Here & Now

Want a Smoke?

2009-09-11T07:01:00.000-07:00

Everyone one of us definitely knows a friend or schoolmate who either drinks frequently or smokes. In the past, no one would be able to imagine a teenager drinking or even smoking. Sadly, in today's society, it isn't uncommon to see a teenager smoking at a mall, or drinking alcohol at a party. Life as a teenager is tough. It's a period of life where everyone struggles to find their own identity and tries to gain the attention of the world. And so, teenagers are easily influenced by their surroundings. The media's portrayal of smoking and drinking, encouragement from friends, stress from school all have played a part in forcing teenagers to drink and smoke.

Almost everyone knows that smoking causes cancer, emphysema, and heart disease; that it can shorten your life by 10 years or more; and that the habit can cost a smoker thousands of dollars a year. So how come people are still lighting up? The answer, in a word, is addiction.

ONCE YOU START IT'S HARD TO STOP
Smoking is a hard habit to break because tobacco contains nicotine, which is highly addictive. Like heroin or other addictive drugs, the body and mind quickly become so used to the nicotine in cigarettes that a person needs to have it just to feel normal. People start smoking for a variety of different reasons. Some think it looks cool. Others start because their family members or friends smoke. Most adults who started smoking in their teens never expected to become addicted. That's why people say it's just so much easier to not start smoking at all.

HOW IT AFFECTS YOU
There are no physical reasons to start smoking. The body doesn't need tobacco the way it needs food, water, sleep, and exercise. In fact, many of the chemicals in cigarettes, like nicotine and cyanide, are actually poisons that can kill in high enough doses. The body is smart. It goes on the defense when it's being poisoned. For this reason, many people find it takes several tries to get started smoking: First-time smokers often feel pain or burning in the throat and lungs, and some people feel sick or even throw up the first few times they try tobacco.

The consequences of this poisoning happen gradually. Over the long term, smoking leads people to develop health problems like heart disease, stroke, emphysema, and many types of cancer — including lung, throat, stomach, and bladder cancer. People who smoke also have an increased risk of infections like bronchitis and pneumonia.These diseases limit a person's ability to be normally active, and they can be fatal. Each time a smoker lights up, that single cigarette takes about 5 to 20 minutes off the person's life.

Smokers not only develop wrinkles and yellow teeth, they also lose bone density, which increases their risk of osteoporosis, a condition that causes older people to become bent over and their bones to break more easily. Smokers also tend to be less active than nonsmokers because smoking affects lung power. Smoking can also cause fertility problems and can impact sexual health in both men and women. Girls who are on the pill or other hormone-based methods of birth control (like the patch or the ring) increase their risk of serious health problems, such as heart attacks, if they smoke.

The consequences of smoking may seem very far off, but long-term health problems aren't the only hazard of smoking. Nicotine and the other toxins in cigarettes, cigars, and pipes can affect a person's body quickly, which means that teen smokers experience many of these problems:

Bad skin. Girls, do you really want this? Because smoking restricts blood vessels, it can prevent oxygen and nutrients from getting to the skin — which is why smokers often appear pale and unhealthy.
Bad breath. Cigarettes leave smokers with a condition called halitosis, or persistent bad breath.
Bad-smelling clothes and hair. The smell of stale smoke tends to linger — not just on people's clothing, but on their hair, furniture, and cars. And it's often hard to get the smell of smoke out.
Reduced athletic performance. Boys, do YOU want this? People who smoke usually can't compete with nonsmoking peers because the physical effects of smoking (like rapid heartbeat, decreased circulation, and shortness of breath) impair sports performance.
Greater risk of injury and slower healing time. Smoking affects the body's ability to produce collagen, so common sports injuries, such as damage to tendons and ligaments, will heal more slowly in smokers than nonsmokers.
Increased risk of illness. Studies show that smokers get more colds, flu, bronchitis, and pneumonia than nonsmokers. And people with certain health conditions, like asthma, become more sick if they smoke (and often if they're just around people who smoke). Because teens who smoke as a way to manage weight often light up instead of eating, their bodies lack the nutrients they need to grow, develop, and fight off illness properly.

KICKING BUTTS & STAYING SMOKE FREE
All forms of tobacco — cigarettes, pipes, cigars, and smokeless tobacco — are hazardous. It doesn't help to substitute products that seem like they're better for you than regular cigarettes, such as filtered or low-tar cigarettes.

The only thing that really helps a person avoid the problems associated with smoking is staying smoke free. This isn't always easy, especially if everyone around you is smoking and offering you cigarettes. It may help to have your reasons for not smoking ready for times you may feel the pressure, such as "I just don't like it!" or "I want to stay in shape for floorball!" (or football, basketball, or other sport).

If you do smoke and want to quit, you have lots of information and support available. Different approaches to quitting work for different people.Some people find that it helps to go to a support group especially for teens. These are sometimes sponsored by local hospitals or organizations. The Internet offers a number of good resources to help people quit smoking.When quitting, it can be helpful to realize that the first few days are the hardest. So don’t give up. Some people find they have a few relapses before they manage to quit for good.

Staying smoke free will give you a whole lot more of everything — more energy, better performance, better looks, more money in your pocket, and more life to live!

GIRLS; The Clique Chick

2009-09-09T09:04:00.000-07:00

What makes the "Clique Chick" tick?
Watch out for this girl for she can be the most dangerous girl of all because she's a double or triple threat. She can be a snob, gossip, teaser, bully, traitor or what have you. But her true colours come out only when she's surrounded by her group. When she's alone, she's not so bad, but when she's with her clique, it's a brand new ballgame. That's why some girls (and the occasional boys) are more afraid of this type of girl than of any other.

"In today's society, girls tease other girls because they don't like who you are or because you're not in their clique. So they try to get you to be just like them and do things you shouldn't. But what can you do when the most popular girl expects you to do it?" -Josie, 15.

You can do a lot to counteract the effects of those in a clique. Just because the most popular girl in school (and the rest of her gal pals) expect you to do something you know isn't right, you don't have to bite.

FYI,
A Clique Chick is a girl who doesn't make a move without her entourage. That's her train of attendants, followers, gal pals, or co-chicks. Some of them might even be part of iron cliques - very tight cliques that formed way back in kindergarten or primary school.
These cliques, iron or not, can consist of one or even several dozen girls. But what they all have in common is that they cluster and group around a girl who's Miss Popularity or Miss Boss because of her looks, or the way she acts or maybe her material possessions. From Primary School on, the Clique Chick isn't too concerned about grades/results or sports, although she's into them. Yet mostly she's concerned about herself - her looks, her clothes, her hair, all of her expensive hot stuff. At least that's the way it seems from the outside. But there's no doubt about one thing: the Clique Chick cares about having many, many friends.
Super Clique Chicks always have a loyal following. From early on, they spend most of their free time talking to and advising other girls, who're desperately trying to become more like the top chick. They talk about who likes whom, who will ask whom for a date and who should get invited to the next party. It's often a he said, she said chitchat, with the betas reporting to the alpha what's being said.
Any true Clique Chick is the center of many other girls' attention, and she naturally can be harsh in dealing with the members of her clique and other girls. She decides who's in and who's out, and there's no appealing her decision. What's being said about others isn't important.
In actual fact, cliques are the gathering of girls who can't yet stand on their own two feet. For them, there's safety in numbers. It's like a fab family, especially for girls who feel unloved at home or think no one cares. And the top Clique Chick is no different. Maybe she's an only child with busy parents who have their attention elsewhere. Or she comes from a background that doesn't show warmth, so the clique queen has to get it from her loyal subjects.
Whatever the age of the alpha chick, she has picked up adult characteristics prematurely. She's often 15 going on 25. On one hand, she's super grown up and on the other, she's way immature. She wants a sisterhood swarming around her to make up for the attention she lacks. Even though she had to grow up fast, she has a childlike values system. She thinks clothes and nails and hair are what life is all about. But yet deep down, she's loving and caring - but also trying hard to make up for what's missing, that often she turns even her own mother, sisters and aunts into her entourage. Her frequent Barbiel-doll appearance reinforces her status. So, overall, a Clique Chick is a girl who has primadona status and can - at times - ve extremely mean, rude or cunning.
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SPEAKiNG OUT!
This time, we asked other teens like you what the word CLIQUES meant to them.

"One tends to stay in his or her comfort zone once in a clique. A person becomes less sociable."
-Chloe, 19.

"I think cliques are for fools!"
-Nicole, 18.

WIKIPEDiA SAYS:
A clique is an exclusive group of people who share interests, views, purposes, patterns of behaviour, or ethnicity.
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WHAT SHOULD YOU KNOW
Here's a list of things to keep in mind about the Clique Chick:

Know that mean clique conduct often involves putting thee clique squeeze, otherwise known as peer pressure, on you. Peer pressure can bring out either the best or the worse in you. All you have to do is examine it and ask: What are your peers really pressuring you to do?
At first, clique squeeze might seem pretty harmless, like how you dress or wear your hair. While part of "finding yourself" can mean going along with the pack, be sure to watch your back around this type of behaviour. First, it may only be clothes or hair, but that can expand into other things, like who you can and cannot date or even being cruel to girls. Don't get caught up in that type of game. Keep yourself safe, and always be true to your goals and your soul.
So focus on yourself, your talents, and your potential. Rather than spending your energy on trying to please the head and her tails, be the strong mind you are and do what enhances your own life and what contributes to your fabulous future.

WHAT TO DO ABOUT THE CLiQUE CHiCK
Follow these steps to guard against the Clique Chicks:

Fight the clique squeeze at your school just by giving the ruling clique of chicks at your school the cold shoulder. Be independent-minded and develop your own style.
Stop worrying about what other girls want you to do and just be yourself. Did you that "popular" actually means average or ordinary? Don't strive so hard to be just ordinary. Be extraordinary. Be outstanding!
Try sharing some of these tricks on dealing with cliques with other girls - maybe your little sister and her friends or even your Juniors in school. By teaching others how to be strong, you are allowing your own strength to grow.

THE BOTTOM LiNE
So, what's the bottom line on Clique Chicks? Read on:

Before getting yourself involved with any group or clique, be sure to ask yourself, "What makes this clique tick?" It it's for friendship or a worthy cause, embrace it. But if it's all for show, step back and think a minute before you make that leap ahead. Remember, popular means ordinary, not extraordinary!
If a certain mean chick and her clique are getting you down, then you can get out. Who needs to be around a leader who's a loser? You're growing, you're becoming more YOU each and every day. Don't let any Clique Chick stand in the way of how smart, original and funny you really are.