Adolescents and abstinence: is it a realistic choice?
Adolescents and withdrawal: Is it a realistic option? Being a teenager is hard nowadays. Not only do you worry about maintaining good grades to get into the right school, but you also worry about peer pressure. Adding to the peer pressures is the pressure to have sex not only from friends, but also from books, TV, and movies.
Having sex is a serious decision, not one to be taken lightly, which is often the case. Practicing abstinence may seem difficult or even impossible to do today, but more teens than you think are doing it. They hear the stories in the locker room and during class about so-and-so having sex with so-and-so. In most cases, that’s a lie. In most cases, it’s someone who bolsters her own ego at the expense of someone else’s reputation.
Pledges are popular today. Teens are making the decision to wait to have sex until later in life. Some agree to wait until they are married. Others commit to waiting until a certain age, when they can appreciate and understand that sex is not just an action. As cheesy as it sounds, saving yourself for the right time and the right person is what many teens want.
However, the benefits of abstinence far outweigh the peer pressure. When you wait to have sex, you don’t have to worry about the serious consequences of it. Having sex may seem like fun, but having to deal with a pregnancy, a baby, or an illness isn’t.
Only a sexual encounter can create a baby. Don’t believe the myth that she can’t get pregnant the first time or any of the other myths out there. If you have sex, you can get pregnant. That’s why so many teens choose to wait to have sex, they see what a baby does in their friends’ lives, and they know they want more than that for themselves.
Pregnancy is not the only concern, the disease is too. Not only the simple STDs of the past, but also serious diseases, which accompany you all your life. Like herpes and the HIV virus. Using protection is not always enough either. The only way to make sure you don’t get infected with a sexually transmitted disease is to not have sex.
Despite pressure from friends and the media, more and more teens are going abstinent, even if they don’t advertise it. They are realizing that if they want a good and happy future, they must think about their actions while they are still teenagers. The things you do as a teen can affect your entire life, so choosing abstinence is the best thing a teen can do today.