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What are internal and external pressures to use drugs?

How can we say "no" to drug use?

Booster Lesson 2: Resisting External and Internal Pressures

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TEACHER GROUND RULES

LISTEN

I will listen carefully to what you have to say and treat all responses with respect.

ENCOURAGE

RESPECT

I will encourage all students to participate in the program's activities.

I will treat our discussions with respect. I will keep things I hear in class private or confidential, unless I as the teacher am concerned about your wellbeing or safety.

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Video: Paul’s Fix

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Paul’s Fix:

Why It Is Hard/Not Hard to Say “No.”

Hard	Not Hard

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Video: Paul’s Fix and How to Respond to Pressure

Display poster Ways to Say “No.”

Paul wants help to get out of the fix he’s in, but he doesn’t want to use pot. You can help by thinking of two ways he can say ‘no.’

Each of you need to think of two ways to say ‘no.’ You will need two pieces of paper for this activity. Imagine that you are Paul and think of two ways that you might really say ‘no’ in that situation. Write one way on each piece of paper. When you have written down your way turn the paper over.

Remember, Paul really wants help and Andy is someone he looks up to, but he doesn’t want to use pot.

Give students two minutes to write their responses.

Who would like to volunteer to share one of the ways Paul can say ‘no’?

Then have a few students share with the class.

Do you think you could say ‘no’ in about the same way to beer?

How many of you have answers that would work if Andy had offered Paul a beer?

Raise your hands.

People can say ‘no’ pretty much the same way in many different pressure situations.…

Note how students’ solutions align with the poster.

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Video: Paul’s Fix

https://www.projectalert.com/videos

Now we’ll see the solutions on the video and compare them with the ones we came up with.

Resume video

What are the three ways Paul said ‘No?

“No, thanks.” (Simply say “no”)
“No, if I start, I’ll never stop.” (Give a reason)
“No, thanks, man.” After Andy pressures him and says, “I thought you were cool,” Paul says, “Yeah, well, I thought you were cool.” (Stand up to pressure)

Raise your hand if you wrote similar ways for saying ‘no’.

Great. You’re thinking of good, practical ways to say ‘no’.

Which solution did you like best? Why?

What were the different reactions when Paul said ‘no’?

Were they angry? Were they less likely to help out?

It may not always happen, but in all the solutions, it looked like Paul would get help with his problem. Even though Andy pressured Paul more in the third solution, he backed off when Paul gave a reason and remained firm. In the first two solutions, Andy was pretty casual about Paul’s refusal. He wasn’t affected by Paul’s refusal.

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Internal Pressure

Display visual Pressures from Inside Yourself

Let’s talk about pressure.

In Paul’s first two solutions, much of the pressure to accept the offer from Andy came from inside himself – his own need to be accepted and desire to get help.

Sometimes we feel pressures from inside ourselves when we’re alone. Sometimes we feel them when we’re with a group, as Paul was.

We’re going to talk more about pressures from inside ourselves because these pressures are often the hardest to recognize and the hardest to resist.

Think about this example of an internal pressure situation:

Sarah is at a party where some people were drinking. No one was pressuring her, but she thought she might fit in better if she had a drink, too. In reality, no one really knew or seemed to care whether Sarah was drinking or not. They were doing what they wanted to do and didn’t feel the need to pressure Sarah. So, Sarah said to herself, “I can’t drink and drive safely. I’ll go and talk to someone who’s not drinking alcohol.”

Remember, internal pressure refers to influences from “inside” oneself; internal pressure includes our thoughts and feelings, and shapes how we make decisions and interpret messages from the world. You can think of internal pressure as the inner voice that guides your choices.

Negative internal pressure encourages unsafe or healthy choices, like telling yourself nothing will happen if I try it just one time. Positive internal pressure supports safe, healthy choices, like telling yourself I don’t need to vape to make friends.

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Skits: Saying "No" to Internal Pressure

Group Roles:

Director: Assign parts & get group to work together

Actors: Perform the roles of the characters in the skit

Recorder: Write down the final version of the script

Refer to visuals Ways to Say “No” and Pressures from Inside Yourself

Now we’ll be doing skits about ways to say “no.”

In a minute we’ll divide into groups to develop the skits that show a person feeling pressure. The skit should include the internal thoughts where the person that resists shares their internal thoughts about saying “no.”

If your skit involves a social situation, someone would offer a substance to the person that says “no.” There might be a pause in the social scenario where group members voice in positive pressure and negative pressure, with the positive pressure winning.

If your skit does not involve a social situation, a person might find alcohol unattended. There may be a pause in the scene where group members voice in positive pressure and negative pressure, with the ultimate choice to refuse.

Your skit could also use social media, influencers, or celebrities.

You can reference the “Ways to Say No” poster if you need help. Remember, the ways to say “no” on this poster are just a few ways, and you can use them in your skits, or think of other ways that feel authentic to your group.

Pick realistic solutions; solutions you would really use. You should try a few different ways before you write the final script.

There are a few roles in your group:

Director who will assign parts and be responsible for getting people to work together.
Actors who will assume the roles of the characters in your skit.
Recorder who will write down the final version of the script and provide it for review. Everyone might want to have their own script for acting purposes.

When you meet with your group, please take the appropriate script writing supplies with you.

Break students into groups and distribute one skit preparation sheet per group to the groups’ chosen Recorder.

If students struggle to create scenarios, use the Pressure Scenario student handout.

Circulate as students work in groups. If a group is not making progress, suggest that they do the following:

Assign parts
Try out different solutions
Decide on one solution and rehearse it

When students have been working for about 8 minutes, give them an alert about time.

You have two more minutes to complete your scripts.

After the next 2 minutes

Time is up – let’s see the solutions you came up with for this problem!

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Activity Expectations

Speak up
Face the class
Introduce Characters
Attentive Audience

Saying "No" to Internal Pressure Act Out Skits

Optional to create a visual to write brief summaries of the solutions presented in group skits

Let’s start with expectations for this activity:

Actors should speak up so that everyone can hear you.
Face the class while you are acting.
Introduce characters. Director, this is your responsibility.
Attentive audience; quiet and focused on the actors. No more planning.

After each skit, there will be brief applause. As an audience, you will try to come up with a brief summary of the skit solution. (Optional: I’ll write the solution for each skit for reference.)

Volunteer for the first group of actors?

Volunteer for the second group of actors?

Praise students after each performance and, if necessary, lead applause.

Solutions can be displayed in some way that is most convenient in the visual. The goal is for students to see the different solutions they generate for the remainder of the lesson.

Use students’ words where possible for the written solution; if the solution is complex, try to capture some of the complexity in your summary.

Everyone should be proud of each other’s work.

Let’s do a quick share out of our solutions to the problem, or the ways that we said no.

Choose students to give responses to summarize common themes in how students said no; point out variation in solutions where appropriate.

Here’s what I observed about how our actor’s said “no”:

Comment on how actors appeared when saying “no.” Give some examples of how there are many ways of saying “no;” for example, if no group offered an alternative, make sure to highlight that as an option and give an example. Note the importance of body language and voice tone in communicating resistance.

Looking back at the Ways to Say “No” poster, I saw our groups…

Note how students’ solutions align with the poster.

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Wrap-up

Today We:

Talked about ways to say "no" to pressure.

Created skits with different approaches to saying "no".

Next Lesson We Will:

Talk about what really happens when someone smokes or vapes nicotine or marijuana