Alcohol addiction

Is my child addicted to alcohol?

Children often have their first drink at an early age and drinking alcohol is socially accepted. For that reason, the risk of alcohol addiction is severely underestimated by parents or carers of minors, even though alcohol addiction is one of the most common addictions.

How do you recognise alcohol addiction?

Alcohol addiction is characterised by mental and physical dependency. Mental dependency is expressed by the desire to drink, the loss of control and the inability to stop.
Physical dependency is the result of the body getting used to alcohol. When alcohol no longer enters the body, withdrawal symptoms will occur:

• Shakes
• Sweating
• Nausea
• Trouble sleeping
• An anxious and tense feeling

Someone with alcohol addiction will often continue his or her drinking to relieve these symptoms. Do you recognise one or more of these symptoms? Contact us for an intake interview!

What are the risks of alcohol abuse?

Alcohol abuse by teens and young adults harms brain development. The brain of teenagers and young adults continues its development up to the age of 24. During puberty, the connections between brain cells increase in number. Moreover, the part of the brain responsible for argumentation, planning and self-control is not yet fully developed. An essential part of the brain for learning and retention skills is the hippocampus. This part of the brain develops rapidly during puberty. Alcohol may adversely affect development of all these factors and affect the teen or young adult’s behaviour and personality.

Alcohol addiction and premixed drinks

Research shows that teenagers and young adults are drinking increasing amounts of alcohol. It usually starts with experimenting. Since youngsters often hang out in groups, they want to keep up with the rest; they do not want to be a wimp. Consequently, they usually participate in order to experiment a little and be cool.
In the past, most kids did not even enjoy their first alcoholic drink. Now, however, there is a large variety of mildly alcoholic drinks to choose from. These ‘premixed drinks’ (alcoholic sodas) are very sweet, making them an ideal drink for beginners. Teenagers and young adults often prefer these drinks to beer or wine, which partially explains why girls drink more nowadays than they used to. Premixed drinks or alcoholic sodas are very popular at the moment, as teens and young adults do not have to get used to the taste and hardly notice they contain alcohol.

Treatment of teens and young adults

Successful treatment requires every aspect of the problem to be addressed. Yes We Can Youth Clinics provides assistance and counselling to these teenagers and young adults in a specialised youth clinic and treatment centre. All physical, psychological and social problems are treated here. Our youths experience the inpatient programme as very intensive, but also see it as a period of contemplation. The reasons behind their alcohol addiction are discussed openly and their options for the future are examined. Yes We Can Youth Clinics aims to reduce any medication that the the teenager or young adult already receives to zero or as little as possible during the treatment.

Contact us

Yes We Can Youth Clinics can effectively treat teenagers and young adults who are suffering from a wide variety of mental health issues. If you have any questions, any at all, you can always contact us. We cannot stress enough that we are always there for you, whether you sign up for a treatment in our clinic or not. 

You can reach us by phone from Monday to Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. and on Saturday and Sunday from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. (GMT +1) via phone number:+31 (0)85 02 01 222. After business hours – weekdays after 6:00 p.m. and on the weekends – your call will be forwarded. Please note that it might take longer than usual to answer your call. If we cannot answer the call right away, please leave a message and we will call you back as soon as possible. You can also fill in our contact form.