Choices: is Red Bull a Drug?

Please see Part's 1, 2 and 3 of this series for more information regarding this book series. As mentioned in the other parts Nicole O'Dell is an Author of a book series entitled "Scenarios." Teenagers will always be faced with difficult decisions in their daily life. We hope and pray that we have taught them well enough that when faced with these choices they will pick doing the right things.

In this next book "Making Waves," we are introduced to Kate. Kate is a sophomore in High School. Kate is an excellent swimmer and decides to try out for the school's swim team. Being on a swim team requires a lot of training early in the mornings before school, practices after school, in addition to doing homework and for Kate commitments she has made to her church.

At first Kate tries coffee to help her wake up in the mornings and help her be able to perform up to her normal standards. She is then introduced to an energy drink called "Red Bull," a completely legal over the counter drink that other team mates are drinking to give them more energy. Kate begins to start drinking these until her mom finds one in her bag and tells her the dangers. Her mother tells her not to drink them anymore and Kate makes a promise to her mom that she won't. She keeps her promise because she doesn't want to betray the trust her mother has in her.

All is fine until the day of the Championships and Kate is dragging. She wants to beat the school record and is feeling very tired. She asks her friends for a "Red Bull" and no one has one that she could have. Time is running out and there is no time for her to get one. Then one of the girls offers her the "real" thing a drug called speed! This is not a safe over the counter item that her friend is offering her here. The girls try to convince her that even the coach thinks she should do this as they want to win the championship. Now Kate is faced with a major decision here of what to do, does she take the pill or does she risk losing the championship? It's just one time right? She tells herself she will never take it again just this once.

Now you are placed in the choice section. What do you want her to do? Do you think it would be harmless to take the drug, just this one time? Or do you think it's far too dangerous and risky? This book as with each of the others in this series created scenarios where I did not want to put the book down, until a decision was made and outcomes for each choice were played out. I hope you will take the time to get your own copy of this book and read it for yourself.

What do you think your teen would do in this situation? Drugs unfortunately are a major factor in today's teen's worlds. If a teen wants drugs they are not all that hard for them to get. If your teen is under pressure from other peers or just having a hard time dealing with life in general, will they turn to something to help make that pain disappear? Does your teen truly know all the dangers of each of these drugs that are made accessible to them? Do they understand that alcohol even though a liquid is a drug and could easily poison them?

Nicole O'Dell's books take real life situations teens are faced with everyday. She brings you into the book and gives you the reader a decision to make. Reading these books helps you as a parent to understand better exactly how a true to life scenario unfolds for some teens and how much pressure they are under and still make the right choice in the end. I believe that these books will definitely help parents have a better sense of the pressures teens are faced with and in turn help open the lines of communication.

Of mention, I researched "Red Bull" on Wikipedia. According to Wikipedia, Red Bull is the most popular energy drink in the world, according to market share. It further states that in a study of 30 healthy young adults, there was an immediate detrimental effect on both the endothelial function and normal blood coagulation. This temporarily raised the cardiovascular risk in these individuals to a level to that of an individual with established coronary artery disease. Does this sound safe to you? This is not illegal, this is easy for teens to buy at any local store, please let your teens know this is not an acceptable drink and it's very dangerous. Imagine a teen or anyone drinking this with possibly an underlying heart issue?

Do you suspect your teen is taking drugs or drinking? Things are pretty scary out there lately for teens including bullying and all the recent suicides we keep hearing about. Talk to your teens as often as you can about these serious issues and if you suspect anything please get help right away.

This was originally published on Examiner.com
http://www.examiner.com/x-33498-Long-Island-Parenting-Teens-Examiner