Teens and Drugs

"Every year, more than 4,300 alcohol-related deaths occur in youth under the age of 21. 25% of people that abuse prescription drugs at age 13 or younger become addicts at some point in their lifetime"(Source: www.DrugAbuse.gov).

Why so many teens begin to use drugs?

• Peer pressure
• Conflict at home
• Poor performance at school
• Genetic link
• Self-image issues

Peer Pressure

• Many teens describe how they were pressured in certain situations by fellow teens. When so many people tell you to join them for doing something that makes you uncomfortable, you often are stressed and feel like the pressure will go away once you do what they want you to do.

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• This can include being offered an alcoholic drink at a homecoming, being asked to skip school, or even to join to bully your classmate together. And when you ask a drug addict how they started using drugs, they often say something like, "I was pressured by my friends", or "I joined my friends".

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• However, does following the pressure solve the discomfort? Maybe, however often you focus too much on escaping from the stress that you don't realize what the actions will do to your future. Drugs don't solve any of your problems!

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• In situations like peer pressure, you need to be able to speak up your will. With firm determination, don't fall for it! Remember the live consequences such as: expelled from school, addiction, irregular body behaviors, and many health problems.

Conflict at home

• Before you experience someone else's life, you never truly know what they've been through. This includes their life at home. What kind of struggles is the person or the person's family going through.

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• Some might have to deal with split families, unsupportive parents, family fighting though health problems, orphen, lack of proper education, low incomes, and someone abusing drugs or heavy alcohol ("Genetic Link" slide).Teens receive a lot of stress from dealing with real life conflict at home happening to their own family.

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• For a kid, these stresses really push their mental well being. They need to find something outside of home that can help them enjoy and eAnd many teens actually are introduced to drugs and alcohol. The sudden warmth, wonderful feeling, and confidence attracts the teen.

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• They are highly in danger for addiction because they start to be dependent on drug use. Also, once you are exposed to any drug, you have higher chance of death. Addiction is a very hard problem to fix. The things that you did to avoid the conflict just layed another conflict.

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• Too much use of alcohol impairs balance, speech, reaction time, poor performance at school, and high blood pressure. Nicotine use leads to difficulty concentrating, lung disease, and sleeping disorder.

Poor performance at school

• Poor performance at school is one of the side effects of constantly using drugs but it can also be the reason why teens start using them. Teens who show no interest in school might be because they didn’t find their career interest, something they are good at, or find the education at school hard for them.

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• This is actually a very common struggle many teens face. They don’t know what to do in the future so they don’t find education as important as right at that moment.This stress can be a good motivation however, once it lasts too long, it can bring more worries and stress.

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• Teens can find drugs while looking for better than going to school or doing homework which they feel is pointless to them who have no future goals.They might start smoking, drinking, driving and drinking at the same time, and take illegal substances.

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• Illegal drugs are often expensive. The more they take drugs, the higher dept they need to pay back. Teens, who are sponsered by their parents can’t deal with the payment and this can lead to suicide.

Genetic link

• Also one of the big problem that cause many teens to start using drugs is related to their parents. When a child is born and raised in a family where one or more parent have problems with drug use, it is more likely that a child will grow up and fall into drug use than most teens.

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• Seeing a parent drunk every night, smoking a pack of cigarettes a day will eventually be an everyday thing for some teens. In their mind, these things can be a normal behavior and a healthy thing. Using drugs in an early age brings increased health damage and a higher chance of becoming an addict.

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• These teens lack proper education on drugs nor they are aware of the danger. They also have a higher chance of being exposed to angry parents, corporal punishments, and high levels of stress.

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• Some of the most commonly used drugs by young teens is Marijuana. Use of Marijuana impairs thinking, memory, balance, coordination, and causes anxiety, cancer, and weakens the immune system.

Self-Image issuse

• During the teenage years, our body releases a huge amount of hormones that bring changes to our body, this is also called puberty.This is a very normal condition that happens to every healthy human.

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• Since puberty works differently for every child, teens often compare themselves to other kids which they believe is the perfect example of a perfect body type.

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• These kinds of comparisons can lead to low self-esteem, depression, and obsession with beauty. This change in the mental health can change who you hang out with. And in some cases you find yourself doing drugs and breaking rules. Kids who usually offer you drugs think they are cool by doing drugs and act like they are grown ups.

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• They don’t really think about the responsibilities they have when they sell drugs to their peers. They don’t care if their friend get health risks from doing drugs with them. You need to protect yourself! Nobody speaks up your opinions for you.