In a world where alcohol is constantly seen, where drugs are joked about regularly and popping pills has a common place in society, it’s hard for teens and children to stay away from all the bad influence in life.
For example, 68 percent of the nation’s high school students will attend a school where drugs are used, kept and sold. Twenty three percent of teens know someone that has done ecstasy, 26 percent know someone that has abused prescription drugs, and it was reported by 23 percent of teens that marijuana was easier for them to obtain than beer or cigarettes, as found by the Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD) organization.
Diane Congdon, a health and aerobics teacher at RHS, said that problems with teens stem from home life. If students are provided with a good influence or someone to look up to and who will teach their children healthy habits.
“Parents must be involved,” said Congdon.
Teens with parents that are involved with the changes in their lives are twice more likely to talk about stress, depression or boredom than teens that don’t, according to The Drug and Alcohol Scene. Students with parents not involved are 42 percent more likely to get involved in dangerous behavior.
According to The Drug & Alcohol Scene website (news.drugfree.org), nearly one in ten kids has a parent that is dependent of or is abusing some form of drugs or alcohol.
According to SADD, three out of every four high school students will have consumed a proper amount of alcohol by the end of high school, and two out of five will have consumed alcohol by eighth grade.
Other reasons that Congdon knows kids become unhealthy are that they have become lazy. With kids constantly being around cars, computers and cell phones, it’s easy for them to become reliant upon them.
Cars can be a helping hand for teens that get into drugs or alcohol, according to The Partnership for a Drug-Free America organization. Kids with cars can get to a place where harmful substances are accessed more easily. Cars are also used by many teens as a kind of second bedroom, a place where they can do whatever they want that their parents rarely spend time.
Kids don’t instantly want to do drugs or drink alcohol to feel grown up and mature, it’s a process.
“Kids don’t go outside and have fun because that’s not how grown ups are,” said Congdon.
There are too many pressures out there for kids and teens. Teens may feel pressured into becoming sexually active and turn to substances to gain confidence or lose inhibitions. 24 percent of teens aged 15-17 say they have gone farther sexually than planned because they were inhibited by drugs or alcohol.
When a child is struggling at school it can create problems at home, or vice-versa, which in turn can lead to drugs and teen drama such as jealousy, fighting, dating, or gossip can add to problems and make kids want to fit in even more.
It’s hard for any teen to stay away from every kind of problem that could in anyway lead to drugs, all kids have to deal with these problems, and it’s our generation.
“[Teen’s] choices now will affect their future,” Congdon said.
It’s difficult to make healthy habits when a person is well into their forties or even twenties, Congdon believes. “It’s a lifetime of good decisions.”