Friends: Our Essential Need for Companionship - Essay Sample

Introduction

As humans, we all have a natural need for friends. Friends are essential in our day to day lives, and thus everyone needs a friend. A friend is one that respects and trusts you, listens and shares with you, accepts your self-defined restrictions and the one that can help you make decisions in your hardest times without necessarily taking advantage. In our circles, we might end up falling for the right or bad friends, and we decide to either keep them when they turn bad or still try to change them. In some cases, one might be the wrong friend. The friends we care for make lack capacity to make decisions on money, health, and other matters and thus as a friend one might end up helping them to make decisions or make those decisions on their behalf. In cases where friends chip in to help in decision making could bring good results or otherwise lead to peer pressure which eventually may cause bad choices such as drug abuse ((Kelly, Vuolo, & Marin, 2017). This paper will extensively discuss making decisions on friendship, peer pressure, and drug abuse without forgetting the relationship between intimacy, peer pressure, and drug abuse.

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Making Decisions on Friends

Making decisions on who to have as a friend is very simple, but involving ourselves with the right people as friends, those with the right intentions and maintaining those circles is the hardest. Making new friends can be very exciting and daunting at the same time, although it is very satisfying. In an attempt to create new friends, it is worth noting that a good friend may or may not be your age, come from the same cultural and educational background. Friends are not necessarily the same sex or share interest same as yours. Therefore, winning friends that fit your interests and characteristics requires to be patient so has to get the right ones with the right intentions.

Even though we all need friends, one has to consider several factors before having close friends to ensure that these social circles.do not impact one's life negatively through vices such as behavioral change, drug addiction, sexuality and chances of turning to be a criminal among many. Behavior is one factor that should be considered when choosing friends. Disciplined friends, especially during adolescence, are like assets. One is prone to learn the best from them and improve every day. Generosity in friends is also another factor that is worth noting. Friends that value money more than the heart of a friend is not worth keeping. Such would do anything, including indulging into drugs trade to get money. Thirdly, choosing friends who are non-egoistic friends brings such a timeless feeling and gratification. Egoistic friends will make you feel a lesser being ad crush you're your self-esteem. Besides, they will hinder, your chances of success. Finally, friends with suspicious characters can only taint your character by influencing peer pressure, which leads to bad choices in life.

Friends Influence in Critical Thinking and Problem Solving

Being part of our social network, friends in most cases influence our decision making and problem-solving either directly or indirectly. In cases where a person has no mental capacity to make a decision, then friends can pop in to make the decision and solve the problems at hand fully. This action may cause adverse effects or impact one. Friends who possess great critical thinking and problem-solving skills are likely to influence one's decision making. Friends with questionable characters and selfish interests will always change friends negatively especially during the adolescent stage where teenagers with the wrong friends end up making wrong decisions through involving themselves in drug addiction and other vices in the society.

Friendships come with sanctions that may eventually lead to bad decision making. These sanctions could be ridicule from friends, fear of rejection, and the struggle to fit in the friendship circles. Also, not conforming to pressures by a circle of friends may be seen as disloyalty and this may make one to follow the crowd behaviors, and practices to prove their commitment as well as establish strong bonds with the friends (Kelly, Vuolo, & Marin, 2017). Such pressures generally result in one making uninformed decisions and adopt friend's behaviors, which can even be illegal, substance abuse, and many other vices. A good example is when one is caught in a stressful situation or facing a big problem. If your social network believes that once you drink alcohol or take bhang, it will reduce stress levels or rather help in solving a problem, Then the likelihood of indulging in substance abuse is high. It is because once you approach these friends for help, the only help they can offer to make a decision or solve a problem is substance use, which they majorly see as the stress reliever. Suppose this person was in the right circle of friends, he or she would have solved the problem soberly through critical thinking.

Peer Influence in Critical Thinking and Problem solving

Peer pressure is influence from peer group members. Peer influence occurs mostly among young people. Peer influence as for a long time been hypothesized as the significant influence of nonconformity such that people experience pressure from their peers and in the process of trying to fit in their peers' interests ends up making wrong decisions without thinking critically. Although peer pressure occurs in all ages, it has been very prevalent among adolescents and teenagers who tend to seek approval from other peers severally. The effect of these peer processes is that they render one at vulnerable stages in life phases to pressures from the peer circle to engross themselves with deviant behaviors. Having friends with unusual behaviors automatically contributes to one's abnormal behaviors (Kelly, Vuolo, & Marin, 2017).

A good example is acquitting oneself with peers that use drugs will automatically result from using the substance by other peers. During the transition, young people more effusively embrace the behaviors and standards of their peers who are more likely to shape drug using decision among many other vices. The problem with peer groups is that among many peer groups especially teenagers, one's desire to impress friends may override the fear of taking risks such as making decisions to taking drugs, over speeding without critically thinking of the repercussions.

It is worth noting that many adolescents and young adults desire to be, and this could lead to bad decisions to be popular. However, the most significant risk for bad decisions independent of critical thinking, such as substance abuse is conformity to peer pressure. It may highly occur in circles where there are strong peer bonds, which makes it very easy to conform to these non-normative behaviors which escalate with time (Kelly, Vuolo, & Marin, 2017). Trying to be like your peers crushes your self-esteem such that every problem you go through, you have no guts to solve it on your own. In short, one ends up trusting the peers more than himself or herself. In such a case, when one depends entirely on peers in making the decision, then at least having the right people to guide through will be an achievement. The right peer group will help you identify the problem, analyze it by looking at the problem from a different angle, brainstorm to come up with possible solutions and support to take action, unlike another group that would advise on vices such as substance abuse that makes the problem worse. Shadur & Hussong (2014) deducts that one of the sturdiest indicators of teens behaviors is that of their peers.

Many people think that peer pressure is always a negative thing that influences teenagers to engage in risky behaviors and make wrong decisions, but also, peer pressure can bring positive influence among peers. Just as many teens change others to make uninformed decisions, there is a possibility of their friends to influence them in making the right decisions through critical thinking and also influence them with skills to solve problems without necessarily engaging in risky behaviors. An excellent example in a University setting where one who is stunt Christian might be in a peer group like drunkards' classmates or sharing the same club. This person could also have close friends that have suspicious and questionable characters and probably drug abusers. Rather than being influenced by them, he can choose to even recruit them in the church choir where they will be changed to quit drugs. Thus, peer pressure does not always result in negative influence.

Drug Abuse Influence in Critical Thinking and Problem Solving

Drugs are substances that change the functioning of body and brain while drug abuse is the use of these substances for the wrong reasons. Drug abuse has been very prevalent, especially among the youths for the longest. Use of drugs and substances impairs the mind and body; hence, one cannot make independent and sober decisions.

Many teens and young adults believe that taking drugs and substances is an excellent way of solving problems and relieving stress. Therefore, every time under, they indulge themselves with medicines and elements to make them happy. This act exposes them to many risks such as related drug and substances diseases, accidents, and early pregnancies. Apart from that, while under the influence of these drugs and substances, teens tend to make uninformed decisions solve the problems which lead to suicidal cases among the youths. Friendship context is more related to drug abuse than peers. According to

Relationship Between Friendship, Peer Pressure, and Drug Abuse

According to Nardi (2017), establishing probability and screening instances of coincidence is paramount. Peer influence has for the longest been known as the principal causative agent of drug abuse, particularly drug abuse by adolescents (Reed & Rountree, 1997). When there is deep friendship intimacy, the adverse effects increase, and thus, there are higher chances of giving in to peer pressure and drug misuse (Shadur, & Hussong, 2014). Shadur, & Hussong, (2014) further deducts that adults with less intimate friends will tend to abuse drugs to counter loneliness while the adolescents with many friends especially friends involved in substance abuse will tend to abuse drugs due to influence

The three; friendship, peer pressure, and damage are logically interrelated. In one way or the other, friendship and peer pressure are factors that are highly known to lead to drug abuse. Through this, the effects of drug abuse tend to result in poor decision making without making any critical deductions. Also, drug abuse will make one gain unfortunate problem-solving skills. In a nutshell, countering bad friendship and ignoring peer pressure and vice versa cannot solve the problem of drug and substance abuse commonly by the teens and young adults. The relations between friendship and peer groups highlights a trend that suggests close friendships serve to either buffer o increase chances of drug abuse depending on the degree in which the close friends use the substance.

Countering Peer Pressure and Bad Friendships

In this time and age, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills in every aspect of life is essential. Thus before making certain friends, one should critically question why they ought to be involved in such friendships, especially if bad friends that influence one's life negatively are affected (Ruggiero, 2009). By critically analyzing people and ensuring that before that you don't allow friends with suspicious characters and bad influence be part of your life, then that's a win. Also, critically analyzing behaviors of the existing friends...