The article has been automatically translated into English by Google Translate from Russian and has not been edited.

How scientists from the United States freed Icelandic adolescents from cigarette alcohol addiction

'27.02.2018'

Source: Mosaic Science

Scientists and psychologists working in Iceland, two decades ago, found a way to save adolescents from the mass consumption of alcohol and cigarettes. The results they demonstrate are truly astounding.

Фото: Depositphotos

The unique experience that Iceland is willing to share could help teens, their parents and educators around the world, but few people listen to expert opinion, the newspaper writes Mosaic Science. During this time, the number of adolescents with disastrous dependencies has decreased several times.

“20 years ago, you couldn't safely walk through downtown Reykjavik on a Friday night,” says Milkman. "There were hordes of drunken teenagers everywhere."

American professor Harvey Milkman, a professor of psychology at the University of Reykjavik, and his Icelandic colleague Gudberg Jonsson, concluded that a person’s desire to choose a certain kind of harmful substance depends on his style of dealing with stressful situations. The substance causes a specific response - from it and addiction is formed in the body. Milkman, who regularly flew to Iceland by that time, was working on his thesis on this issue: he suggested that children should be engaged in activities that stimulate the same brain responses.

As the expert says, a person is able to depend not only on alcohol and cigarettes, but also, for example, on certain products, on his car, on his financial condition. Therefore, they decided to offer the children “good” addictions: free art lessons or any kind of sport in which they had an interest.

Now Icelandic children lead the most healthy lifestyle among Europeans: the number of smokers has decreased to 3% (it was 23%), and those who drink to 5% (it was 48%).

Iceland at the state level joined in the financing of this idea. The country has banned advertising of cigarette and alcohol products, hooked up to the help programs of psychologists. It turned out that drawing, sports, music, dancing also provoked the biochemical response of the brain and helped to relieve stress. Milkman is convinced that other countries, including the USA, should adopt this experience at the level of families, educational institutions and the state.

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