Youth alcohol consumption will hit an 8-year low in 2023, but there is a new “way” of drinking that is becoming popular.
According to the most recent survey “Addictive Behaviors at 18”, carried out by the Institute for Addictive Behaviors and Addictions (ICAD) and released this Tuesday, young people are drinking less and consuming fewer drugs.
In 2023, around 78% of young people saidin the survey carried out with more than 92 thousand young people on National Defense Day, having consumed alcoholic beverages within 12 months previous studies, a drop of 5.3% compared to 2015 (83%) and even compared to 2022 (85%).
Even so, explains the , alcohol consumption among young people remains high: around 80% of those interviewed said they had already drunk alcohol at least once in their lives and 63% in the 30 days prior to the survey. But the “majority” of young people do not consume alcohol daily or almost daily.
The problem is when you do this. The way alcohol is consumed is changing, and young people are increasingly drinking alcohol quickly and in large quantities. This is called “binge drinking” — a practical and the “summary” of this practice are “penalties”when a large amount of drink is consumed in a few seconds.
Almost half of those interviewed admitted to having drunk drinks “binge”. Even though there is fewer people drinking every or almost every day“binge drinking” is a trend that also brings complications, even if it is not recurrent.
“There is a appreciation of the ability to drink a lot. Holding back on alcohol means you have more experience drinking, which in turn is usually associated with going out more often. And going out more often is seen as synonymous with being a more popular or experienced young person”, laments the psychologist.
Ludmila Carapinhaa psychologist at ICAD, in an interview with Expresso, blamed the “constant presence of alcoholic beverages in everyday life, especially among young people”, for the high values that are recorded every day.
When it comes to the consumption of illicit substances in the last 12 months 24% of young people responded affirmatively to the survey, which reflects a reduction in relation to the 27% recorded in the previous year. The only exception was opiates: heroin and amphetamine recorded a slight increase I don’t consume.
