ADDICTION AND ITS EFFECTS ON TEENAGERS

Addiction is a chronic medical situation involving interactions within brain circuits, genetics, one’s environment and a person’s life experiences. An individual suffering from addiction indulge in the use of substances or compulsive behaviors that continue in spite of their harmful consequences.

Causes: Exposure to addictive substances, social pressure, absence of necessary social support and poor skills of individuals to cope with environmental pressures.

The substance use or compulsive behavior becomes an addiction the more one uses the substance or indulges in such behaviors. It manifests when someone suffers from mental disorder.

Items that can be addicted to:

A teenager can be addicted to substances such as alcohol, marijuana, prescription drugs, over-the-counter (OTC) drugs, other illicit drugs such as heroin, amphetamines and cocaine as well as food.

Culturally, certain addictive behaviors such as working long hours, exercise, watching films, partying can be seen as positive addiction always lead to negative consequences for the child/ person involved.

Signs of addiction:

General signs to indicate that an act is becoming an addiction include lack of control, inability to stay away from a substance or behavior, withdrawal from social activities and dismissing risk factors despite their likely consequences. Effect of addiction on learning:

Addiction to drugs affects students between the ages of  13 and 24 The issue of addiction is compounded over time as the brain develops a tolerance to the addictive behavior or substance.

For instance, the brain will get used to the usual abnormal intake of drugs leading to negative consequences.

The chemical compound in stimulants and

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sedatives go into the brain and bloodstream causing the user to lose control of themselves or seek more of the harmful substances.

Research indicates that as the brain continues to develop until early age of 20s, underage alcohol consumption negatively affects the child’s brain development and subsequently its structure and function.

Addiction to drugs impairs memory and learning ability, reduces intellectual capacity, leads to higher absenteeism and poor educational outcomes.

Drugs such as opioids damage the brain’s white matter, and reduces the student’s ability to decide and behave rationally in stressful circumstances.

Students as teenagers engage in the abuse of cough and cold medicines because of the dextromethorphan content which leads to euphoric conditions or being “high” which causes memory loss and subsequently affects students academic activities.

Drug addiction by teenagers profoundly affects students academic achievement due to distractions and diverting their focus culminating in withdrawal symptoms often exhibited in between use of substance.

To stop being addicted:

Major ways to avoid addiction are to develop skills to anticipate high-risk scenarios, identify the common addiction triggers and learn to avoid them.

As a school, in realization of the dangers of addiction to students, we have established a counselling unit. The Counsellor helps to equip the children with skill to cope with life without a recourse to addictive habits