Self Destructive Behaviours: Avoiding Vices

How can we avoid vices? Whether it’s having a drink, smoking weed, vaping, binge-watching Netflix, or junk food—anything that offers an escape from the challenges of our current situation is considered a vice. I’ve wrestled with vices numerous times in my life. It’s an ongoing struggle in a world where vices are everywhere! When we’re tired or stressed, it’s so easy to grab for some junk food or reach for a drink, trading fleeting pleasure for lasting progress. And it’s in those moments of weakness that we let ourselves down.

Growing Up Before Social Media

I grew up in a small town in the south of England. A peaceful place with minimal crime. I was always outdoors with friends, and during school breaks and weekends, we’d be outside from dawn till dusk. I feel fortunate to belong to a generation before social media and smartphones took over. My media of choice was MTV, Kerrang, and torrenting music from Limewire. That time felt so care free. We occupied ourselves with skateboarding, making dirt jumps, building ramps in the garden. Which when I got a bit older, lead to playing musical instruments, starting bands and performing at local shows.

From Skate Parks to Self-Improvement

Our friendship circle was pretty tight, and every weekend there was some kind of social gathering going on. We would get together, have some drinks, listen to music and just hang out having a great time. Around that time I just remember always being with friends.

My interest in BMX and Inline Skating meant I spent a lot of time at the skatepark. We used to go to the local Lidl supermarket and stock up on sweets and energy drinks, get high on sugar and try out tricks on the half pipe. We spent a lot of time there and ended up making friends with some older guys who were over 18. We would ask them if they would buy alcohol from the store for us for the party later that evening because we were underage, and so they did. Some weekends when there was no ones house we could go to, a group of us would go to the local park, have some drinks and camp out under the stars.

This socialising started out with just a bunch a kids, with lots of time on their hands having some fun. But when you mix teenagers, with lots of freedom and time on their hands, and then put alcohol into the mix, it often doesn’t end well. Certain individuals in the group liked to push the boundaries, be daredevils and act as crazy as possible, and I ended up getting tied up with it at times. I did some reckless things that I’m not proud of.

The Night That Changed Everything

Around age 16 I got into a car accident without a licence. We were at a party and decided to give some friends a lift home. It was raining, I had been drinking, and after we dropped a couple of friends off I got in the drivers seat and I crashed the car with 2 of my friends as passengers.

Luckily no one was hurt, apart from an open wound on my leg from the shattered windscreen everyone was fine. The car was wrecked and turned upside down. One of my friends was halfway down the street already running towards home. Me and my other friend lived nearby so started running home together, I remember him saying ‘we’re so screwed, look at your leg you’re bleeding!’, I was in total shock, I didn’t even feel it.

I ran into my parents house and woke them up in the middle of the night telling them what had happened. The police and ambulance were called and shortly came to the house to take me to the hospital to get my leg stitched up. They then took my blood to check the alcohol levels in my system. I spent the rest of the night and the following day at the police station in a cell. By some miracle the alcohol in my system was under the legal limit to drive, so they let me off with a caution, taking my age into consideration and the fact I had no other prior offences.

A Fresh Start

This was a massive turning point in my life and it made me not want to touch alcohol or substances again. I even turned vegan for a couple of years. I was grounded for months, and just focused on my college work. When I was allowed out again, by this point my circle of friends had started experimenting with heavier drugs than just alcohol. There was a new drug sweeping through the country called Mephedrone, that could be bought legally for pennies on the internet, sold under the guise as ‘plant food’ and ‘not designed for human consumption’. This didn’t stop people from taking it, and it was highly addictive.

Within a matter of a few months, many of my friends had become heavily addicted. Due to my accident I wasn’t tempted to get caught up in it, and after a couple of years of seeing many of my friends who I grew up with struggle with the addiction, I moved away to a different city to get a fresh start. The new surroundings allowed me to start focusing on things that would improve my life. I began reading self development books, training in the gym, getting my finances right and developing new friendships.

I feel like I was given a second chance. Not everyone gets a second chance. I managed to turn my life around and put it behind me but how many young offenders are in prison because of bad decisions they made in their youth? How many peoples lives have been ruined by addiction? It’s sad to see but it’s very easy to fall into this trap at a young age. Something that can seem so innocent and normal at trading fleeting pleasure for lasting progress can end up taking people down a very dark path. I don’t want future generations to make the same mistakes, and I don’t want to see smart kids with bright futures ruin that by getting into drugs, alcohol and crime.

Preventing Youth From Falling Into the Vice Trap

Prevention is better than cure, so how can we prevent young people getting caught up these things? Knowing what I know now, young people with too much time on their hands is not a good thing. There’s an expression ‘the devil makes work for idle hands’ for a reason. Being involved in after school activities like sports and other activities keeps young people engaged and out of trouble. Young men have endless energy and are easily bored and looking for something engaging to do, so if it’s not aimed in a positive direction they can easily get caught up in the wrong things.

Finding Purpose and Meaning

We live in a culture where young people are being exposed to a wide range of beliefs and lifestyles, leading them to question traditional views. There is a lot to be said for the core values and principles following a religion gives you. I’m not saying one is better than the other, but holding yourself accountable to a faith will have a positive impact on the decisions you make because of the moral guidelines it gives you. I believe this is also one of the main contributions to a lack of meaning in young peoples lives and the rising rates of depression.

Creating a Bright Future and Staying on Course

Having a clear vision for the future is imperative to remaining focused on where you want to go. Staying on a straight path towards your goals prevents people from wanting to waste time on self destructive activities. When ones goals are so huge they feel out of reach, there is no time to waste, the only way to get after it is to aggressively work hard every day. Creating a vision of a life which you are truly excited about gives people a reason to get out of bed in the morning and work towards becoming their best self. Instilling that belief in young people that they can design a life of their choosing and then work every day to become a person worthy of having that life is not only good for themselves but good for society as a whole. Young people must be hopeful that they can create a bright future if they have a clear vision and work hard for it.

Navigating A Cookie-Cutter System

Throughout school and college, kids are so caught up in being busy passing tests and achieving good grades that there is little conversation about where they want to go, who they want to be, and the kind of future they want to create. I remember that the only careers advice I received in high school was a 30-minute multiple-choice test, which suggested that I should become a fireman (ironically, my name is Sam). Yet we are all told to get into debt to study something at uni to ‘get a good job’. We should allocate more time to engage with kids, delving into their natural talents and interests, educating them about the realities of the workforce, identifying the skills which are in-demand, and helping them understand how they can best fit into society. School and college can be a very stressful and confusing time for teenagers who are expected to follow a cookie-cutter system that may work for some, but not for everyone.

Reject Degeneracy & Avoid Vices

We exist within a culture that normalises substance abuse, with alcohol stores adorning every corner. In the UK, supermarkets even dedicate entire sections to alcohol. Turning 18 is often synonymous with the right to drink. Moreover, within many workplaces, alcohol has ingrained itself into the culture, creating difficulties in fitting in for those who abstain. Influential artists, like popular rappers, openly discuss consuming substances like lean and molly. This message is pushed onto our youth which blatantly normalises a degenerate lifestyle. Like myself, you might wonder – where are the adverts promoting physical well-being, mental clarity, and striving for one’s ultimate potential. It’s time to challenge what is normal, reject degeneracy, mediocrity, and the programming that inundates our lives on a daily basis.

Privilege, Perspective, and the Power of Travel

I’ve seen kids that come from privileged families choose to destroy their lives. Despite having all the tools for success at their disposal, they somehow veer off course. One of the main reasons I think is because they take what they have for granted. I encourage every one to travel if you can. Go visit developing countries and see the conditions some people live in, because it will put life into perspective. The west has been so comfortable for so long, people have forgotten how good they have it. And that doesn’t land unless you see if for yourself.

Thanks for reading.

– Sam Horton