When Alcohol Poisoning Serves as a Wakeup Call for an Adolescent
Jeffrey was a high school freshman who frequently seemed to be living on the edge. Jeffrey had a risk taking personality and as a rule wanted to do what his older brothers were doing for fun. The key problem with this was that all three of his brothers were at least 21 years old and were as a result able from a legal vantage point to drive a truck or car and to consume alcohol.
Jeffrey, in spite of this, had a tough time comprehending that as a fifteen-year-old adolescent he should not be drinking alcoholic beverages. In fact, conversely, Jeffrey often drank with his pals after school, especially on the weekends.
One weekend, Jeffrey was invited to drive around with some of his older pals. One of his buddies was old enough to buy alcohol. After purchasing some wine, beer, and wine coolers, Jeffrey and all of his friends went to a recreational area and drank for just about two hours.
A Young Man Passes Out
After drinking approximately ten alcoholic benerages, Jeffrey started to feel nauseous and then threw up. When he lost consciousness on the baseball field, one of his friends called 911 for assistance. It was fortunate that the call for medical assistance was made because when his pals went to the hospital to see Jeffrey, they were notified that Jeffrey had been manifesting alcohol poisoning symptoms. Simply put, Jeffrey had experienced a case of alcohol poisoning.
When Your Buddies Drink Abusively
Jeffrey had learned that drinking in a hazardous manner can lead to alcohol poisoning but he never thought that this would ever happen to him. After all, some of his pals frequently boasted that they could drink twenty four or more bottles of beer in a day without going through any serious difficulties.
Based on this, Jeffrey was frankly shocked to hear that he had overdosed on alcohol because he “only” had around ten alcoholic beverages. When he articulated this to the attending healthcare professional at the hospital, conversely, the healthcare professional informed Jeffrey that drinking ten bottles of beer over a two or three hour time frame could surely be substantially more alcohol than can be processed by the body. The physicain further verbalized how significant amounts of alcohol can cause the brain to shut down an individual’s breathing and that when this takes place, an individual can cease to exist.
The First Warning of Abusive Drinking
This was the first sign to Jeffrey that he was drinking in a hazardous way and that there are consequences for such activities. The healthcare professional told Jeffrey that he was a lucky individual because he almost perished from an alcohol overdose the previous night.
The doctor also conversed with Jeffrey’s parents and suggested that they get alcohol therapy for Jeffrey. His parents were overjoyed that Jeffrey was safe and notified the healthcare practitioner that they would follow through on getting Jeffrey alcohol rehabilitation.
While chatting with his parents, Jeffrey notified them that there must be a special reason why he did not die and that he felt a sense of thankfulness that he was still alive. He also informed his parents that the weirdest part about the entire drinking event was that he had learned about alcohol poisoning the past week at school in Mr. Franklin’s health class.
When Listening in Class Can Make a Difference
At the time, what his health teacher, Mr. Franklin, was articulating didn’t seem to make a lot of sense to Jeffrey. Now that he almost died, then again, he felt that he should have listened more intently in class and applied what he had learned to his personal life.
Jeffrey notified his parents that he couldn’t wait to go back to Mr. Franklin’s classroom and express regret to Mr. Franklin for not demonstrating more attention to something that was as pertinent as learning about alcohol abuse and how to avoid an alcohol overdose.
His parents smiled at Jeffrey and said that they were proud of the way he was taking responsibility for his unhealthy drinking behavior. All he had to do now was to let this near fatal experience have an effect on his life in a constructive way so that he would never again suffer through a case of alcohol poisoning.
Tags: about alcohol, alcohol abuse, alcohol overdose, alcohol poisoning