Drug abuse as the act of handling or using drugs wrongly. There are many ways of preventing drug abuse. One of the ways is by engaging in behaviours that promote our physical, mental and social well-being.
A state of physical well-being is a good or satisfactory condition of life that is full of good health, happiness and prosperity. It also means that someone is healthy, physically strong and free from feeling weak. Mental well-being on the other hand is a state in which an individual realizes that his or her own abilities can cope with normal stresses of life, can work productively and are able to contribute to the development of his or her community.
Mental well-being involves being happy, being content with what you have, having self-esteem, self-confidence and having good relationship with people around you. Social well-being is the ability to easily get along with other people. This involves how a person communicates, interacts and socializes with other people.
Behaviours that promote physical, mental and social well-being
1 Stress reduction – One of the reasons why people engage in drug abuse is stress. Some drug abusers believe that when they are under tension, they can use drugs to ‘cool down’. For example, to those who smoke, smoking is the best way to cool down tension. However, this is not true because smoking will add more to their problem.
The importance of exercise to the body are
- a) It combats unhealthy conditions, and diseases.
- b) It improves people’s mood and makes them feel better.
- c) It boosts one’s energy.
- d) It promotes better sleep.
- e) It can be fun and a way of engaging in activities that can make someone feel happy.
2 Positive and good relationship with peers
3 Eat a balanced diet. A balanced diet is a diet that contains all the classes of food in appropriate proportions. Balanced diet makes us healthy. It also helps our body to prevent any diseases that may attack us. The food we eat can be divided into three groups.
– Energy-giving food
– Body-building food
– Body-protecting food
If we eat enough energy-giving food, we may not need any drug to give us energy. If we also eat enough body-building and body-protecting foods, we may not need any drugs for building our body. In the long run, we would be free from drug abuse.
4 Accept discipline from your parents and teachers
5 Young people should live honest lives, work hard and be content with what they have
.6 Young people should join religious organizations, where they would be taught how to pray and behave well.
7 Those that have the time can learn new skills.
Life coping skills that are needed for positive, healthy behaviours
The following are some of the skills and how to maintain them:
1 Choosing good friends: People say show me your friends and I will tell you the kind of person you are. The kinds of friends we keep determine the type of behavior we exhibit. It is good to avoid bad friends. Bad friends will influence us into doing what is bad including indulging in hard drugs. For us to keep good friends, we also need to be honest and faithful in our dealings. This will make people to trust and rely on us.
2 Establish acceptable measures of discipline: Parents and guardians should make the acceptable forms of behaviors in the community known to their children. They should also tell them the punishment for various offences and how to avoid them.
3 Contentment: This is a state of being satisfied with whatever one has. Children should be content with whatever they have for them not be lured into drug abuse.
4 Be courageous: Parents should teach their children how to show courage in defending their beliefs. They should be taught how to resist peer pressure.
5 Learn how to work hard: With hard work, it is very easy for a person to succeed.
It is good to work hard. It is not good to look for crooked means to success.
6 Self-reliance: This is the ability to work alone, without anybody’s help, and achieve results. Being self-reliant improves self-confidence and the ability to take decisions of your own. With this, we can easily say NO! to drug abuse or peer pressure
Strategies & Activities
Step 1: Teacher revises the previous topic.
Step 2: Teacher introduces the new topic.
Step3: Teacher explains the new topic.
Step4: Teacher welcomes pupils questions.
Step5: Teacher evaluates the pupils
Assessment & Evaluation
1 list behaviours that promote physical, mental and social well-being in people.
2 mention some life skills that are needed for maintaining positive healthy behaviours.
Exercise
A Choose the best answers for the following questions.
1 We must abstain from drug abuse because of _____________ substances contained in most of the drugs.
A harmful B sweet C bitter
2 One strategy of preventing drug abuse is engaging in behaviours that our mental well-being ______________.
A promote B disturb C flatter
3 A good or satisfactory condition of life that is full of health, happiness and prosperity is called ____________.
A physical well-being B spiritual well-being
C social well-being
4 When an individual realizes his own abilities and can contribute to his community, it is called ______________.
A mental well-being B spiritual well-being C social well-being
5 When an individual is able to get along with other people in the society it is called ______________.
A mental well-being B social well-being C physical well-being
6 Engaging in body exercise reduces ______________.
A hunger B stress C play
7 We should listen to our parents’ advice because they ______________ more than we do.
See also
Characteristics of drug abusers