One of the methods of preventing drug use in schools in Romania involves exposing children to real life stories. Many specialists believe that the emotional impact of the dramas that other people have gone through, former users or even inmates incarcerated in different penitentiaries, could convince students to never try to use drugs. However, the effect could hit like a boomerang, according to psychologist Mihai Copăceanu, who explained the risks of this method.
Drug use, a phenomenon out of control. Archive
Psychologist Mihai Copăceanu believes that the authorities are playing with fire when they bring before children former drug addicts who tell them in great detail the ordeal they went through for years and years. The intention is good, but the effect could be contrary to expectations.
“Scientific studies have shown that approaches that rely on emotional information, such as the testimonies of drug users, are risky for several reasons,” explains specialist Mihai Copăceanu on his social media page. First, it desensitizes. “When testimonies are too dramatic or intense, young people can become desensitized or fail to form a real preventive attitude. There is a risk that some young people will consider these stories to be exceptions or minimize their effects”, consider the specialist.
Then, these stories could spark children’s curiosity to experiment, warns the psychologist. “The explanation is simple, because many of the former consumers also expose the “cool” part of the period when they consumed, the “cool” part, and a young man in the gym, only thinks about this cool part and ignores the other parts, on the principle of ” he was a sucker, that’s why he ended up in prison”.
And if a person comes to view drug use as a dangerous but fascinating experience, they may be more likely to try to experience the same experiences described by users who come to them with these stories. These methods of preventing consumption, Mihai Copăceanu believes, do not offer concrete solutions, valid for each case, because “address a personal, individual experience to hundreds, 500 participants”.
The message should be delivered by specialists who know the psychology of public speaking
Last but not least, the specialist draws attention, those who are brought in front of the children to speak to them from their own life experiences, do not have a pedagogy and a psychology of public discourse about drugs. “It’s not about emotion. Young people with good intentions, with the experience really moving to tears, does not mean that they also have the skills to present a convincing speech, to provide information in a selective and, above all, responsible way. Do you know that what you say can also influence in a negative sense? You can prompt! It’s a very big risk,” consider the specialist.
It also comes with some solutions that could indeed give the expected results. It could work, for example, to organize activities to develop the skills of resistance to the social pressures that adolescents and young people are subjected to, certain interventions based on building self-control and problem-solving skills that they encounter. “These are far more effective than dramatic testimonials,” says the psychologist.
“When ex-consumers speak for preventive purposes, they do so neither when they are in treatment nor in prison, but after many years since they became abstinent, after they have accumulated a lot of pedagogical experience and especially after they have learned from specialists how to present his life story in such a way as not to arouse curiosity and encourage consumption!”, Mihai Copăceanu also testified.
