Abuse In Adolescents

Everyday thousands of teenagers are peer pressured into trying drugs or alcohol. Which can lead to early addiction, in a critical time in a teen's life. Many teens try drugs or alcohol to boost their social status.

Teenage drug abuse is an issue that can result from a wide variety of social influences, stressful events, and mental disorders. Drug abuse among adolescents is a troubling issue because it decreases focus, increases the chance of consistency in behavior during adulthood, increases the chances of developing emotional issues, permanently damages the brain, and damages tissues in every system that can lead to death. Previous scientific research has identified that social factors, including the media and peers, play an important role in psychological development and impact the adolescent's decision to start experimenting with substances (Botvin 888). Appropriate solutions for the teenage drug abuse issue already exist, but the only remaining

Violence and abuse in Teenage dating has become a real serious issue in American society, much research has been provided showing evidence that violence and abuse during adolescent and teen years can have a great deal of effects on the mental health of individuals and is major contributing factor to domestic violence later in adulthood. Current research also reveals that a large percentage of teenagers are experiencing some amounts of physical, sexual, and even emotional/mental abuse in their dating relationships. The significance in the number of individuals involved in these behaviors is really making a great deal of implications on the roles of counselors and specialists. However in order for counselors,

Many teenagers between the ages of 12-18 are exposed or already on their way to addiction to substances that are not good for our mental or physical health. Many teens experiment with drugs but aren’t addicted. According to addictioncenters.com “teen drug abuse can have long term cognitive and behavioural effects since the teenage brain is still developing.” A study also shows that half of all new drug users are under 18. This is because our brains are still seeking the “thrill” and temptation of substances. Other common reasons are curiosity, peer pressure, stress, emotional struggles and wanting a escape. Thankfully drug use among teens, despite popular opinion are significantly decreasing. The teenage brain is very immature. By doing drugs as a teen you are at a greater risk for being an addicted adult.

A drug is a substance that alters the mind, body or both. Drug use is an increasing problem among teenagers in colleges today. Most drug use begins in the preteen and teenage years, the years most crucial in the maturation process (Shiromoto 5). During these years adolescents are faced with difficult tasks of discovering their self identity, clarifying their sexual roles, assenting independence, learning to cope with authority and searching for goals that would give their lives meaning. Drugs are readily available, adolescents are curious and venerable, and there is peer pressure to experiment, and there is a temptation to escape from conflicts. The use of drugs by teenagers is the result of a combination of factors such as peer

What are some of the contributing factors? Some scientists believe that certain individuals are at greater risk of drug dependence because of psychological factors, including difficulty controlling impulses, lack of values in drug use, low self-esteem, peer pressure, and depression. Risk-taking also increases between childhood and adolescence as a result of changes around the time of puberty in the brain’s socio-emotional system leading to increased reward-seeking, especially in the presence of peers. (3) Younger people also believe that they will not lose control if they use drugs. Genetics can also contribute to the increased likelihood that an individual will abuse drugs.

Some teenagers go through a depression stage with confusion and loneliness, some even consider harming themselves or taking drugs to cope with the depression. Some teenagers go through a period of stupid, reckless behavior. Some teenagers go through a period when drug addiction overrules their lives. When teens get peer pressured into taking drugs they think it will be cool, but throughout their addictive period they get involved with bad people. Research has shown that it take about 11 seconds after a teen takes a drug and they can be addicted. Teenagers have very high chances of addiction. Young people grasp things very quickly and can easily get addicted to things quicker, because their minds are constantly growing and it speeds up their learning process. According to the article, "Experts Link Brains' Immaturity, Juvenile Crime", Juveniles are more vulnerable and susceptible to negative influences and outside pressures, including peer pressure. This peer pressure often comes from a persons closest friends. During the development of a teen brain it matures and grows. People overcome challenges in adulthood by remembering choices they made during their teenage years and what those choices led them

One fact from the source was that “Teenage drug abuse is one of the major international concerns that we are facing today. There are various reasons why teenagers begin using drugs. For many teenagers, getting high on drugs is their way of getting into the “in crowd.” As a result, teenage drug abuse is often rooted in the concept of social acceptance.” This fact is important because it explicitly explains the possible reason behind the behavior of drug abuse. Another fact is that “Teenage drug abuse may also be rooted in the concept of testing oneself. There is a fallacy floating around that if you are not able to handle drugs, then you are weak. Given this, teenagers begin using drugs in an effort to prove themselves. Many times teens take more and more of a drug to try to impress their peers. At a party, a teen may take repeated hits off a bong amid the cheers of their friends. With this level of support and praise from friends, teens often feel good about themselves, leading them to repeat this behavior.” This fact is important because it brings how social status and popularity could also be a major factor. My last fact is that “If a teen’s parents or other immediate family members have struggled with abuse and addiction, it increases the likelihood of the teen developing a substance abuse issue as well.” This fact is also important because it shows how it can be spread through family genes and that it has been a major problem for many generations. My third source speaks about a certain branch of drug abuse popular in teens called

Among adolescents aged 12 to 17 years, 9.8 % are estimated to be current users of illicit drugs, with 4.9 % using drugs other than marijuana. Nearly three quarters of students have started to drink alcohol and nearly half (47%) have tried using an illicit drug (not including alcohol or tobacco) by the senior year of high school.” (Hassan, Harris, Sherritt, Van Hook, & Brooks, 2009)

Many of the results I found on the basis of why the youth are more prone to starting drugs and altering their future in a negative manner were not surprising. I knew that teenagers have brains that are still developing therefore, their impulses are more out of control “because the cellular adaptations associated with addiction processes occur in the same regions of the brain as those undergoing preferential maturation during adolescence, adolescence should be viewed as a period of particular vulnerability to the effects of rewarding drugs and to the development of future drug-related problems” (Centre on Substance Abuse, 2007, p. 35). Also, it’s not surprising how high of an influence the youth experience around his or her peers because all

When dealing with addictive behaviors in Psychology, people find that adolescents are more likely to get involved with addictions and uncontrollable wants with things such as alcohol, smoking, drugs, sex, and much more. With those subjects listed, the age groups more prone to opening up doors to these addictions are the ages of 18-23. This is said for a number of reasons. There is loneliness from living away from home, there is more personal responsibility to manage, there is a desire to escape hard challenges of independence, there is a fear of not finding an occupational foothold in the future, there is more availability and diversity of illegal substances, and there is much more partying with peers (Pickhardt, 2012). When growing into the stages of adolescence, different urges and wants that are hard to turn away from appeal greater to the minds of a youth than simply turning away. This age group falls under the temptation of peer pressure, which could also be a leading cause to the addictions as well. Sometimes, when first developing an addiction to something, it is easier to walk away when not commonly opening up to it everyday. Once the beginning stages of addiction pass, it becomes harder to turn away from what they have been used to doing for a great period of time which is proven to ultimately lead to destruction of ones body, mind, and life.

When examining at a broad scope, traumatic events are often linked to PTSD (Cepeda, Saint Onge, Kaplan & Valdez, 2010), but this is generally examined at the adult level. Hurricane Katrina took its psychological toll on adolescents as well. Just as adults turn to substance use in stressful situations, adolescents follow this same pattern (Beaudoin, 2011). Adolescents are particularly vulnerable in the wake of a disaster (Wagner, Brief, Vielhauer, Sussman, Keane & Malow, 2009). The exposures of this disaster on adolescents lead to the development of destructive health behaviors. After disaster adolescents, namely female adolescents, suffer interpersonal victimization (Wagner, Brief, Vielhauer, Sussman, Keane & Malow, 2009). Young females are

When I was 12 years old, I recall watching as my brother piled into my father’s Honda, leaving for his first stint in rehab. As tears streamed down my face, I promised myself I would never try any sort of illicit drug as I grew older. A promise that I would inevitably break within a few more years. Growing up, I watched both my brother and mother fight terrible drug addictions that almost cost them their lives. Even after witnessing the terrible side effects of drug abuse throughout my childhood, by 18 years old I found myself, too, battling a drug addiction. Today, one in every 10 Americans over the age of 12 are addicted to alcohol, or some sort of illicit drug. Out of that staggering number of citizens, only 11 percent receive any sort of treatment for their addiction. Temptation is present in everyone and the truth is, most people do try illicit drugs at some point in their lives. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to prove that drugs are becoming more and more accessible on the streets and have become a growing problem in our society, especially with college-aged kids.

As a matter of fact, alcohol abuse in the united states has evolve because kids these days are taking the privilege abusing rights. I think age limited for Alcohol should be raised to due to teenage adolescent should be move up because in America alcohol has cause a lot of problems with teenager adolescent in car accidents. Accordingly, teenager adolescent there is consequent of drinking and driving while using alcohol and abusing it to put where pay the consequent abusing the alcohol. Without doubt If teenager adolescent did not increase I don’t think or in fact that or by all means it would not be that high due to drinking or driving. For that reason, any human being doesn’t know how handle alcohol when their out with friend hanging and

"Statistics prove that 30% of teenagers have shoplifted at least once due to peer pressure. Over half of teenagers will experiment with alcohol. About 40% of teenagers have tried drugs," states Jeanie Lerche Davis author of Teenagers: Why Do They Rebel. The fact there is a new found freedom gives these adolescents opportunities to get pushed into doing the wrong thing. It begins with one person who is more rebellious than others to create the domino effect. When a child is a toddler, they are impressionable, they follow the lead of the adults in their lives. If they hear their parents say a curse word they will repeat it. Teenagers are impressionable in a very similar way and they’re stuck in the middle of learning who they are and who they want to be. If one friend shoplifts, they can easily get pressured into it, the same goes for alcohol and drugs. These things become cool, and when you're a teenager that's all that matters. In reality though doing these “cool” things are actually incredibly harmful, leading these teenagers down a wrong path.