Binging in the Moment

Everybody has their youthful moments where they go out and get lost in the moment. For some this means curling up in front of the TV with a good book and some tea, while for a large majority of our current generation’s young peoples, it can mean the exact opposite in that many of them go out and party like the worlds coming to an end within the next 24 hours.

Of course with the dark things on the news these days it’s really hard to argue with them not to think like that, it still remains a risky way of living for the ones who are supposed to be taking the reins at some point in the future, don’t you agree?

In a recent article I came across, I learnt of an interesting research study that was conducted with some rats and heavy drinking. What was discovered was quite a disturbing state of affairs when translated to the possibility of it happening in the adolescent brain as it matures into adulthood.

The study showed vast differences in brain activity between rats that had been put through a ‘binge drinking’ phase and other rats that had just gone on to live normal lives and the results were quite scary as things like memory problems cropped up along with other impairments such as attention and judgement problems, not to mention struggling with the ability to learn new skills.

So it’s safe to say the study showed that ‘living in the moment’ for these poor test subjects wasn’t exactly the greatest idea for them as they proved to have long term effects.

Now imagine if one has to substitute this with the average teenager instead of some innocent lab rat? What kind of future would this teenager have as an adult with such damage done to themselves, all for the sake of going out because that’s what they do?

I’m curious, would they be so eager to live in the moment if they could see down the line a few years and how much neurological damage they’d done to themselves, would they still go all out then?

I imagine many adults today regret much of what they have done in their youthful days, while some only see it as a mere passing phase of ‘growing up’, so there are many who wouldn’t change a thing. It’s realities like this that have me questioning how society has created such a curious niche for such acceptable behaviour that, despite it’s relatively destructive possibilities, spans across cultures and religions and has infiltrated every social standing, regardless of generation.

Interesting, very interesting indeed…. Something tells me though, that despite this new revelation that our young people’s health is impaired by this activity, that is so ingrained in society, it is clearly in no danger of going anywhere so long as a brewery exists.