You are a teenager now, cool, right? You feel you have reached that part of your life where you need privacy and you seem to feel you are matured to make your own decisions. Not bad if you ask me, well I am a teenager too. Of course, who doesn't want that teen spirit? Being a teenager is fun. Teenage years are the most crucial part of life which can make or mar an individual, everything seriously matters. But, how mature are you really if you just cannot seem to leave some of your childhood habits or rather let me put it this way, why pick up some habits that will ruin you both morally and spiritually. You might feel you engage in such peccadillos and have never been caught in the act, try not to deceive yourself, you have been caught by someone who has simply refused to tell you of your bad habits. So, without much ado, here are 8 bad habits teenagers engage in and need to stop:
1. Nose Picking And Biting Of Fingernails In Public
I am sure your first reaction was 'arrrgh! Who does that in public'. Of course, picking your nose and biting your fingernails nails won't kill you, but not only does doing these things seem gross, but it will open the door for bacteria that want to call your nose and fingers home. Come on, what can be more irritating than you speaking with someone and the individual is busy picking his or her nose or biting his or her nails not to mention doing it in public.
Let me highlight some effects of nose picking:
• Picking your nose is potentially dangerous for your health. If you have a virus, fungus, or bacteria on your finger and you pick your nose, the pathogens have found an easy way to enter your body.
• Picking your nose may also lead to pimples in your nose-hair follicles (folliculitis ).
• Picking your nose may tear the fragile skin within your nose, leading to nose bleeds.
• After you pick, and you don’t wash your hands, you are spreading these germs to others.
• If others catch you in the act, they will feel embarrassed, uncomfortable, and a little squeamish.
If your nose feels constantly stuffy and has crusty material within or around your nostrils, use a tissue—instead of your finger—for a time, and see if this relieves the need to pick. If a crusty or mucusy nose persists, see a doctor, as there may be other health reasons behind this—such as
allergies.
For fingernails:
Your fingernails may actually be twice as dirty as your fingers, considering they are difficult to keep clean, making this a prime point of transfer for infectious organisms. As you bite your nails, those bacteria easily transfer into your mouth and the rest of your body, where they may lead to infections. In summary, nail biting causes disease-causing bacteria, nail infections, dental problems and impaired quality of life.
Here are some tips to avoid nail biting:
• Cut them short. If there's not enough nail to grab with your teeth, it won't feel as satisfying when you give biting a try.
• Coat them with a bad taste.
• Splurge on manicures.
• Wear gloves.
• Find your triggers.
• Keep your hands or mouth busy.
2. Skipping Breakfast
As teenagers, we need to be healthy and agile. Come on, we all have heard the century adage that says that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. So, why skip the most important meal of the day, it's like skipping brushing your teeth every morning. Skipping breakfast is bad for your heart. Reports say people who skip breakfast have about 27% more chances of sustaining a heart attack when compared to those who eat breakfast. People who avoid breakfast are also known to have an increased susceptibility to hypertension in turn, leading to clogging of arteries. This, on the other hand, puts them at an increased risk of developing chronic cardiovascular health conditions, including stroke.
Also, skipping breakfast might cause unhealthy weight gain. If you are on a weight loss regimen and have the habit of skipping breakfast, give it a second thought now.
You should know these:
• Skipping breakfast may result in risk of cancer.
• Skipping breakfast can make you overindulge in food during the day time. This in turn paves the way for increased prevalence of obesity. It was found out that a person who is overweight or obese has an increased
risk of developing cancer .
• It also triggers hair loss. One of the major side effects of skipping breakfast results in hair loss.
• Breakfast is the quintessential meal of any day and has a major role in promoting hair growth. So, if you wish to enjoy a lush, strong hair with zero hair fall, then you ought to indulge in a protein-rich breakfast daily.
So, not only is it a bad habit, it is a dangerous habit too!
3. Sleeping In Class
This reminds of those days in primary school when the bell was always rung for sleeping periods. And at secondary school, well, the bell was/is not exactly rung for sleeping periods, but once a while some of us took naps in class. Wake up! Being a teen means you are preparing for university admission or you are in the university already. There is no sleeping periods, rather lecture periods. Imagine if you are the type that snores, no offense, but is that not interesting? Yeah, pretty interesting, but not as interesting as you seeing your friend sleeping in class with his or her mouth agape. The irony here is the individual will then wake up feeling refreshed when he actually doesn't know how well he was mocked in this unconscious act. Then from that moment on the individual keeps wondering why he or she is the cynosure of all eyes. Simple! His or her friends have been so wicked not tell the individual about how embarrassing the act was.
Sleeping during class periods can cause your grades to suffer and make you less likely to be respected by teachers and fellow students. While it might seem funny at the time to snooze at your desk, the person you're hurting the most is yourself. Classrooms naps can also distract other students who might be sitting next to you or staring at you and the teacher who is trying to direct the class. Here are some effects of sleeping in class:
• You might miss a test date that has been rescheduled.
• You might miss an important lecture.
• Your grades overall will start to suffer.
• Your classmates and teacher will take you less seriously.
• You might make it a habit to nap in class and sleep less at home.
• Class might end early and you might be left behind.
Here are some tips that will help
• Chew gum quietly.
• Eat something sugary or suck on hard candy.
• Doodle in a notebook.
• Try tensing and relaxing your muscles.
• Take a nap or close your eyes before class, if possible.
• Wiggle your fingers or toes or rotate your ankles.
• Ask a friend to tap you on the shoulder.
• Go to class slightly hungry, rather than right after eating.
4. Pornography
It is here again right? How many places do this have to appear before teens can learn to stop this act. Reports say 9 out of 10 boys and 6 out of 10 girls are exposed to pornography online before the age of 18; the first exposure to pornography among boys is 12 years old, on average; 71% of teens have done something to hide their online activity from their parents. Pornography among teens is spreading like wildfire and most teens see it as a normal habit, pornography is not in any way a good habit and it has it's health consequences. What can we do to get all the pornography off of the internet? What can we do to make it illegal to make a pornographic movie and to take pornographic photos? I really would not mind random visits from police to our home to check our phones for self took porno photos and films. I really do not think that I am being unreasonable. People need to clean up their acts, for what they are doing angers GOD and if they do not clean up their acts, they must face the punishment from GOD for such sinfulness.
Pornography triggers certain hormones in our bodies, such as adrenaline, and stimulates the production of testosterone, oxytocin, dopamine, and serotonin. Indulging in pornography is like indulging in a chemical cocktail. It gets you going. Like any drug, though, once the "rush" is over, there is invariably a letdown or a bombardment of negative emotions. To get the rush again, you have to take another hit later. Therefore, the addiction potential for pornography is enormous.
Pornography significantly contributes to child abuse, rape, violence against women, drug abuse, broken marriages, and broken lives. It can even lead to acting out what one views in pornography as well, which may be deviant and degraded.
Pornography is behavioral addiction as strong as cocaine, avoid it. Be smart and self-aware. Take practical steps to overcome pornography addiction. Install software that blocks pornography and put someone responsible in charge of the password (throw away the key, as it were). Make the effort. Don't let pornography mold your personality into something you are not. Become selfless rather than selfish. Find pleasure in normal relationships rather than virtual fantasies.
5. Masturbation
This topic is here too right?! Similar to pornography is masturbation, pornography results in masturbation so, leaving out masturbation won't be appropriate.
Masturbation habits gets into the hands of teenagers in both sex. The reasons are boredom, influence of friend as well as fear to get infection of dreadful disease like Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) through physical sex.
Teens who masturbate will likely suffer soft / weak erection, premature ejaculation, eye floaters or fuzzy vision, groin/ Testicular pain, Pain or cramp in the pelvic cavity or/and tail bone, fatigue or feeling of tiredness all the time, Lower back pain and thinning of hair.
A teenager who has been raised on high dose of moral values and who lacks sexual education might find himself slowly turning into a social recluse. A teenager who practices this in excess might find his concentration failing. He might find himself becoming more absent-minded and unable to concentrate on academics. A teenager addicted to masturbation might find himself low on morale and motivation. A feeling of listlessness pervades a teenager’s entire being and in the absence of a suitable confidante, the teenager might find himself drifting towards loneliness and early signs of depression.
6. Playing Loud Music In Public
This can be the most disrespectful and annoying act from a teen take it or leave it. Not every one likes you and not everyone is interested in the type of music you are playing so why give people chance dislike you more?! You've gotten a new phone, right? A classic phone with a good sound or you've gotten a good mp3 player, who cares? Keep your good things to yourself. Why then are headphones and earpieces made? I know not everyone feels comfortable with using these gadgets, but that does give you the chutzpah to disturb the neighborhood.
7. Alcohol
Alcohol is the drug of choice among teens. Many young people are experiencing the consequences of drinking too much, at too early an age. As a result, underage drinking is a leading public health problem in this country. I won't start to mention alcoholic drinks where, but those people who take them know their names. I hear someone people say, 'It only contains little alcohol'. Oh, really? Little alcohol can ruin your life, it is not something you are proud of as a teen. You can't simply tell everyone that you drink, come on so why are you deceiving your own self. Alcohol graduates into what you can't live without, like air so the earlier you stopped, the better.
Reports say each year, approximately 5,000 young people under the age of 21 die as a result of underage drinking; this includes about 1,900 deaths from motor vehicle crashes, 1,600 as a result of homicides, 300 from suicide, as well as hundreds from other injuries such as falls, burns, and drownings.
As children move from adolescence to young adulthood, they encounter dramatic physical, emotional, and lifestyle changes. Developmental transitions, such as puberty and increasing independence, have been associated with alcohol use. So in a sense, just being an teen may be a key risk factor not only for starting to drink but also for drinking dangerously.
Mind you, whatever it is that leads teen to begin drinking, once they start they face a number of potential health risks. Young people who drink heavily may put themselves at risk for a range of potential health problems.
You should know these:
• Alcohol decreases teens' ability to pay attention.
• Teens who have experienced alcohol withdrawal tend to have difficulties with memory.
• The teenage brain that has been exposed to alcohol is at risk for being smaller in certain parts. In contrast to adults, teens tend to abuse alcohol with other substances, usually marijuana .
• Male teens who drink heavily tend to complete fewer years of education compared to male teens who do not.
• The younger a person is when they begin drinking, the more likely they are to develop a problem with alcohol.
• Each year, almost 2,000 people under the age of 21 die in car crashes in which underage drinking is involved.
• Teens who drink are more likely to engage in sexual activity, have unprotected sex, have sex with a stranger, or be the victim or perpetrator of a sexual assault.
• Excess alcohol use can cause or mask other emotional problems, like anxiety or depression.
• Drinking in excess can lead to the use of other drugs, like marijuana, cocaine, or heroine.
8. Smoking Cigarettes
Each one of us has definitely seen what a cigarette looks like, it's everywhere, on the print media, on the electronic media and it's there with you, I mean in your surroundings. It is no longer something hideous to smoke in public, so smoking in private will not be bad too, right? My friend I have got news for you, not only does the smoke from a cigarette hurt the smoker, it hurts those around even more. The irony here is that, the teen who smokes does it around his/her 'loved ones' thereby putting their lives in danger too. The effects of smoking has been summarized in just few sentences on even the cigarette pack itself, 'smokers are liable to die young', so this is where the wise saying that, 'a word to the wise is enough' comes in. I wonder why I teen with a bright future will start to ruin his life by smoking. What exactly is gained when smoking? Pleasure? Relief? Maybe, but how many seconds of these things do you gain that permits putting your life in danger. Smoking fills the lung with tiny hairs embedded in a fine film of mucous. This system allows the lungs to capture dirt and bacteria. Each time a person inhales cigarette smoke, a few of those little hairs die off. The debris is still trapped, but the body has no way to move the debris back out again. People who smoke may develop coughs quickly. Their lungs begin to develop damage like this, and the coughs can become more and more acute if the person continues to smoke.
The lungs aren’t the only organs damaged by cigarettes. Smoke that rises from cigarettes and is exhaled through the mouth passes by the delicate skin of the face and neck. People who smoke for decades often develop thick, leathery skin that simply looks old and dry. Teens can begin to experience this leathery skin due to their smoking. And they may develop fine wrinkles on their cheeks and foreheads due to chronic smoke exposure. This issue might also resolve if the teen chooses to stop smoking. Teens might also develop characteristic yellowing of their teeth and fingertips.
People who smoke will likely contract: emphysema, stroke heart disease and cancer. Be warned!
There are other bad habits other than these mentioned, but these selected ones are crucial. I know some teens who have fallen prey to these acts are really trying hard to stop these acts, keep trying, you will one day be free. For other teens who have read this article without thoughts on how to stop any of these acts, keep in mind that it is better to be forewarned than fore harmed. There are consequences for every actions. Live happy, stay safe and live long.
From a concerned teen.
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