There is a saint and a thief in every one of us, but the matter of concern is whom do we feed the most. The battle between the thief and the saint within us has been going on since the dawn of civilization and ages have witnessed countless battles fought between the two that resulted in great consequences. The very particular battle becomes more furious when it comes to adolescents.
Adolescents are the growing children - teens. There are more than many social evils in which nowadays adolescents are involved. And the obvious cause of this is that they are constantly under stress due to hormonal surges and imbalances that occur specifically to their age group. Stresses and anxieties are due to the modulations in serotonergic, noradrenergic and dopaminergic systems within their bodies, which in turn are due to gonadal and adrenal steroid hormone actions, as a result of this, psychopathologies develop gradually and often various uncommon behaviours are reflected by an adolescent. These may include;
Persistent mental tension, excessive concern for loved ones, fear or worry about a person or situation, may bring abnormal heartbeats or abnormal respiration, fluctuating body temperature.
Tend to confine problems to themselves.
Prone to exertion, even after doing a trifle work
Inclined towards doubting own capabilities.
Irregular routines such as waking up late or at odd times, taking meals at irregular timings, etc.
Lack of confidence due to anticipation of failure that may result in despondency. E.g. even after preparing thoroughly for competition examinations, live competitions or stage shows, anticipation of failure spoils the performance finally.
Mind occupied with the memory of lost friends
Weak or delayed decision making, indecisiveness.
Physical ailments may trigger owing to negative approach, bitterness towards life.
Besides these naturally occurring problems there are a number of other socially condemned habits that an adolescent bears.  Among such habits is the consumption of drugs and narcotics  which are chiefly responsible for the wide spread damage of  youths particularly the adolescents throughout the world, even our valley harbours thousands of drug addicts, out of which 65 to 70 % are students. According to a census there are 200 million women smokers all over the world and a large chunk of them belong to colleges and schools. And it is expected that within a few years the figures may reach up to 500 million. Basically, during the adolescent years, a sense of experimentation and curiosity is on its climax and an adolescent is quite excited to taste new pleasures and experiences, hardly concerned from where these pleasures come. Moreover, friends put pressures in a bad company which results in the consumption of drugs and other narcotics that are certainly very viscous and hence leave  chronic adverse effects on mind and behaviour. So, better be alone than to be in a bad company.
Pornography, another addictive habit one can breed in him during his adolescence. As every one of us these days is used to internet, an adolescent can easily wander through the porn sites. This may hamper his thought process as the explicit content he views keeps lurking in mind and his concentration suffers a lot. Consequently a downfall in memory and learning capability is generally observed along with other psychological abnormalities.
The most serious problem regarding adolescence is the gap between parents - off spring relationship. I think it is the root cause of all those problems that an adolescent faces. Although strict, parents need to be patient towards their children during their adolescent years. Providing adequate pocket money and other necessities can’t rectify the problems and frustrations of an adolescent. Adolescents are prone to mood swings, they may be gregarious at one time and isolated at the other, hence, they may sometimes neglect their parents and would prefer to stay alone, but parents should patiently interact with their children and spend some time with them to make them feel comfortable to discuss their apparent frustrations and dilemmas. And what you say to those parents who openly smoke in front of their children and when they come to know that their children have become addicted to smoking, they accuse them of being fag addicts?
What is a miracle? I often ask myself. And as my mind leaps into the vast ocean of impossible events, I find all those events quite futile and vain, too ordinary to be stamped as miracles. But, when I see an adolescent refusing to drugs, porn, liquor, smoking etc. and say yes to education, indeed, I stamp it as a miracle.

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Lastupdate on : Tue, 20 Mar 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Tue, 20 Mar 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Wed, 21 Mar 2012 00:00:00 IST