stopped drinking to excess, ironically, after my 21st birthday. Though I continued to get drunk occasionally until my mid-30's. Now I might have a beer or two in a month, sometimes not even that. I do think the risk aversion of today's youth is problematic and the authors descriptions of them is pretty accurate (though of course, it's a broad generalization, where the exceptions prove the rule, IMO). In any case, I've come to consider alcohol the worst of ALL the mind altering substances, and rehab counselors I've talked to and read about seem to agree. It has the worst withdrawal symptoms of any "drug" and unlike many "hard" drugs, withdrawal all by itself can kill you. So perhaps it wasn't the best choice to point out the risk averse nature of today's youth, and there is certainly far more to that than just choosing not to drink.
I live in a college town, and from that perspective I don't really see young people drinking less, as there are always lines at the bars Thursday through Saturday nights. Obviously, alcohol has a LOT of down sides. I stopped drinking to excess, ironically, after my 21st birthday. Though I continued to get drunk occasionally until my mid-30's. Now I might have a beer or two in a month, sometimes not even that. I do think the risk aversion of today's youth is problematic and the authors descriptions of them is pretty accurate (though of course, it's a broad generalization, where the exceptions prove the rule, IMO). In any case, I've come to consider alcohol the worst of ALL the mind altering substances, and rehab counselors I've talked to and read about seem to agree. It has the worst withdrawal symptoms of any "drug" and unlike many "hard" drugs, withdrawal all by itself can kill you. So perhaps it wasn't the best choice to point out the risk averse nature of today's youth, and there is certainly far more to that than just choosing not to drink.