Easy access to the substance is undoubtedly one of the main risk factors for our youth. Medellín and the metropolitan area is one of the places in Colombia where we have the highest presence of psychoactive substances. The most consumed by our young people are alcohol and tobacco. (according to the Unodc report, 40.5 percent of adolescents use or have used legal drugs).
Other risk factors present in our young people are social pressure, belonging to dysfunctional families, lack of clear rules and limits, diffuse roles at the family level, psychological disorders, among others.
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Adolescence itself presents an important risk, since it is an age in which there are many changes, many external and internal searches that can generate a special vulnerability to substance abuse and other addictive behaviors.
The problems of adolescence
Adolescence is framed in a search for identification and differentiation, it is a stage where they are building an identity and begin to leave home facing many dynamics of the contexts in relation to different practices, places, pressures, associations, among others; without often having the necessary elements to face the different situations they face.
It is a stage of physical and hormonal changes, rebelliousness, insecurity or deified thinking, establishment of the norm and limits, curiosity, learning by modeling by observing the actions of their peer group, they are torn between dependence and independence, they are not yet aware of the perception of harm or risks.
They often believe that nothing bad can happen to them and see the possibility of getting sick or having complications in their areas of performance from their choices and behaviors as distant or nonexistent. There is also an immediacy to get what they want, skipping the construction, the process and the time it requires.
The beginning of drug use in adolescents at an early age generates a risk for normal organic and brain development. Studies have shown that when drugs are consumed at an early age, normal brain development is affected, the frontal lobe and reward systems are modified, which has implications in people’s behavior and in the difficulty to control their impulses. Not to mention the cardiovascular, respiratory, renal, psychiatric and other risks.
How to prevent?
To prevent these factors mentioned above, should seek to raise awareness among adolescents. But something very important is the family. Most families externalize the problem on their children or on the one who suffers from the addiction problem, this problem is a system, in which everyone has contributed in some way to its appearance and therefore everyone “should take responsibility”. Prevention is the best way and much more convenient than intervention.
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The best prevention begins at home, it consists of establishing assertive and effective communication, improving interpersonal relationships, and reviewing the parenting system, which must be balanced and inclusive. It must generate responsibilities to all the members of the family, there must be rules, “let be”, that is to say, to potentiate the being of its members without establishing blame or responsibilities that do not correspond to the person.
Many times they are also overprotected and this does not “let the person be”. Appropriate use of free time, support in academics and in the different activities that each member prefers.
Addiction is a wake-up call, it is an accumulation of accounts payable, of which sometimes we are aware and sometimes we are not, it is a symptom of the whole system that has been weakened and appears through a visible link. This call must be heeded as an opportunity to improve, with openness, humility, with the ability to recognize what each of us has to do to improve the situation.
Remember that your children are not lost in the street, but at home…
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