Editor’s note:\u00a0The names of students interviewed for this article have been changed.<\/p>\n
Drug and alcohol addictions have always been an issue among teenagers, and this is true for nearly every\u00a0high school in the United States. This school is no exception.<\/p>\n
There are countless reasons why teenagers start abusing substances. Some are affected by anxiety or\u00a0depression and are searching for happiness. Others, such as Tom, starting using drugs to try and fit in.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been dealing with peer pressure all throughout high school,\u201d Tom said. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of examples\u00a0that I could point to, but the biggest one for me would be usage of illegal drugs, specifically marijuana,\u00a0during my freshman year. I was new, and I wanted to have friends, so I used it a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many teenagers view marijuana as a harmless drug, but this is not true. The Behavioral Health Services of\u00a0Arkansas (BHSA) said, \u201cMarijuana can reduce a person\u2019s motivation and increase anxiety, fear, or panic.\u00a0The active ingredient THC impairs the brain\u2019s ability to store new information to learn.\u201d<\/p>\n
It takes more than eight days to completely erase the effects of marijuana, and if it\u2019s used more than twice\u00a0a week, the user will constantly be under the influence.<\/p>\n
Contrary to popular belief, marijuana is addictive and can ultimately lead to unintended consequences.\u00a0\u201cMarijuana affected me negatively a lot,\u201d Tom said. \u201cIt hurt me at home with my family and led me down\u00a0a bad path.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere isn\u2019t too much peer pressure happening at parties,\u201d Tom said, \u201cbecause most of the people there\u00a0have already tried drugs or alcohol. They think that they might as well keep going since they\u2019ve already\u00a0done it once.\u201d Tom said that this also leads people to experiment and try new and dangerous drugs.<\/p>\n
Drugs such as cocaine, heroin, and ecstasy are becoming increasingly popular. These drugs are highly\u00a0addictive and highly dangerous. Because there aren\u2019t any regulations on these drugs, getting a bad batch\u00a0or using them wrong the first time can kill someone instantly.<\/p>\n
Prescription pain killers are also commonly used because they\u2019re easy for teens to obtain. These are\u00a0addictive and often lead to overdoses. Many people who abuse prescription pain killers will move to more\u00a0dangerous drugs eventually.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery teenager wants to break the rules and try new things, so drinking alcohol is a huge problem in high\u00a0school,\u201d Tom said. \u201cPeople also do stupid things while under the influence all the time, like fighting or\u00a0drunk driving.\u201d<\/p>\n
The BHSA said, \u201c5.1 million young people reported binge drinking at least once in the last month, and 11\u00a0percent of all alcohol consumed in the United States is consumed by people age 11-20.\u201d The effects of\u00a0binge drinking are hard-hitting and long-lasting.<\/p>\n
The BHSA said, \u201cThe younger a person starts using alcohol, the more likely an addiction will develop.\u00a0The hippocampus, the brain region critical for forming new memories, is particularly affected by alcohol\u00a0use during adolescence.\u201d<\/p>\n
Teenagers who drank on a regular basis scored drastically lower than non-drinkers on vocabulary, general\u00a0information, and memory tests. These mental effects can last a person\u2019s entire life.<\/p>\n
Drugs and alcohol can affect teens who don\u2019t even abuse them. Bill said, \u201cI lost some friends because of\u00a0drugs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bill said that some of his friends started drinking and using illegal drugs, but he wanted no part in it. \u201cI\u00a0just told them no,\u201d Bill said. \u201cThey just stopped hanging out with me because I wasn\u2019t doing the same\u00a0things as them. The people who pressure you the most to do things you don\u2019t want to do aren\u2019t really your\u00a0friends.\u201d<\/p>\n
Teens use drugs and alcohol for many reasons besides peer pressure. School nurse Ms. Christie Mabrey\u00a0said, \u201cI spent a lot of time working in rehab centers as a nurse, and seeing the affects that drugs can have\u00a0on people really stuck with me.\u201d Ms. Mabrey also raised three sons, so she has insight into the minds of\u00a0teens.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeer pressure definitely plays a big part in why teens abuse drugs,\u201d Ms. Mabrey said, \u201cbut there\u2019s a lot\u00a0more to it. Our society puts a lot of focus onto physical health, but it doesn\u2019t really talk about mental\u00a0health.<\/p>\n
Ms. Mabrey said that many drug abusers are trying to treat anxiety or depression. \u201cEverybody has some\u00a0emotional pain, and some people choose to treat that pain with drugs. Those are the people that become\u00a0addicts,\u201d Ms. Mabrey said.<\/p>\n
Ms. Mabrey said that drugs and alcohol create a temporary euphoria, but causes users to delve deeper into\u00a0anxiety or depression after the high is over.<\/p>\n
\u201cA big reason why teens succumb to peer pressure so often is because they want to have friends,\u201d Ms.\u00a0Mabrey said. \u201cLoneliness can be absolutely debilitating.\u201d<\/p>\n
Loneliness causes higher levels of stress and sleep deprivation. Lonely people are also much more likely\u00a0to commit suicide and to develop addiction to drugs or alcohol according to the U.S. National Library of\u00a0Medicine and the National Institute of Health.\u00a0There are many ways to avoid peer pressure. George said, \u201cPeople try to get me to do stuff all the time at\u00a0parties. I\u2019m not interested in drugs or any of that. Peer pressure just doesn\u2019t work on me.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have an interest in what\u2019s best for me, and I think that\u2019s really important,\u201d George said, \u201cI don\u2019t try to\u00a0make anybody else happy by doing what they ask me to do.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think a lot of people succumb to peer pressure because they think that people won\u2019t be friends with\u00a0them if they say no to drugs,\u201d George said, \u201cbut something that\u2019s really important to realize is that your\u00a0true friends never ask you to do something that you\u2019re uncomfortable with.\u201d<\/p>\n
George said that your real friends will be the ones who try to make you a better person, not the ones who\u00a0ask you to drink. \u201cPeer pressure will go away once you find your real friends,\u201d George said. \u201cInstead of\u00a0them pressuring you, they\u2019ll try and get you to do the right thing. The people that are asking you to drink\u00a0aren\u2019t your friends. They don\u2019t have your best interest at heart.\u201d<\/p>\n
Editor’s note:\u00a0The names of students interviewed for this article have been changed. Drug and alcohol addictions have always been an issue among teenagers, and this is true for nearly every\u00a0high school in the United States. This school is no exception. There are countless reasons why teenagers start abusing substances. Some are affected by anxiety or\u00a0depression…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":7552,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[215,196,1],"tags":[225],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/liftoffnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/20161026_154229.jpg?fit=1024%2C768&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3xfZw-1Xr","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/liftoffnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7529"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/liftoffnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/liftoffnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/liftoffnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/liftoffnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7529"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/liftoffnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7529\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7555,"href":"https:\/\/liftoffnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7529\/revisions\/7555"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/liftoffnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/liftoffnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/liftoffnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/liftoffnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}