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How peer pressure gets in the way of alcohol and drugs.

by: Romina Villarreal

It is said today that High-school teenagers nowadays constantly are feeling peer- pressure from their friends, classmates and mostly the majority of people they hang- out with. They have experienced feeling pressured by others to do drugs and drink mainly just to feel part of a group and fit-in. Peer-pressure has gone to a level that can get in the way of teenagers decisions and in some way control people’s actions.

Why is peer-pressure able to control our actions and decisions?
As we grow older and become teenagers we come through experiences that give us hard things that make us indecisive. For example: Which college are we going to choose, were to work, relationships and mostly the decision whether to do drugs and drink because your friends are. Making this type of decisions by your self is hard enough, but when people around you get involved in them they can push you to do either the right thing or not, so they can either be a good influence or a bad one. Feeling peer-pressured is completely normal and all human beings have gone through and experience where peer pressure is involved, but sometimes we have to let those peers away so that you by your own can make the right decision that you believe that is beneficial for yourself. Why is peer-pressure able to control our actions and decisions? The peers, or the persons that push you to do something can be very persuasive and get into your mind. Saying this I mean that when you are indecisive about something and somebody is there to help, the peer can be very argumentative

and give you many reasons whether to do something or not. Also, the eager to “fit-in” in a group of people is always a teenagers “wish” or “desire”. So, he or she can sometimes do what it takes to include him or she in the group. This is something that is also part of peer-pressure, since you feel the eager to do something only for the fact that you want to fit-in.

During an experience of peer-pressure it can be tough to say no. So the peers can almost always get what they want, you need to fight with your own thoughts to have the confidence to say no. Teenagers always experience peer-pressure, we have to work with ourselves and practice to ignore peer-pressure so that we be able to decide on our ow, make are own choices and specially understand and know a way to say NO.

Sources:

Dealing With Peer Pressure (for Kids) - Nemours Kidshealth

D'Arcy Lyness - https://kidshealth.org/en/kids/peer-pressure.html

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