It’s normal for teenagers to drink alcohol sometimes. Adolescence is a time of identity exploration and experimentation, and drinking alcohol can be a part of this curiosity. Adolescents may also drink alcohol when they’re socialising with friends or to have fun.
However, sometimes teenagers use alcohol in harmful ways, and their alcohol use can reflect underlying difficulties. Some adolescents might drink alcohol because they feel pressured by a friendship group and want to fit in. Others might use it as a way to distract themselves from difficult thoughts and emotions.
When teenagers use alcohol as a coping mechanism, they can become reliant on drinking to meet their emotional needs. They may start to drink more and more often, despite its harmful consequences. They may develop an alcohol problem, like physical dependence and addiction, and experience worsening mental health in the long term.
If a young person is misusing alcohol, it’s important that they receive additional help. With professional support, teenagers can develop new coping mechanisms and address underlying experiences that underpin their behaviours.
Why Do Teenagers Use Alcohol as a Coping Mechanism?
When teenagers drink alcohol, it has both short-term and long-term effects on their mood and mental health. In the short term, alcohol can make young people feel more relaxed, forget difficult thoughts and numb painful emotions. But it can also have negative immediate effects, such as feeling very sad or hopeless.
Because alcohol can offer short-term relief from difficult feelings, some young people start to rely on alcohol as a way to cope with their emotions and experiences. However, alcohol only provides a temporary distraction, and distressing feelings return after the effects have worn off. In the hours and days after drinking, they may feel even less able to cope with what’s going on.
Alcohol can also make young people feel worse over the long term, impacting their mental health and their ability to manage the problems they face.
Teenagers are more likely to use alcohol as a coping mechanism if they haven’t learned, or aren’t able to use, healthy ways to manage their thoughts and feelings. This can happen when a child grows up in an environment without the role-modelling of positive coping mechanisms by caregivers or other trusted adults. Or it might be because a young person lacks the secure attachment relationships required to learn and develop emotional and social skills.
If a young person has grown up in a household where people use alcohol as a coping mechanism, they may learn to do the same.
Sometimes, teenagers turn to alcohol because the feelings they are experiencing are so intense or distressing that their usual coping mechanisms don’t seem to work, and they look for other solutions.
What Are the Risk Factors for Problematic Alcohol Use?
Research shows that young people with certain characteristics and experiences are more likely to use alcohol as a coping mechanism than others.
A 2016 study found that young people with anxiety and depression were six times more likely to show a generalised pattern of drinking to cope with emotions across the board. Adolescents from low socio-economic backgrounds were also more likely to drink to cope with low mood.
Another study found that adolescent boys are less likely to use positive coping strategies to cope with stress and more likely to have alcohol problems than girls. It also found that among older adolescents, those who reached out for support to manage their stress were less likely to have problematic alcohol use.
More generally, some common risk factors for problematic alcohol use among adolescents include:
- A family history of alcohol use disorders
- Stressful life events
- Childhood maltreatment and other forms of trauma
- Lack of social support
- Genetic factors
What Are the Consequences of Using Alcohol as a Coping Mechanism?
When teenagers rely on alcohol as a coping mechanism, it can prevent them from finding effective ways to address and manage their experiences. This can sustain and intensify the distress that they are experiencing. They may find it especially difficult to cope with their feelings in the days after they drink, and this can be accompanied by feelings of shame and regret about decisions they made while drinking.
Alcohol also has a long-term effect on the brain and body, altering the balance of hormones and neurotransmitters. This causes young people to experience more negative feelings, such as anger, depression or anxiety, regardless of their mood.
Developing Alcohol Dependence and Addiction
When teenagers start to rely on alcohol as a coping mechanism, they develop a psychological dependence on drinking. This means that they’re likely to drink alcohol even when they know it’s not good for them or it doesn’t make them feel good in the long term. They’re more likely to start using alcohol frequently and drinking more at a time.
This psychological dependence can quickly turn into a physical dependence and addiction. Addiction happens when a person experiences strong urges to drink alcohol that are very hard to resist, despite any negative consequences.
Because young people’s brains are still developing, they’re especially vulnerable to alcohol dependence and addiction. Alcohol addiction and other alcohol use problems can also impact the way their brains continue to develop, making them more likely to develop mental health problems in the future.
What Are the Signs that a Teenager is Using Alcohol as a Coping Mechanism?
It’s not always easy to notice the signs of problematic alcohol use, especially if a young person is trying to hide their behaviours. Some things to look out for might include:
- Drinking alone, instead of or as well as with friends
- Drinking very often
- Feeling like they ‘need’ alcohol to cope with certain situations or events
If you’re worried about a young person’s drinking, it’s best to check in with how they are feeling. Start an open conversation, expressing what you’ve noticed and why you’re concerned. Make sure you stay calm and non-judgmental: getting angry can push a teenager away and prevent them from sharing things in the future.
If a teenager is using alcohol to cope with their feelings, it’s important they receive additional help. Alcohol use disorders are very hard to recover from without professional support, and the sooner a young person reaches out for help, the quicker and easier their recovery will be.
Seeking support early – even if an alcohol problem doesn’t seem too serious – can help young people move away from problematic alcohol use before they experience more harm to their health and well-being.
How Can Professional Support Help Young People Overcome Problematic Alcohol Use?
There are several different treatment approaches that can support young people to stop using alcohol as a coping mechanism and develop healthy ways to cope with stress, sadness, anger, grief and other emotions.
The best therapy for a young person depends on the nature of their alcohol problem and their individual characteristics. Teenagers who have been misusing alcohol for a longer time and have developed physical dependence or addiction may need more intensive treatment than a young person in the earlier stages of alcohol misuse.
But the reasons that underpin alcohol misuse are also important. If a young person is drinking alcohol to cope with experiences of trauma, treatment will also need to address these experiences and enable a deeper healing process.
Some evidence-based treatment modalities for problematic alcohol use include:
- Cognitive-behavioural therapy is a type of talking therapy that emphasises the interactions between our thoughts and behaviours. CBT can help young people identify the thoughts and emotions that cause them to drink alcohol and develop healthy coping mechanisms instead.
- Creative arts therapies can help young people express, confront and manage emotions that may be difficult to identify verbally. Creative therapies can also support in processing trauma and developing a positive self-concept.
- Eye movement desensitisation reprocessing therapy is a type of trauma therapy that helps young people heal from trauma by reprocessing and integrating traumatic memories. EMDR address the experiences that can underpin and trigger alcohol misuse.
- Group therapies can support young people to build interpersonal skills and relationships alongside other aspects of therapy. Teenagers can also gain motivation and confidence through sharing experiences and inspiring one another.
The Wave: Specialist Mental Health Support for Young People and Families
The Wave offers transformative mental health programs for adolescents, young adults and families. We’re specialists in child and adolescent psychiatry, offering a diverse selection of evidence-based modalities in residential and outpatient spaces.
We set the global standard for young people’s mental health care, combining clinical support with education, experiences and global citizenship. Our programs are trauma-focused and family-centred, emphasising the relationships and past experiences that shape how young people think, feel and act today.
If you’re interested in our programs, contact us today to find out more.
