The Traumatic Nature of the Death Unfortunately traumatic death involving under- age drinking can lead to many different types of trauma to the body, including alcohol poisoning, drowning, falling from a height, assault, 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 them and if they were in pain. There are many ways underage drinking can lead to someone’s death, some of those ways can be traumatic. Your loved one’s death may or may not have been violent. You may be concerned your loved one suffered extreme pain or felt alone as they died. This is a common fear for those loved ones left behind.
Our brains have a unique way of protect- ing ourselves from feeling pain. When a person’s body en- dures trauma, they may not feel pain or they may drift in an
It may be helpful to talk about your fears or anxiety surrounding your loved one’s death.
4
Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker