According to the disappointing statistics in our country, smoking among adolescents has reached a universal scale: at the age of 15-17 years, every fourth girl and every second boy smokes.
Causes of smoking teenagers
The problem of smoking among adolescents spreads with the speed of the epidemic, without encountering obstacles on the part of the state and society. Smoking, according to adolescents, is a bad habit that does not carry a strong threat.
Teens find a lot of reasons to start smoking:
- imitation of older comrades, their "authorities", parents;
- peer pressure;
- a sense of novelty, interest;
- the desire to "stand out" and seem more mature;
- the influence of films and advertising;
- availability and relative cheapness of cigarettes.
Teenagers, because of their immaturity, find it difficult to assess the dangers of smoking. Living today, adolescents have a hard time imagining that as a consequence of smoking, after 10-15 years, chronic diseases and ailments occur.
The effect of smoking on the body of a teenager
- Smoking provokes the occurrence of lung cancer and other diseases of the respiratory system.
- Smoking depletes nerve cells: adolescents become distracted, inattentive, slower to think and quickly become tired.
- Smoking causes pathology of the visual cortex, changing color perception and visual perception in general, which can negatively affect visual acuity. In addition, recently, oculists have introduced a new concept - tobacco amblyopia - which occurs as a result of intoxication during smoking.
- Smoking among adolescents often adversely affects the activity of the thyroid gland, causing sleep disorders, general health.
- Smoking prematurely wears out the heart muscle: according to research, the risk of strokes increases significantly if a person started smoking during adolescence.
Prevention of smoking in adolescents
The harm of smoking for a teenager is obvious, but sadly, even knowing the consequences, schoolchildren continue to smoke. To effectively combat this problem, it is necessary for educators and parents to combine methods and techniques aimed at how to disinfect a teenager from smoking.
- Inform adolescents about smoking, using a differentiated approach: the dose of information should
To correspond to the maturity of the perception of schoolchildren. - Consider smoking from a position of negative influence, suggesting alternative behavior: what a person acquires in the absence of smoking.
- Use non-standard methods of influence and presentation of information: films, visual aids.
- Try to interest the teenager, to entice him with an amateur hobby, and even better doing sports.
No prophylaxis will have a result if parents and the surrounding environment do not demonstrate a positive example.