Belal Alkhalil
Dr. Jackson
Psychology 201
11 September 2014
The Effect of Alcohol on the Developing Brain Whether at a party, or just hanging out with friends, it seems that more and more teens are drinking. They may think that is it cool at the time, but most of them don’t realize that they might be permanently damaging their brains. Teens and young adults have brains that are not fully developed and heavy drinking can lead to parts of the brain being damaged of altered over a short period of time. Alcohol, like many other drugs common to young adults and teens is easy to obtain and relatively cheap. Also, alcohol is not something that I portrayed as a bad thing; it is on TV, the radio, in books and in almost any restaurant. Growing up in America we think of alcohol just as a drink, and not a drug. Most people cannot imagine a party without drinking or using some other type of drug. The effects alcohol has on a growing brain are major. Alcohol influences the cerebral cortex, central nervous system, frontal lobes, cerebellum, and many other parts of a brain. As the brain grows the more stress it comes in to contact with the greater the chance of a flaw to arise and drinking alcohol while the brain is growing puts it in to unneeded stress. The brain is a complicated thing that continues to grow, even after we think we are done growing. Stressing the brain while it is developing can cause more harm than putting stress on it after most of it is done growing. One of the ways alcohol affects a developing brain is limiting memory. When people drink, the alcohol goes to the