Lighthouse Network Offers Parents Warning Signals and Help for Teens to Overcome this Dangerous Trend
Key Facts:
- A recent report by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) showed that many young women aged 18-34 binge drink, which is defined as four or more drinks in one sitting.
- Not all binge drinkers are addicted, but binge drinking can lead to alcohol dependence.
- Lighthouse Network, offers parents warning signs of serious alcohol use, as well as tools and resources to help teens and young women make better decisions, especially as they relate to alcohol.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC), reported that binge drinking among young women aged 18 to 34 continues at steady levels, with one in eight women consuming four or more drinks in a single sitting. That is nearly 14 million young women who engage in binge drinking. This rate has remained steady over an approximately 15-year period.
We want to offer women and especially parents hope for healing while shining a light on warning signs that may point to a binge-drinking problem in their daughters.
Binge drinking is a significant problem for young people: it clouds the mind and decision-making, bringing harmful emotions strongly to the surface and leads to strong impulsive behaviors. So many unintended consequences result such as relationship strain, academic or employment struggles, financial difficulties, teen pregnancy, self-harm and cutting, drug use, STDs, or legal problems, including DUIs, can result from binge drinking. Unfortunately, depression, full-blown addiction, and suicide attempts are the most dangerous possible outcomes. We strive to show parents warning signs, as well as to help teens and young women learn to make better, healthier decisions that lead to bright, hopeful futures – an outcome to which sustained binge drinking never leads.
Alcohol poisoning is a major sign of an alcohol binge, and that parents should be aware of the symptoms as some can be life-threatening, which include:
- Vomiting while awake or passed out
- Confusion
- Unable to stand up or remain standing without assistance
- Unresponsive to talking or shouting but still conscious (stupor)
- Clammy or cool skin, or bluish to purplish skin that appears very flushed
- Hypothermia – colder body temperature
- Not responsive to any physical contact, i.e., shaking, poking, pinching
- Passed out, especially if unresponsive to any attempt to wake
- Slow irregular breathing
- Irregular pulse or a pulse rate slower than 40 beats per minute.
I’ve developed a unique SPEARS decision-making process and the “Rewind Life” curriculum that can help young people make better decisions in all aspects of life, including decisions about substance use in social situations.
We teach young people that God has so much more planned for their lives, but alcohol derails the plan and makes it hard to achieve. By showing people through our unique curricula and treatment programs that there is true purpose and joy to be found in life, we are often able to achieve a more lasting recovery from alcohol use than patients achieve using the traditional, more medically oriented programs, alone.”
Lighthouse Network also offers a variety of resources to help the hurting and addicted, as well as those who love them. The organization’s free, 24-hour Lighthouse Network Addiction and Counseling Helpline at (844) 543-3242 offers personal guidance to resources, therapy, or treatment facilities that best meet the needs of each unique caller based on their individual situations. Care Guides will link patients or loved ones to a counseling, addiction, or psychiatric care facility through Lighthouse Network’s national database of treatment centers, counselors, and therapists. They successfully manage complicated cases, especially of acute addiction, and provide help from a holistic (spirit, mind, and body) perspective, based on biblical principles.
In addition to guidance and treatment referrals, Listen to our Not Alone Radio Features designed specifically for parents of addicts, and offers insight, advice and encouragement for parents of addicts who feel alone or as though their situation is unique.