These are the days flooded with awareness programmes geared towards motivating the community, especially youth and teenagers, to say no to addictive substances.
Classes, marathons, human chains, and the like are organised to create resistance in the face of temptations and peer pressure. Do they work?
Party whirl
As part of one such campaign two years ago, an awareness session for high school students presented an often-encountered situation.
The children were asked to imagine that they were at a sleepover party at a friend’s house. Dance music is at its peak, and an innocent-looking friend offers a powder to be snorted to enhance the thrill of enjoyment.
The question to the group was: how many would experiment with it?
Most of them maintained diplomatic silence. A girl, however, boldly said she would try it. She believed it was just a one-time experiment, and that too to enhance camaraderie.
I didn’t hear many voices of dissent. I guess the silent ones were also endorsing her stand.
I had similar experiences in three other sessions. This clearly indicates a hazardous trend. A dangerous attitude that promotes one-time or occasional recreational use of new-generation addictive substances. This is something that has not been addressed well.
Generally, many youngsters say they use addictive substances for numbing the stress arising from life situations. Addressing the root causes could provide a window for prevention.
However, such a window is lacking in a large, new segment of substance users who are on a pleasure-driven ‘trip’.
Youngsters with low self-esteem are vulnerable
One oft-cited culprit in addictions is peer pressure. In the joy of companionship, if someone persuades experimenting with substances that assure a ‘high’, how many would say no?
The evil effects of addiction may be known in the intellectual space, but the peer-pressured decision to experiment will be an emotional one. Many do not want to fall behind or be the odd one out in a group.
Benchmarks that normalise the usage of dangerous substances are consciously created. Youngsters and teenagers fall for it without even realising it’s the negative effect of peer pressure.
Those with low self-esteem, anxiety, and depression are particularly vulnerable.
Our campaigns have not been able to tackle the recreational angle that is now largely hooking a big segment to the drug menace.
In this trap, there are no gender differences. I recall an occasion last month when six Class X students, half of them girls, were sent for counselling after being spotted drunk during a school annual day celebration.
Positive peer pressure as a tool for change
Peer pressure can also have positive effects. We have not been able to utilise this as a tool in deterring those who use addictive substances.
There is a larger percentage who do not use, and among them, it’s easy to spot a group who can be empowered with skills to identify a peer getting into substance use early.
They can apply the skills of positive peer pressure and initiate them into productive and creative activities.
This initiative, with the participation of the same-age group, may work more constructively than an adult-scripted awareness campaign.
Here are some innovative strategies to mobilise positive peer pressure:
Leadership programmes
Is it not possible to identify students to promote healthy behaviours and discourage substance use?
Peer mentoring
Why not pair students with positive role models who can provide guidance?
Classroom discussions
Encourage open conversations about substance use and its consequences.
Launching online challenges
Let them explore collaborations with positive social media influencers, and create reels that inspire healthy changes
Enhance vigilance
Motivate correction through peer pressure. Students should be encouraged to celebrate and reward a friend’s positive behaviour change.
Create an atmosphere of sharing distress
Students should be guided and aided well in coping with stress. Let them foster a culture of enhancing self-esteem
**********
If the energy wasted on unproductive conflicts is reinvested effectively into such initiatives, the space for substance abuse or violence will shrink. Let the students themselves lead from the front.
(The writer is senior consultant psychiatrist at Medical Trust Hospital, Kochi)