Drug Awareness Month 2015: What can you Do?

April is drug awareness month and as I sat down to write I wondered what you ideas I might have to share on the topic. Kids do lots of things they would never do on their own simply to be part of the crowd. Trying to keep them away from being in the in-crowd is like trying to choose their friends. It won’t happen. You cannot be everywhere as a parent or as a teacher and you cannot make them see things the way you do, especially when they are trying to break out of being Mommy’s little kid. They want to choose their own friends and for at least a lot of those formative years, many youngsters will decide to do things that will make them appear more grown up in their friends’ eyes.

In short, kids often make bad choices, unaware or unconcerned about the consequences. Sadly, all too often their actions not only ruin their adolescence, but sometimes their whole lives. While we would love to stop them from self-destructive behaviors, the most influence we have as teachers is to help them gain the wisdom to know the consequences of what they are choosing to do. We can also help give them the strength to resist dangerous peer-pressure. There are always the kids who think they are doing something good for themselves and shock us all when it turns out bad. Let me share a personal story of some dear friends.

My friend’s twin boys adopted in a foreign country and taken out of poverty at the age of eight had to overcome many obstacles when assimilating into this country and their school. First there was their unguided and poorly supported childhood. Before coming here, they had been pretty much on their own, having to fend for themselves, which often meant trying to procure food for themselves and their younger sisters. In their old life, there was often no one to feed them, set rules, or hold them up to any set of standards. Once here, they had to learn a new language and an entirely new set of behaviors. This need along with their impulsiveness and learning disabilities made it difficult for them to fit in. No one knows how they would have fared if they had not had each other, but the power of two makes more things possible – some good, some bad. Over the years they came up with some very original schemes, the last of which occurred as a result of something they thought they was good – taking protein supplements – but turned out not even close to being good.

When they should have been receiving their diplomas and celebrating their high school graduation, they were fighting a resistant infection in the hospital. How could young men do something they thought safe and healthy – taking protein supplements – and get so sick? First, the scary part is that kids can get just about just anything, healthy or not – by going online. In this case, what damage could protein supplements do? Lots of young men take the stuff whether because they are self-motivated or because coaches encourage them. It is almost age appropriate to want to get bigger, stronger, and more muscular. The boys, who had been spending much of their earnings on huge amounts of protein powder and using the stuff for months, started to get annoyed that they were not seeing the big improvement they anticipated. It was taking too long to get big, strong, and muscular. This is where the fact that they had each other turned out to be unhelpful. The two of them got an idea that might not have occurred to one mind alone much less have been acted on. Without anyone knowing they decided that if they injected the solution right into their muscles, they would get the desired result faster and they ordered a batch of syringes. Getting them online was easy. It was delivered to their home without their parents – both working – having a clue. And almost as soon they came, they started experimenting with the injections. Oh yes, their muscles got bigger, but what was happening was not healthy muscle tissue growth because the increase in size was painful and made their arms difficult to move. Their arms got swollen. One of the boy’s arms was so inflamed he could not bend it without terrible pain. Their arms were swollen, painful, and hot with infection.

I tell this story not because I think we physical education teachers could or should lecture on anti-supplement and anti-drug issues, but because young people look up to us. We hold a powerful and influential position in their developing years. What we say has value to them even if they shrug us off. Of course, there are students who twist our intent or imagine our goals for them in ways different than we intended. And sadly, if and when they get it they do not always use what we taught in a timely manner. However, even if they don’t seem too attentive to what we say, that is not a good enough reason to avoid saying what they do not want to hear.

We regularly see our students in a more casual settings than the typical classroom and have plenty of teachable moments to address these issues, even when they are not in our lesson plan. When those moments crop up we should weigh-in and help steer our students’ thinking. Whatever we say will sink in eventually but missing the opportunity is a sad loss.

To be successful when communicating about drug awareness and supplement usage issues, we must – in the same conversation – acknowledge their motivation for use: whether it be supplements, drugs, smoking, or getting high. We need to casually acknowledge their true goals without being accusatory. We must reflect upon what is making them do stuff that we think might not be to their benefit. Recognize if they seem to be changing their personality and choices in order to fit in with the in-crowd. Engage in conversation about using aids to get more muscular strength, changing one’s diet in dangerous ways for greater or lesser girth, or taking all sorts of things to improve their athletic performance to be faster or hit bigger. Maybe they just want to become more attractive to those they are interested in? Whatever the motivation we have a responsibility to share our fears of the consequences and to acknowledge how much we care about them. When we get the picture of what their goals are and they recognize we are listening and understanding, we open the possibility to discussing suitable alternatives for achieving the kinds of changes they are seeking and expressing our fears about where the wrong decisions can take them.

I find that sharing stories often do the trick to let the kids weigh in and be honest. Once I have told them a true story the kids start listening. Even stories like the one I shared above can make an impression. We need to teach kids that not all well-intentioned behaviors have successful outcomes if done incorrectly. Steering our students away from bad stuff is so much easier if we can get them to feel good in their own skins. I’m convinced that anti-drug education should start with ego-strengthening activities and we physical educators are ideally positioned to do this.

We teach in a social environment and this gives us many opportunities for good input. We need to give them honest positive feedback and suggestions to help our students feel better about themselves – THE BETTER!

Enjoy the glow of spring and be wary of the freedom it brings as well. Spring is a renewal for adults, but experimental time for growing teenagers. If you see something strange in your students, an uncharacteristic change of behavior or large weight gain or loss, follow up with the health professional in your school and don’t be afraid to alert the parents.