Teenagers problems

He is lifeless who is faultless.

The more man knows the greater power he has.

The modern world is full of problems -- war, hunger, poverty, disease, unemployment... It's a long list. Do teenagers and young people have the some problems of the whole world or are they involved in something else?

The world is facing a drugs crisis. There are more young addicts today than ever before. Drugs have played a continually significant role in youth sub-cultures from the late 50-s onwards.

While some young people spent their money on records and clothes, others established an 'intellectual' youth culture influenced by hedonism.

These young people were known as 'beatnits' and later as 'hippies'. Teenagers felt freer to have sexual experiences and to experiment with drugs, smoking and spend they free time in bed way.

Many teenagers are trying to be independent, and free in the way of living, making friends, spending free time, clothing, and style. But instead they are under constant pressure from their parents, which leads to misunderstanding, leaving homes by children, solving the problems with parents in the wrong way. Many teenagers can't listen to their parent's advice or just have a quiet talk; they choose to ignore all rules and regulations. Part of the problem is sometimes neither of the sides is willing to see the other side's point of view, so things are getting out of control.

Everybody says your youth is probably the best time of young life that being young means romance, love, new discoveries and so on. But it is also the most difficult time because you have to make some very important decisions, which will influence all your future life.

Things are not easy nowadays even for adults, but for teenagers, who have to find their own place in society, it's very difficult. It's necessary not only to adapt to your society, but also to be confident about your position in 5, 10 or 20 years time.

For your future it is essential to have a good job. Every girl or boy leaving secondary school should choose an institution of higher education, or if he or she doesn't want to study any more, choose a job straight way.

Put even if you are studying, you need money of your own t pay for extra clothes, tapes, books. It something the problem.

And now I wonted to tell you about some of the problems in detail.

Children and toxicomania

Such products as glue, butane gas, solvents are made on solvent base. That is why they can be used for sniffing and then receiving post effects of visual hallucinations.

Solvents are usually commercial products, like glue, nail polish remover, aerosols, gas lighter fuel and petrol, which give off a vapour. When the vapour is inhaled, it can make you feel light-headed, happy, dizzy. The effects can last up to an hour, depending on what, and how much was inhaled. Solvents are depressant drugs.

It is estimated that one of five young people in Britain have used solvents. It is the second most commonly used drug for this age group. Talking about our country, there is no exact statistics concerning this fact, but it is not a secret that the number of «sniffers» is growing and yet has reached a tremendous index. It happens, because such substances are the most available and cheap.

Because solvents are often sniffed from a plastic bag, sometimes covering the head, there is a risk of suffocation, if the user becomes unconscious.

Solvent use is extremely dangerous. Nobody knows exactly how many children die in our country, because of solven addiction. For example, in Great Britain in 1999 thirty nine young people died as a direct result of inhaling butane lighter fluid. This is ten times more than die from Ecstasy.

In Great Britain it is prohibited to sell solvent-based products to children under 18s. It is illegal there. Here, in our country, there is no such legislation concerning this problem, which is becoming worse day after day.

Drugs

More people are abusing drugs today than in any other time in history of mankind, and many of those people are youth.

Understanding what drugs are is fundamental for understanding their potential abuse. Drugs are a psychoactive substance. A psychoactive substance is something that people take to change the way they feel, think or behave. Some of these substances are called drugs and others, like alcohol and tobacco, are considered dangerous, but are not called drugs. The term drug also covers a number of substances that must be used under medical supervision to treat illnesses.

I am going to talk about drugs as those man-made or naturally occurring substances used without medical supervision, basically to change the way a person feels, thinks or behaves. In the past, most drugs were made from plants. That is, plants were grown and then converted into drugs such as coca paste, opium and marijuana. Over the years, these crude products were further processed to drugs like cocaine and heroin and finally, in the 20th century, people found out how to make drugs from chemicals. These are called man-made or synthetic drugs and include ecstasy, LSD, etc. These were initially manufactured for largely experimental reasons and only later were used for recreational purposes. Now, however, with the increased size and scope of the drug trade, people set out to invent drugs especially for human consumption.

For the first time in human history, a whole industrial complex creates and produces drugs that are meant to be used for the sole purpose of «having f un.» People use drugs just to escape the reality, to have fun. The majority of them are young, even very young, who do not understand what might happen to them because of drugs.

The problem of drug addiction and alcoholism is the greatest tragedy of every country in the world. The lives of millions of families are destroyed because of it every year. Drugs do not discriminate based on social or financial status of an individual, nor because of certain ambitions or views. Today, drugs have penetrated the circles of scientists, politicians, artists and entertainers. Medical professionals are unable to provide a solution for this problem, and the only help the doctors can offer a drug addict is to ease the pain of withdrawals, but the addiction remains, and the drug finds its way back over and over again… Every drug addict is a potential criminal, who is ready and willing to commit a crime any day for a dose of the drug, and becomes a useless member of the society…..“Exodus” ministry has an enormous experience in reaching out and providing help to those individuals who have found themselves in this problem. Over 2000 people have become free from drug addiction in the 6 years of the ministry's existence. More than 100 families were formed and more than 50 babies were born. Every minister on our team is him herself an addict in the past. We are able to help not because we know the problem theoretically, but because we have personally experienced the problem. You will be able to find information, news, video and much more about our ministry in different cities of Russia, Ukraine, England and USA, as well as chat with our ministers and individuals that received freedom from addiction in “Exodus”. We would be more than happy for you to join the Exodus International Ministry movement through our forum. "Our mission is to help one more addict turn a hopeless existence into a new and better life and become a stable member of the society."

The number of drug-addicts has grown in Russia over the last 10 years by nearly 15-fold to an average of 241 out of 100,000 people, according to the statistics which are to be submitted to the parliamentary hearings on the problem. The situation with drug addicts is the worst in the Siberian Federal District where an average of 415 people out of 100,000 are officially registered as addicts. Over 500,000 people are registered throughout the country as addicts. Some experts believe that the actual number of drug addicts is close to 4 million.

There are three main kinds of drug -- hard, soft and legal. They can all cause addiction, serious illness and even death.

Hard drugs include heroin, cocaine, LSD and crack. Soft drugs are -- marijuana, amphetamines (speed), solvents (glue) and ecstasy. Legal drags include tobacco, alcohol and certain tranquillisers. How do addicts live? They steal money, lose their friends, hurt their families, are cheated by dealers, destroy their health. The government in all countries tries to help the young addicts save their lives, stop their sufferings and the sufferings of people. Special hospitals have been opened; big antidrugs campaigns have been organized in schools. Many schools have a drag-education programme for children as young as 8 or 9. Programmes like these include books, videos and cassettes. Some schools even arrange visits from ex-addicts. One of these is Phil Cooper (in Great Britain); he travels around the country giving teenagers two-hour drag-education lessons.

Advertising campaigns also play an important part in the war against drugs. If the crisis is serious and international, so is the war against drugs. Each of the campaign has a message -- for example, 'Just Say No', 'Stop the madness', or 'Don't Do Drugs' Each one has also featured a lot of famous TV, movie and pop stars. Some anti-drugs campaigns have tried to schock young people. They showed how heroin could completely destroy addicts' lives, how dirty needles spread AIDS.

AIDS

AIDS is an insidious and up to the present moment incurable but less contagious disease than measles or hepatitis B. AIDS is thought to be caused primarily by a virus that invades white blood cells (lymphocytes) and certain other body cells including the brain. In 1983 and 1984, French and U.S. researchers independently identified the virus believed to cause AIDS as an unusual type of slow-acting retrovirus now called «human immunodeficiency virus» or HIV. Like other viruses HIV is basically a tiny package of genes. But being a retrovirus, it has the rare capacity to copy and insert its genes right into a human DNA. Once inside a human host cell, the retrovirus using its own capacities begins to copy its genetic code into a DNA molecule which is then incorporated into the host's DNA. The virus becomes an integral part of the person's body. But the viral DNA may sit hidden and inactive within human cells for years, until some trigger stimulates it to replicate. Thus HIV may not produce illness until its genes are «turned on» five, ten, fifteen or perhaps more years after the initial infection.

During the latent period, HIV carriers who harbour the virus without any sign of illness can unknowingly infect others. On average, the dormant virus seems to be triggered into action three to six years after first invading human cells. When switched on, viral replication may speed along, producing new viruses that destroy fresh lymphocytes. As viral replication spreads, the lymphocyte destruction virtually sabotages the entire immune system. In essence, HIV viruses do not kill people, they merely render the immune system defenceless against other infections, e.g. yeast invasions, toxoplasmosis, cytome-galovirus, massive herpes infections, special forms of pneumonia that kill in half of all AIDS patients.

That is AIDS. There are several types of AIDS. No one has been cured up to the present moment.

Smoking

Other problem with many young people is smoking. It doesn't only damage their own health but the health of those around them. It kills 2,5 mln people a year. Each cigarette knocks five minutes off life. It's just kissing an ashtray. In recent years, smokers have suffered more than any other group in society. In many countries, the price of cigarettes has gone up because of heavy government taxes. Some people even have lost their jobs because they smoke. Millions of teenagers know it's bad for them, but they still do it. Why? Here are some of the most common reasons. It relaxes the person when he's nervous; he likes the taste; his friends smoke; it has become a habit impossible to resist.

Besides -- the advertisements -- there are 2 types of cigarette advertisement -- 'for' and 'against'. Tobacco companies want more and more people to smoke. Cigarettes mean profit for them. About 100 mln people around the world work in the tobacco industry, $ 100 billion of cigarettes are sold every year. The first smokers were American Indians. Tobacco was brought to Europe by an Englishman, Sir Walter Raleigh, in the 16th century.

From other side, doctors and health organizations want to cut the number of smokers. For them cigarettes mean disease. The two sides are fighting a battle. It's a very expensive battle, too. Ads like these cost mlns of pounds every year. So, it's just to the young what to decide.

Emotional problems

Emotional problems for young people can be far more difficult than financial ones. The typical teenager problem is drug-habit. Some young man use drugs, because they think that will be cool guys. But they don't understand that it's wrong. Some of them can't stop that, and they become dependent on drugs. And they commit different serious crimes, because they need some money to buy drugs.

Youth is also the time to meet your first love. It is, of course, wonderful, but, as it is widely known that first love often has an unhappy end, this also increases young people's problems.

We also face the problem how to spend our free time. We can do it in different ways. Some of teen-ages spend their free time in different night clubs. Other young people spend their free time in the streets.

Another typical problem for most of the teenagers is problem with their parents. Leo Tolstoy said: “All families are happy in the similar way and unhappy in its own way”. And happiness or unhappiness of any family mostly depends on relations in it.

Each family establishes its own relations in its own way. It has its own traditions and customs and its own unwritten constitution including rights and duties of every member of the family. The level of democracy is also different in different families, which mostly depends on the viewpoints of adults usually not coinciding with a child's point of view. So the problem of misunderstanding becomes urgent. Some people can it generation gap. It as a rule sharpens as soon as a child approaches his or her difficult teens. And both sides (parents and children) should be patient and tactful and it's the only way to settle down all the problems and stay friends.

Parents say that its difficult to discipline children. But experts state that parents will get the best results if they try to prevent or stop misbehavior in natural, logical and when possible fun ways. Here are some pieces of advice to help them keep their kids in line.

Conclusion

So if you are a teenager and you are having problems with your parents try talking things over with them. Tell them what you think but be prepared to listen to them as well. Remember that your parents love you and in the end, no matter a hat they only want. What's best for you? Discussing your problems calmly will help you and your parents to understand each other better, and the more mature you with them, the more likely they are to treat you as an adult.

Social problems, family relationships and misunderstanding, school problems, lack of money on spending free time ... lead to increasing crime among young people. We are facing lots of problems but older people first of all should think about younger generations find the way out in solving the problems of the young and save them for the society, as youth is an integral part of it, it's our future.

So, as you see, it is very difficult to be young nowadays, as, need, it always was. But you only can be young once, and some wonderful things can happen only when you're young. So, it is be to enjoy youth while it lasts.

If you wont to help teenagers with they problems you'll better to talk with them. To my mind, teenagers would have a hobby. People take up different hobbies: collecting stamps, old coins, stones, records, photography… we must spend our time on useful things: extra classes, sports, music, collecting things. Hobby helps people to learn many interesting things. Teenagers wont to go somewhere, see new places and things. I think that if people have hobby they interesting in something and all they free time they spend to his interests, know new things and spend they time with use.

Literature

1. Drozdova T.U., Brestova A.I.. The Whole World in Our Hands, Himera, S.-Petrburg, 1999

2. Drozdova T.U,. Brestova A.I. Everyday English, Antologia, S.-Peterburg, 2004

3. Kubarcov G.L., Timohic B.А.. Topics, BAO-PRESS, Moscow, 2004

4. Mixailiva E. D., Romanovich A.U. Brush up your English, UNBES, Moscow, 2001