The Traumatic Nature of the Death Unfortunately traumatic death involving underage drinking can lead to many different types of trauma to the body, including alcohol poisoning, drowning, falling from a height, as- sault, car crashes, death by fire and many other ways. Underage drinking consequences can have many unanticipated results and loved ones may be left trying to figure out what happened and why. In the case of alcohol poisoning, because alco- hol acts as a depressant on the body’s system, the excess alcohol may cause a person to stop breathing or prevent their gag reflex from work- ing correctly. Many people do not realize that a high level of alcohol can actually cause brain damage or even death. Sometimes those around someone who is drinking excessively do not realize the person is experiencing trauma and may leave the person to “sleep it off” and not seek the medical attention needed. Depending on how your loved one died, you may worry about what actually happened to What Makes Traumatic/Sudden Death Different? It is difficult to imagine the magnitude of pain associated with the traumatic death of a loved one. When someone is killed suddenly and/or vi- olently, grief reactions of family and friends can be intense, complicated, and long lasting. If your loved one was killed as a result of an underage drinking tragedy you may feel a depth of emo- tions you would never have thought possible. At times it may feel like you have gone crazy, but as unusual as you may feel, these responses are a normal part of the grief process related to traumatic death.
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