healthy living skills
michaelNovember 1, 2019comment (0)

Healthy Living Skills: How They Can Facilitate Drug Prevention

In most of the countries across the globe, drug abuse is considered as a critical health problem. It impacts the social, economic, and personal health of the individual. This impact is worst in teenagers and younger adults because addiction to drugs and alcohol influences their ability to study, public behavior, and mental health.

Due to the effect of drugs and alcohol on teenagers, it is necessary to promote drug prevention. A feasible drug prevention strategy for school authorities and parents is to encourage and teach healthy living skills.

Healthy living skills are basic life abilities which assist the individual manage stressful and unfavorable events and situation of life. The healthy living skills training help in promoting positive behavior in teenagers which improves decisions, communication, strategic thinking, environmental interaction, etc.

This article will discuss how drug prevention can be achieved by promoting healthy living skills in young adults. Read more to understand the aspects related to it.

Reasons For Drug Abuse

Teenagers and young adults are susceptible to drug and alcohol use due to multiple reasons. All these reasons can also trigger addiction to illicit drugs, smoking, and alcohol, which can cause long-term cognitive and behavioral impairment.

The following are the reasons which can promote drug abuse in young adults.

  1. Curiosity

Adolescents and teenagers are more curious because of the changing environment. As they move from middle school to high school and then college, there are so many different elements involved in these three stages. Due to the changing verticals, curiosity also increases which increases the susceptibility to drugs and alcohol.

Further, since these young adults have no clue about the consequences, they try alcohol and illicit drugs for enjoyment and recreation. Later, it becomes a habit that leads to grave consequences.

  1. Stress

In high school and college, the responsibility of studies, relationships, exams, and school amplifies stress. Due to this heightened stress, adolescents or young adults seek relief in drugs, alcohol, and smoking. This leads to a decrease in productivity and performance.

  1. Peer Pressure

Every adolescent and young adult crave acceptance from their peers, friends, and teachers. To avoid receiving a rejection, teenagers try drugs and alcohol which help them impress their peers.

After a while, this act becomes a habit and recreational consumption of drugs and alcohol becomes an addiction.

Healthy Living Skills for Drug Prevention

The above reasons explain why drug prevention programs through healthy living skills are necessary. These skills can encourage and motivate young adults, children, and teenagers to deal with health-related life issues without using drugs, alcohol, and smoking.

Below we have explained some skills that can be used in school education to reduce drug abuse in adolescents and teenagers.

  1. Resistance

When resistance skills are taught to adolescents and young adults, they can learn to resist pressure arising from adults. They can learn to avoid unfortunate and pressurized scenarios when they are caught in a situation where they are being pressurized or asked to consume alcohol and drugs.

  1. Self-Management

The major reason for drug abuse is stress, depression, anxiety, and loneliness. All these negative and low emotions encourage teenagers to try illicit drugs, smoking, and alcohol. With self-management skills, adolescents can manage their emotions and channels their energy in the right direction, which can help them skip and avoid drug overuse.

  1. Decision-Making

Learning decision-making is a healthy living skill for not only drug prevention but also for other life situations. Knowing when to say no, how to react in a particular situation, and how to make the right choice is a skill that is developed and nurtured over time. If thishealthy living skill is delivered in high school and college, adolescents can learn to positively avoid drug abuse.

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life skill training
michaelSeptember 28, 2019comment (0)

7 Essential Life Skills Training for Middle and High School Students

Here are 7 life skills that can be utilized by students to maneuver the complications of adult life. Read below to understand each life skills in detail.

  1. Money Management

Money talk is always the hardest but the most important. College students suddenly have to start paying bills, prepare a budget, and manage expenses with the little money they have. If they never receive this life skills training during school, it is highly likely that they will end up with huge debt, drop out of college, or turn to parents for financial help.

Money management can be taught by openly discussing the pros of operating within a budget, tips about savings, and tracking the expenditure. Parents and teachers have a huge role to play here as they can offer fixed pocket money and assign class projects with fake currency to students and ask them to survive the month without asking for more money. When this is combined with the knowledge delivered at school, students can learn to manage money effectively.

  1. Time Management

When in college, there is just too much to handle. Studies, part-time job, co-curricular activities, leisure time, and more. The sad part is there is no one to remind to follow a schedule and complete everything when there is still time. Hence, this awakening comes hitting the student after everything has been already spoiled.

School teachers and parents can encourage the use of time management apps to help manage time better. You don’t literally have to ask students to download a software-based application. But, you can teach to manage activities with a simple to-do list or Kanban method. Later, when they have an option, they can utilize different mobile-based applications to achieve the purpose.

  1. Shopping for Essentials

Unless you are expecting students to live off pizza and fast food for a very long time, teachers and parents need to include this important life skill training in the schedule. Every student should understand how to buy basic grocery, compare different products, and check the expiry of the products. Further, they should understand how to do it within a specific budget. So first, they need to know how to have a budget which can be achieved with money management life skills training in middle school. Then, they should move to essentials shopping.

School authorities can create intuitive sessions and use case scenarios to help students understand the basics of shopping. For instance, a case question where you offer two same products to students having a slight difference in expiry date or ingredients. Then, you can ask them to choose the product which they would buy and why.

  1. Vehicle Management

Vehicle management may seem irrelevant but it is a huge responsibility. However, it is simple to deliver this life skill training in middle schoolwithout any hassle. There is no need to go the extra mile to discover new learning methods. Teachers and parents can deliver the knowledge of how to maintain a vehicle. For instance, teachers can teach about the oil and cleaning requirements of a car. Parents, on the other hand, can ask their children to assist whenever they go for car repair so that they practically learn about vehicle management.

  1. Apartment Management

Not every student would want to live in the dorm room. Many may prefer taking a separate house on rent. To help them search for the right apartment, which is also safe, is a necessity.

Hence, it won’t hurt to have a little heads up in school about the lease, rent management, repair, and other similar aspects of taking an apartment on rent. Further, it would be beneficial to prepare some red flags that can indicate that a particular apartment is not the right place. This can be in terms of overall safety, building safety, neighborhood, etc.

  1. Professional Requirements

In college, students already reach halfway of becoming a professional. It won’t hurt to teach some of the skills before they even enter college.

This life skills trainingis also hassle-free and simple for teachers. Sometimes, teachers can send weekly assignments through email. During this activity, the teacher should reserve the right to reject assignments that have come in physically in the form of hard copy. The assignment can also be rejected if the student has not properly added a description in the mail itself.

Practical learning will help students remember these small things when they enter college or professional world.

  1. Mental Health Management

Mental health is the most neglected aspect of life skills training in middle school. This neglect later leads to grave consequences. A study (the United States specific) revealed that 18.2% of the population suffers from some type of mental illness. This is like every 1 in 5 adults are suffering from mental issues and sadly, many never talk about it. For most of these adults, the issue is not too complicated to handle.

To deliver mental health life skills training to middle school and high school children, you can ask a counselor to take regular sessions. Also, allow students to individually meet the counselor to discuss issues. This will encourage a sense of understanding and responsibility in difficult times, which will help students overcome short-term stress, anxiety, and depressed feeling.

 Conclusion

Life skills trainingis part and parcel of effective school learning. It is necessary to learn subjects such as mathematics, science, etc. but it is also necessary to get acquainted with life skills training in middleschool. Learning life skills early in life help in avoiding unnecessary stress, anxiety, and risks of adult life. Hence, read the above tips and implement these life skills training programsin the school curriculum.

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