How to handle peer pressure?

When you are in schools our friends who are our age group are your peers. Sometimes your friends might ask you to do or say something against your will. You may feel pressurized to do things on your own or against your will. This is called peer pressure.

Peer pressure can be good or bad

When your friend asks you to participate and play sport with him it is a good thing. If he convinces you to participate in a school play for the first time, it is a good thing. Because it is encouragement and it will help you to grow both physically and mentally.

Sometimes the peer pressure can be bad – for example, if your friend forces you to participate in harassing or bullying a fellow student or a junior student and you know it is bad then it is bad! This bad peer pressure makes you think several time and brings fear and unhappiness in your mind. In bad peer pressure, one can try to convince you to do dangerous stuffs too. It is negative peer pressure and not good at all.

How to respond to bad peer pressure?

Your friends may try to convince you to do something which you don’t want. Then be strong and make up your mind not to do it. Don’t fall for it. The harder they push you to do, you must resist because you know it is either dangerous or can harm others or is not good for you.

When someone tells you behave negatively, walk away saying I cannot do it. It does not mean you are a loser. It means you are smarter, very careful and you are mature enough to understand the outcome of doing such things.

Sometimes they might use tactics to make you feel worse and sorry about yourself. For this they will use such sentences and might make you angry about yourself. Keep your balance, don’t give up. Always be alert and if someone pushes you to edge give it back nicely, politely.

While putting pressure, your friends may say several things. You should be able to answer firmly.

For example,

If you don’t want to do something that you were instructed to do by a friends, they may say “you are a loser” or “Don’t be a loser”

Your answer can be: “But this loser won’t bet benched for the rest of the season” or “I don’t like to be a part of it, sorry”

Another tactic of bad peer pressure is:

Someone may say “Oh, we are good friends and you should do it” Or “ If you are a good friend, you will”

Your answer should be: “a good friend will not try to make a friend to do something, which he don’t want to do” or “a good friend will not put other friend in trouble”

Another way they might try to force you or convince you with some logic

“Only babies are scared to do this” or “only girls are not allowed to do it”

You must answer “ I am aware of it, still I don’t want to do it”

While growing your friends may try to drag you to perform dangerous acts, smoking, drinking and they might say it is for fun. Your friend might try to convince you by saying “No one will find out” or “Your parents will never find out”.

Your answer can be “Yes, You obviously don’t know anything about my parents” or “ They trust me and I don’t want to disappoint them”

As you are aware that smoking and drinking is not good, you can say “we don’t need these activities to have fun” or “Don’t force me, If you think it is fun for you, be happy to keep it to yourself” Or a simple, straight forward answer is “ I don’t like it, I don’t feel like it”

Another way is getting out of the situation by suggesting some other activities like games, sports, movies, dinner, discussion or start hanging out with friends who don’t force you to do what you don’t want to do.

Practice these types of answers few time, you will get courage and won’t be under peer pressure.

Don’t be afraid to say no to negative (bad) peer pressure as it can put you in situation which can harm you and you may feel guilty about it and unhappy about doing such things. Instead, stand tall, be confident, resist and reject things which you don’t want to do. Be proud of yourself for resisting, for not getting into do things which your mind does not like.

For more: www.healthylife.werindia.com

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