Staying Healthy Entails Making Responsible Choices

A large part of growing up is learning to take care of yourself in a healthy way. Eating healthy food, exercising almost daily, keeping your body clean, wearing clean clothes, staying away from drugs and alcohol, and having regular medical check-ups - all of these things can help you to be healthy and stay healthy as you go through puberty. But there is more to staying healthy than just taking good care of your body. It also means taking responsibility for your own actions - for yourself and for what you do. It means making healthy choices for yourself, includingchoices about your body and about sex. And it means having respect for yourself and yourown decisions. Staying healthy also involves having healthy relationships with other people. That means not only taking good care of your friends - both boys and girls. Having a good friend or friends as you grow up can help you learn how to have healthy relationships with other people that involve in sharing, caring, and respect for others as well as for yourself. As you go through life, friendship - being a good friend - is a big part of every healthy relationship, whether two people like each other a lot, or love each other a lot, or like andlove each other a lot. Yet puberty is a time when friends, even good friends often try to persuade or pressure each other to try out new things. Some of these things, which may involve sex, alcohol, or drugs, may be things you do not want to do, or are not ready to do, or are afraid to do, or feel it is not safe to do. That's when it's important to make the decision thatis best for you - one that is safe and healthy for you. Everyone makes mistakes and has bad judgment once in a while, and you probably will too. But most of the time, you can and will make responsible choices - ones that are good for you, right for you, and healthy for you and your friends. Sexual Decision Making Despite an awareness of the implications, many teenagers still find themselves engaging in casual and unsafe sex for one reason or the other. At a certain time in your life as an adolescent, you may be confronted with making the choice whether to be sexually active or not, that is assuming that you have not already had to make this decision. You have to get ready for this eventuality and ensure that you are not caught unprepared. The Choice to Have Sex Some of the reasons why young people choose to have sex are: *. To show affection and prove they love their partner (boyfriend or girlfriend). *. They enjoy it and it makes them feel good. *. To show their mates and friends that they"understand" and to prove their"masculinity" or "femininity". *. To get material rewards in exchange e.g. money, gifts, or extra marks in school. The Choice Not to Have Sex Some of the reasons why young people choose not to have sex are: *. It is against their social/religious upbringing or personal and moral beliefs tohave sex at this stage in their lives. *. They are not sure of their partner and would like to develop a strong relationship before considering sex. *. They do not want to risk the consequences of pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. *. To test the endurance of their partner's lovebeyond the phase of first attraction. Whenever you are faced with a situation where you have to decide, whatever choice you make will have implications that you haveto live with for the rest of your life. Because of this, you have to think carefully and keep inmind the following: *. Your body belongs to you; it is not anyone else's property. As such, no one else has a claim over your body sexually or in any other way. *. You have a right to decide when and how you want to express your feelings to the extent that you do not infringe any other person's rights. *. You do not have the right to have sex with another person unless that person makes it clear that he or she wants it too. *. You have the right to say "Yes" or "No" to sex. *. If you say "Yes" to sex, it is important that you think about using contraceptives and the possibility of sexually transmitted diseases including AIDS. *. If you say "No" to sex, it is perfectly OKAY and there is no reason in the world why you should be ashamed about this decision. A Word on Prevention The only sure way to prevent pregnancy is abstinence (not to have sexual intercourse) and this choice is perfectly OKAY. Experience has shown that abstinence is the best choice a teenager can make because it is the only 100% effective birth control method. With abstinence, you don't have to worry about pregnancy, disease or any complications arising from sexual activity. However, if you must have sex, you have to learn about other methods of birth control. Effective methods include the condom, pill, spermicidal foam/tablet diaphragm and IUD. Finally, it is important to ask yourself the following questions before deciding on which method to use: *. How important is it to me, that I do not get pregnant? *. How safe is this method for me?