Healthy Behavior in Adolescents

When I hear "healthy behavior," the first thing I think of is my mother chanting "eat your veggies, drink your milk etc." Honestly there are more pressing issues that need to be addressed to modern day adolescents. I grew up as the typical nerdy, loser who had no friends for most of my childhood until high school. I then dated an older guy and it got pretty serious. In an attempt to impress him and his friends, I was eager to go along and try everything they were into including drugs, alcohol, and criminal activity. I'm not going to lie, I had a lot of fun in high school and really don't regret trying the things I did because I learned from it. However, what I learned was also a tough, painful lesson. The two issues I want to bring to light are drugs and abuse in teen relationships. I wish I could have recorded all the violence and loss my group of friends experienced, and then shown future generations the turmoil we all went through in a search to get high, or plain stupidity. I feel that may be the best option to really try to prevent these kids from starting down the road to drug addiction. Most of my friends became dealers or middle men at one point or another, and some, continue. I've known a lot of people who have overdosed and died, or simply were fighting over drugs and it got out of hand. I was one of the few lucky ones, but most my girlfriends were treated as objects and pure entertainment for the boys. The "relationships" they were in were unhealthy. Abuse, physical and emotional, was common, and it has affected their self esteem and self worth to this day. I know this sounds like I lived on the streets, or lived at a crackhouse. No, I grew up in typical, middle-class suburbs. All the houses were neatly lined up and the neighborhood "yard of the month" sign stood out front. I wonder if I grew up in an environment like mine and still was introduced and maintained a lifestyle like I described, what IS happening in the streets? What are the kids with no hope for a future living through? Most certainly, a living hell. I think we need to start early while kids are young. Remember the "just say no" campaigns? Yeah, they weren't very effective. Kids got excited to get a T-shirt and then went right back to it. I think raw, real information needs to be put out there. Stories of lost loved ones and friends. Visits from people permanently disabled from drugs. We need women to tell their stories of abuse and how there is a way out and a brighter future. I think the hard truth needs to be told, and it needs to be blunt. I hope no one else has to deal with the pain of losing a friend to drugs, but I know they will. Hopefully, we can diminish that number with campaigns, guest speakers, and presentations. Raw footage(like that show intervention) would have been much more effective to me, and hopefully will be to kids today.