The 6 Most Important Decisions You'll Ever Make: A Guide for Teens

by Sean Covey

  Q: Aren’t teens getting these drugs from doctors?

  A: No. Most teens get prescription drugs from classmates, friends, and family members, or they steal the drugs from people who are taking them legitimately. Some sell their prescriptions to desperate teens to make a quick buck.

  The Truth About CLUB DRUGS

  a.k.a.—(MDMA): Ecstasy, E, X, XTC (GHB): Liquid X, grievous bodily harm, Georgia homeboy (ketamine): K, Special K, Ket, Vitamin K, Kit Kat (Rohypnol): roofies, R-2 (LSD): Acid (psilocybin mushrooms): shrooms

  Club drugs refer to a wide variety of drugs often used at all-night dance parties (raves), nightclubs, and concerts. If you could take a pill that would make you…

  • Do poorly in school

  • Lose interest in your favorite hobbies, sports, or activities

  • Become hostile and uncooperative

  • Develop sleeping problems

  • Clench your jaw and grind your teeth

  • Have anxiety and panic attacks

  …would you be interested? Well, that is what you get with Ecstasy, one of the more prevalent club drugs. The short-lived bang it may give you just isn’t worth it.

  Did You Know?

  Club drugs do weird things to your body and brain. Ecstasy is a stimulant that increases your heart rate and blood pressure and can lead to kidney and heart failure. GHB is a depressant and can cause drowsiness, unconsciousness, and breathing problems. LSD is a potent hallucinogen that can cause you to see terrifying things that aren’t really there. Club drugs can damage the neurons in your brain, impairing your senses, memory, judgment, and coordination. Higher doses can cause severe breathing problems, coma, or even death.

  Club drugs and date rape are like peas in a pod. Club drugs like GHB and Rohypnol are sedatives. In other words, they make you unconscious and immobilize you. Rohypnol can cause a kind of amnesia—you may not remember what you said or did after taking the drug, making it easier for someone to take advantage of you. Scary!

  FAQs

  Q: If somebody slipped a club drug into your drink, wouldn’t you realize it immediately?

  A: Probably not. You can’t smell or taste most club drugs. Some are made into a powder form that makes it easier to slip into a drink and dissolve without a person knowing it.

  Q: Are there any long-term effects with taking Ecstasy?

  A: Yes. Studies on both humans and animals have proven that regular use of Ecstasy produces long-lasting, perhaps permanent damage to the brain’s ability to think and store memories.

  Q: If you took a club drug at a rave, wouldn’t you just dance off all of its effects?

  A: Not necessarily. Some of Ecstasy’s effects, like confusion, sleep problems, depression, and paranoia have been reported to occur even weeks after the drug is taken.

  A friend of mine from Ireland told me about a friend of his who learned about club drugs the hard way.

  A boy I know named Michael, the oldest of ten children, came home one night intoxicated with E. When he saw the family’s pet Labrador in the kitchen he strangled it to death, convinced that it was the devil. The dog bit him and there was blood all over the kitchen. The siblings who ran in to watch the aftermath of the scene were traumatized. Michael is now in drug rehab recovering from addiction.

  The Truth About STEROIDS

  a.k.a.—arnolds, gym candy, pumpers, stackers, juice, roids

  Anabolic steroids are synthetic derivatives of testosterone, the male sex hormone. They don’t build muscle in and of themselves, but they allow you to work out harder and longer and recover faster. People take steroids to get that pumped-up look and to be better in sports. On the outside you look great with all those big muscles. On the inside you’re being eaten alive.

  FOX News ran a story called “Breaking Point: The Truth About Steroids.” It featured Patrick, who began taking steroids as a teen.

  Patrick was still in high school when he decided he needed to change his body image.

  “So many people, especially teenagers, feel self-conscious about their bodies, and if it bothers you that much, you’re willing to go to any extreme to change that,” says Patrick.

   He went to the gym seven days a week, but…working out wasn’t enough. So he, like millions of other young men…started taking illegal anabolic steroids.

  “People would go, ‘Wow, look at you, you’re the picture of health,’ ” he says. “And I’d laugh.”

  Before long, his blood pressure was through the roof, his hair was falling out, and his temper was uncontrollable.

  “I was a textbook specimen of ‘roid rage,’ ” he says. “You wake up pissed off, and the rest of the day you get more and more angry.”

  Patrick stopped using steroids three years ago, but the damage may already be done.

  Did You Know?

  Steroids change your appearance—not necessarily in a good way. How can you tell if someone is doing steroids? It’s easy. Besides bigger muscles, just look for acne, yellowing of the skin, bad breath, and rage. In guys, look for baldness, the development of breasts (oops!), and impotence. In girls, look for growth of facial hair, deepened voice, and breast reduction. If you’re concerned with your appearance, these are the last things you want to put into your body.

  Steroids can stunt your growth. If taken at a young age, steroids can stunt your growth. God may have intended you to be 6’0” but you may end up being a muscular 5’10” instead.

  FAQs

  Q: Are steroids addictive?

  A: Yes, they can be. Withdrawal symptoms include mood swings, suicidal thoughts and attempts, fatigue, restlessness, loss of appetite, and sleeplessness.

  Q: How long do steroids stay in your system?

  A: It varies from a couple of weeks to more than 18 months.

  Q: How can I excel in sports if I don’t use steroids?

  A: Everyone builds muscle differently, but if you eat enough protein, sleep well, and work out hard, you can develop muscles appropriate to your body type naturally. Millions of athletes, and the best athletes of all time, have excelled and are excelling without doing ’roids. Besides, steroids are now banned in virtually every major collegiate or professional sport.

  The Truth About INHALANTS

  a.k.a.—glue, kick, bang, sniff, huff, poppers, whippets, Texas shoeshine

  Inhalants include a large group of chemicals that are found in such household products as aerosol sprays, cleaning fluids, glue, paint, paint thinner, gasoline, propane, nail-polish remover, correction fluid, and marker pens. None of these are safe to inhale—they all can kill you. Chemicals like amyl nitrite and isobutyl nitrite (poppers) and nitrous oxide (whippets) are often sold at concerts and dance clubs.

  Did You Know?

  Inhalants cause brain damage. Inhalants are substances or fumes from products that are sniffed or huffed to cause an immediate high. Because they affect your brain with much greater speed and force than many other substances, they can cause irreversible physical and mental damage before you know what’s happened.

  Inhalants affect your heart and body. Inhalants starve the body of oxygen and force the heart to beat irregularly and more rapidly. People who use inhalants can experience nausea and nosebleeds; develop liver, lung, and kidney problems; and lose their sense of hearing or smell. Chronic use can lead to muscle wasting and reduced muscle tone and strength.

  FAQs

  Q: Since inhalants are found in household products, aren’t they safe?

  A: No. Even though household products like glue and air freshener have legal, useful purposes, when they are used as inhalants they are harmful and dangerous. These products are not intended to be inhaled.

  Q: Doesn’t it take many huffs before you’re in danger?

  A: No. One huff can kill you. Or the tenth. Or the hundredth. Every huff can be dangerous. Even if you have huffed before without experiencing a problem, there’s no way of knowing how the next one will affect you.

  Q: Can inhalants make me lose control?
<
br />   A: Yes. Inhalants affect your brain and can cause you to suddenly engage in violent, or even deadly, behavior. You could hurt yourself or the people you love.

  The Truth About COCAINE

  a.k.a.—coke, dust, toot, snow, blow, sneeze, powder, lines, rock (crack)

  Did You Know?

  Cocaine affects your brain. The word cocaine refers to the drug in both a powder (cocaine) and crystal (crack) form. It is made from the coca plant and causes a short-lived high that is immediately followed by opposite, intense feelings of depression, edginess, and a craving for more of the drug. Cocaine may be snorted as a powder, converted to a liquid form for injection with a needle, or processed into a crystal form to be smoked.

  Cocaine is addictive. Cocaine interferes with the way your brain processes chemicals that create feelings of pleasure, so you need more and more of the drug just to feel normal. People addicted to cocaine start to lose interest in other areas of their life, like school, friends, and sports.

  Cocaine can kill. Cocaine use can cause heart attacks, seizures, strokes, and respiratory failure. People who share needles can also contract hepatitis, HIV/AIDS, or other diseases. Even first-time cocaine users can have seizures or fatal heart attacks.

  Combining cocaine with other drugs or alcohol is extremely dangerous. The effects of one drug can magnify the effects of another, and mixing substances can be deadly.

  FAQs

  Q: Isn’t crack less addictive than cocaine because it doesn’t stay in your body very long?

  A: No. Both cocaine and crack are powerfully addictive. The length of time it stays in your body doesn’t change that.

  Q: Don’t some people use cocaine to feel good?

  A: Any positive feelings are fleeting and are usually followed by some very bad feelings, like paranoia and intense cravings. Cocaine may give users a temporary illusion of power and energy, but it often leaves them unable to function emotionally and physically.

  THE BOTTOM LINE

  There are still a ton of drugs that we haven’t covered like heroin, PCP, and more, but you’re probably tired of reading about all this stuff. After a while, it all starts to sound the same. Bottom line, if you know someone who is using drugs, urge them to get help. If you’re using them, stop! Talk with an adult you trust. Drugs are bad for you, ruin your life, and rob you of your money. Cocaine users, for example, will spend hundreds, even thousands of dollars each week to support their habit. Just think of all the clothes and entertainment you could buy with that.

  © The New Yorker Collection 2002

  David Sipress from Cartoonbank.com. All Rights Reserved.

  So, as comedian Geechy Guy said, “You should just say no to drugs. That will drive the prices down.”

  Striking at the Root

  No one ever starts out thinking, I can’t wait to become an addict. You do it because you have a deeper need that is not being met.

  Philosopher Henry David Thoreau put it this way. “For every thousand hacking at the leaves of evil there is one striking at the root.” In other words, we too often focus on the symptoms of drug abuse instead of getting to the root of the problem. To tackle addiction, you must strike at the root. It’s usually one of six things.

  The Roots of Addiction

  Take Amanda, for example. Amanda’s family moved when she was thirteen and had just entered seventh grade. It was a big disruption in her life.

  “At this time I got in with a group of kids at school that smoked and used LSD. The smoking was something that bonded us. I was confused and just wanted to belong. I didn’t think about the product of my choices.”

  So if you’re depressed, angry, hurting, rebellious, fearful, insecure, or have some other hole in your life that needs to be filled, instead of filling it up by drinking or doing drugs, try something more satisfying and enduring. Just as you can become addicted to harmful substances or practices, you can also pick up positive addictions, and get high naturally! Here’s a short list of positive addictions that may help you fill the potential holes in your life.

  The Anti-Drugs

  • Exercise. Working out releases endorphins which are the body’s natural painkillers and positive mood-makers. Have you heard of runner’s high, that euphoric feeling you get while running? Truly, nothing can clear your head like a good workout can.

  • Sports. Competing in sports is healthy, consuming, and addictive. Sports will help you meet new people and keep you so occupied you won’t have time for the drug scene.

  • Music. I have a friend who discovered he had a great gift for music at about age 13. Despite never taking a lesson, he became the best guitarist in the school. His music consumed him and, when he was down, he’d play his guitar instead of drowning himself in drugs.

  • Service. Losing yourself in service to others has always been the best way to forget your own troubles.

  • Hobbies. Find something you love to do and get good at it. Whether it be photography, cooking, or astronomy, hobbies produce a natural high without the big crash afterward.

  • Learning. Get turned on by learning. Read voraciously. Take advanced-placement classes or college courses at your school. Pour your heart into it.

  • Family. No one cares more about you than your family, including cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents. When you’re hurting, cast your burdens upon them, instead of looking for another outlet.

  • Faith. Religion or belief in a higher power can give meaning and purpose to your life and offer you standards to live by.

  • Friends. In times of trouble, lean on good friends. Talk through your problems with them instead of the bottle.

  • Journal writing. Your journal can become your best friend, your solace, the place where you can let out all your emotions and not be judged.

  At some point during your teen years, you may feel immense peer pressure to drink, smoke, or do drugs. Perhaps you already have. Perhaps you’ve given in a time or two and wish you were stronger.

  So where do you get the power to resist? I’d suggest learning the 3 Knows and the 5 Nos.

  THE 3 KNOWS

  Know the Facts. Some decisions can be made based just on facts. Smoking wreaks havoc on your body and is terribly addictive. Alcohol makes you do stupid things. Drugs kill brain cells. Addictive substances hurt everyone around you. What more do you need to know?

  Know Yourself. To have the strength to say no you need to have something more important to say yes to. For example, if you want to attend and do well in college, you’ll need all the brain cells you have. If you’re an athlete, you need to be totally focused. At most schools, you’ll get kicked off the team if you’re caught drinking or doing drugs. If you plan to have a family, you can’t afford an addiction of any kind. Eventually it will rear its ugly head and hurt those you love most.

  When you’re faced with a tough decision, ask yourself: Does this fit with who I am and who I want to be?

  By knowing what she wanted out of high school, it was easy for Chelsea to resist peer pressure and stick to her plan.

  Sadly, there’s a lot of drug and alcohol abuse in my school. Some of the people I hang out with will say, “So do you want to smoke?” I’m like, “Uh, no.” I can’t allow some nasty toxin into my body that’s just gonna eat it up. I try to stay away from parties ’cause I’ve heard some stories. I do my own thing. I’ll hang out with my friends and the people I know I can trust, that won’t try to pressure me into doing stuff.

  One of the goals I strive for is to leave a legacy for people to remember me for. My brother left a legacy in this school when he graduated and his face is plastered on a plaque because of his many awards for service and sports. I want to be remembered in the same way for giving my time and efforts that have an impact on our school.

  Know the Situation. Don’t flirt with danger or put yourself in situations where you may not be strong enough to resist. A recovering alcoholic does not take a job as a bartender. Likewise, if you have the tendency to give in to the cro
wd, for heaven’s sake, don’t go to that party where everyone’s going to be getting stoned. Plan ahead or somebody else will do your planning for you.

  The Russian army once had a very interesting tradition. After a soldier completed basic training, a big party was held for him at the barracks. Russian barracks are five to six stories high, with large windows, big enough for a man to stand in. The way a soldier proved his manhood was by drinking all night, getting absolutely stoned out of his mind. The soldier then stood on the windowsill with his back to the five story drop and drank one more bottle of beer. If he could do it without falling, he was a man.

  The moral of the story is

  He who stands on a windowsill to see how far out he can lean without falling is a moron.

  THE 5 NOS

  At 18, Alby was arrested for dealing drugs and landed in a maximum-security jail. It all started on a summer day on a street corner in Yonkers, New York, when Alby was 13.

  “You need to get your mind right. Hit this blunt,” a friend said.

  Alby didn’t have the strength to say no. He felt he had to smoke the blunt to fit in. He was desperate to belong. His parents had never been there for him. They were drug addicts themselves and were lousy parents. So he smoked it, and kept smoking it, eventually becoming an addict and a dealer. If only he had been stronger.

  In truth, one of the reasons teens don’t say no is simply because they don’t know how. They haven’t said no before, and when put on the spot, they cave. If you’re prepared, your chances of resisting go way up. Here are five ways to say no. Pick one that looks like it will work for you and practice it out loud in front of the mirror several times. Then, when the real thing happens, it will feel natural.