Drugs, Alcohol and Sex: Why We All Loved the Teenage Years

Your teenage years are the best time of your life. Right?

Yeah, I don’t think so. Most teenagers go through that ‘depressed and angsty’ stage, where they hate everyone but not as much as they hate themselves. Some more so than others. The only real difference is how they react to it.

Some find recluse in studying and trying as hard as they possibly can to be something in life. But, let’s face it. Those are few and far between.

Others turn to their friends and have wicked awesome weekends that they “can’t remember” because they are just that awesome. Or, at least that’s what they say to make themselves feel better.

The other kind of teenager is the one who is the most wrapped up in their own self destruction. They can be well distinguished by the cuts on their wrists/forearms/upper arms/thighs. I was one of those.

It sounds crazy, to be sure. How can physical harm make you feel better? Well, it’s just science on the surface. The rush of endorphins after you make that cut is what makes you feel better. To a poetic depressive, however, it’s all about symbolism. How the blood is like the bad energy and cutting releases it into the wild.

Of course, this is a stage we all outgrow. The way we outgrow them is similar to the way we deal with the feelings to begin with.

Some push harder at university, and attempt to give meaning to their miserable lives. Or get some shitty job at McDonalds so they can buy happiness. Others party for a few years, making as many friends as possible so that they can feel as though at least someone likes the person they have become.

Then you have those in-betweeners, like me. We go to uni and have expectations placed upon us by our friends, families and society. We try for a little while, starting off as those try-hards. After we’ve realised the freedom we now have, we damage ourselves in a different way; with the three best things known to mankind: drugs, sex, and alcohol.

For everyone, University is the only place where alcoholism is not just acceptable; it’s downright encouraged. I remember my very first university lecture. It was “Microbiology and Biochemistry” and my lecturer told all 300+ of us students that, “for a successful education, you need to have both study and a social life. You can’t just study, or you’ll fail. And you can’t just party, or you’ll fail. The people sitting next to you will be your only motivation.” The message I and most of the people sitting around me derived from that was: “GO NUTS.” And so we did.

The routine with which we did that was very simple: alcohol, drugs, sex, study and then sleep. Some of us work to find more money to do those first two; others have their rich Daddy to pay for it.

Your teenage years of drowning yourselves in vodka and pot, really don’t match up to the hype.