Rehab centre says number of addicts aged 18 to 25 has trebled in two years.
Binge drinking and a habitual party lifestyle have led to an unprecedented number of young adults attending residential treatment programmes for both alcohol and cocaine detox, according to the Rutland Centre.
The private addiction rehabilitation centre in south Dublin said the number of people aged between 18 and 25 who underwent rehab for both alcohol and cocaine addiction has trebled over the past two years.
It has also witnessed a doubling of the number of adults under the age of 40 being treated over the same period.
The centre's 24 beds are now routinely filled by an increasingly younger cohort whose partying lifestyle has caught up with them. A five-week stay at the facility costs €11,500.
Rutland Centre medical director and psychiatrist Dr John O'Connor said he is treating people in their 20s for alcoholism, drug addiction or both that typically began when they were barely into their teens.
"It seems to me they started drinking in their early teens and it became an established habit by the age of 19 and 20 and a full-blown addiction before the age of 25," he said.
There has also been a resurgence in the abuse of cocaine that was more prevalent during the Celtic Tiger era but has become part and parcel of the party lifestyle in some circles.
"They often start off the night drinking to excess and then feel diminished and take cocaine to keep partying," said Dr O'Connor.
Source: Allison Bray, Irish Independent, 20/12/15
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