The Issue of Smoking and Alcohol Drinking Among Adolescents

The popularity of smoking upon the adolescent is quickly spreading. Even though that they know that smoking is harmful to them. They would set aside those harmful effects and warnings just to satisfy their own lust and wants.

Young adolescents and teenagers are easily influenced by the things around them. It may be things or people, it is inevitable to not be influenced by the things or the people around us. Smoking and alcohol drinking is one of the influences that teenagers and young adolescents are prone to do. Adolescents are engaging in this kind of activities because of curiosity, connection with friends and family, but mostly for satisfaction and that sense of relief. Adolescents are using smoking and alcohol drinking as their own kind of “stress relievers” whenever they are faced with deep emotion like when they are frustrated, sad, depressed and even more, because of this it is a possibility that doing this can turn into a habit. Adolescents and teenagers are turning to smoking and alcohol drinking because of the satisfaction that it gives, it has become a well known kind of “self meditation” among the youth.

In this generation it is easier to do work and many more things with ease and we are more prone to the things around us because of its social review and appeal to the crowd. Most adolescents would smoke because of social interaction. In other words to make friends or to fit in with their friends and its surroundings. Smoking is one of the reasons why they made friends and is also one of the reasons why they’re friendship grew even stronger. In a way smoking was their social interaction or bonding with their friends, but for others it was because of their parents. People would think that if one bad thing was done by another it would seem as if it was okay same goes us. If we were to see that our parents smoked at a young age it would register in our minds that “yes smoking is allowed, so smoke away” but in reality it isn’t. Our parents is our main role models in life, if a kid was able to see that his or her role model would do something like smoking, it would turn as if it would be okay to them because if it was done by him why wouldn’t it be allowed if I tried it? Our actions would reflect onto others, our actions would be imprinted in other people’s minds.

Emotions also play a huge role in smoking and alcohol drinking. Emotions are one of the reason why they would want to do it just to relieve themselves. When adolescents and teenagers would feel a deep set of emotions such as sadness, loss and even more. They would smoke and drink alcohol as an outlet for their emotions and feelings. Smoking and alcohol drinking has been a well known “self meditation” among the youth.

Alcohol plays a different role in a persons bod and the persons personal life. Alcohol is a type of depressant it is one of the reason why we would start to feel drowsy, hang up, hung over, high and even more, because what depressant means is to “reduce functional or nervous activity”. Alcohol would dull the persons physical activity. People would start to care less about its surroundings and even more. In most cases alcohol would make people feel less physical and alcohol is more prone to emotional breakdowns. Drinkers are more likely to feel a specific type of emotion. People would feel relaxed or sometimes tired when drinking but it is more on the relaxing part because of how alcohol is able to dull the person physical activities. Some alcohol drinking are tradition or its a part of their culture. According to medium.com that drinking is a vital part of their cultural. Drinking is done within cultural celebrations or special occasions, fiestas, healing rituals and even more. Alcohol drinking is paired with “pulutan” kinds of finger foods that can be eaten when drinking. In other website such as alcoline.ph, it is stated that alcohol drinking is a good way for mending broken hearts as well as having a heart to heart moment with the people with you’re with. It is also stated that alcohol drinking can make a person look even more youthful that he already is and it can also relieve a person from stress. In the Philippines alcohol drinking is a great activity for bonding with others. Alcohol drinking is also a sign of “turning into adulthood” by some people. At the end of the day the reason why alcohol drinking has become a well known activity in the Philippines is not because of the food and drinks. It is because of the people who are gathered around to share stories, laugh with each other and would like to have a good time, share their precious time with the group.

Smoking on the other hand is way different from how it can affect a persons body and personal life. There are some similarities with smoking alcohol drinking which is that both are sources of relievers and satisfaction. For some people smoking is the path for their social interaction, in other words to make friends, build friends and relationships. Smoking’s way of relieving a person Is more on calming the persons emotional state. Teenagers, adolescents, young adolescents and even more are stating that smoking calms them whenever they are stressed. Smoking can lessen a persons life span because of how dangerous smoke can be to our body but according to mentalhealth.org that some of the reasons why smokers keep on smoking is that it relaxes them, improves the persons mood and concentration quills anger and stress, what’s more is that it can also relax the persons muscles. Cigarettes also contain nicotine which is one of the reasons why people keep on smoking, one a person gets addicted to nicotine it hard to stop.