Understanding WHY Early Use Is a Key Risk Factor for Alcoholism

by Lisa Frederiksen

As I’ve written in other posts, the key Risk Factors for developing the disease of addiction (whether to drugs or alcohol) are:

• genetics (if it runs in the family, genetic predisposition);
• social environment (where heavy drinking is viewed as “normal” and encouraged);
• childhood trauma (verbal, physical, emotional abuse – which “wires” unhealthy coping skills and brain changes);
• early use (drinking before the brain is fully developed somewhere between ages 22 and 25); and
• mental illness (e.g., depression, anxiety, ADHD, PTSD, bipolar – which also cause brain changes and a potential to “self medicate” with alcohol).

To understand WHY early use is one of these key risk factors, I urge you to read the American Academy of Pediatrics Policy Statement, “Alcohol Use by Youth and Adolescents: A Pediatric Concern.”

This is especially important information for parents, teachers, counselors and others who work with children. Quoting from the abstract: “The integration of alcohol use prevention programs in the community and our educational system from elementary school through college should be promoted by pediatricians and the health care community.”

I’m sharing the time lapse study below, conducted by Dr. Paul Thompson, UCLA Lab of Neuro-Imaging and Brain Mapping Division, Dept. Neurology and Brain Research Institute, to help demonstrate the significance of brain development that occurs from ages 5 – 20 and beyond. This is further discussed in this related post:How Teens Can Become Alcoholics Before Age 21.

Image: Thompson, Paul. Ph.D., Time-Lapse Imaging Tracks Brain Developing from ages 5 to 20, UCLA Lab of Neuro-Imaging and Brain Mapping Division, Dept. Neurology and Brain Research Institute, http://www.loni.ucla.edu/~thompson/DEVEL/PR.html Permission: Dr. Paul Thompson 5.7.09

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Lisa Frederiksen

Lisa Frederiksen is the author of nine books and a national keynote speaker with over 25 years public speaking experience. She has been consulting, researching, writing and speaking on alcohol abuse, drug addiction, secondhand drinking, treatment, mental illness, underage drinking, and help for the family since 2003. Her 40+ years experience with family and friends’ alcohol abuse and alcoholism, her own therapy and recovery work around those experiences, and her research for her blog posts and books, including her most recent - "Crossing The Line From Alcohol Use to Abuse to Dependence," "Loved One In Treatment? Now What!" and "If You Loved Me, You’d Stop!" - frame her work with medical school students, families, individuals, students and administrators, businesses, public agencies, social workers, family law attorneys, treatment providers and the like.

Latest posts by Lisa Frederiksen (see all)

• Help Shatter the Shame of Addiction | Share the Facts - May 20, 2013
• Face of Recovery | Steven Martin - May 18, 2013
• Using Hypnotherapy to Change Drinking Patterns - May 15, 2013