9781422272329

better. “Peer pressure can not only bring about changes in behavior, but also thoughts, opinions, and feelings,” notes the online blog Good Therapy. “While peer pressure is most frequently used to describe the influence of friends on teenagers, all people can be subject to peer pressure.” And that kind of pressure can take many more forms than you may anticipate. Peer Pressure Takes Many Forms The cliché form of peer pressure is seen in endless numbers of anti- drug commercials: a group of people standing around one person and telling them to try marijuana or another drug. Perhaps you’ve run into this kind of situation. Maybe your friend has tried to get you to smoke or vape with them or has gotten a group of people together to pressure you. Unfortunately, this type of problem is likely to happen. “Peer pressure, or influence, comes in several forms, and these types of peer pressure can have a tremendous impact on a young person’s behavior,” notes the Talk it Out website. And if you have experienced this type of peer pressure before, you have been subjected to spoken peer pressure. This type is obvious based on its name: people speak to you to try to get you to smoke or vape. The words that they use don’t matter: they may threaten you, tease you, compliment you, or try to make you feel inferior to them because you don’t smoke. That’s because peer pressure can be considered an attack on your core values or beliefs. If you are firmly against smoking, and somebody tries to get you to try it, they are making fun of your beliefs, whether they realize it or not. Under enough pressure from people your age, it can be very easy to just give up—when you do, a core aspect of who you are as a person changes in a significant way. That said, not all peer pressure is verbal or spoken. Much of it is unspoken, which can be the hardest type to fight. Let’s say that your friends have tried to get you to vape with

12

Peer Pressure to Smoke or Vape: Finding the Strength in You