Oprah’s Satellite Sisters
The current (September 2004) issue of Oprah includes a column by Radio’s Satellite Sisters, who are asked whether they should squeal on a friend’s 15-year-old daughter caught drinking beer in a Quikstop parking lot with her buddies. My response:
While the sisters offered correct advice in suggesting that the 15-year-old drinking beer in the parking lot with her buddies be busted, your advice squad omitted one crucial consideration: that she may have already triggered early-stage alcoholism.
This is an essential point because if she is a budding young alcoholic, no amount of threats, cajoling or arguments will change her behavior without uncompromising tough love and coerced abstinence.
Anyone who doubts that she may be an alcoholic at such a tender age need only ask recovering alcohol/other drug addicts when they triggered addiction. The response is, usually, during the first drinking/using episode: average age in the U.S., 13.