Many adolescents succumb to pressures on how to look, feel, and act as they search for space to grow in a society obsessed with perfection and immediate gratification. Dying to be Perfect: How Teens Can Stay Happy, Healthy and Alive uses a novel approach to getting into the heads of adolescents as the key to touching their hearts and reducing risk-taking behaviors. It will be the first book to compare the three major maturational stages of adolescence to a space flight and show readers how to develop survival skills to overcome societal pressures during the launch, orbit and reentry into adulthood. The flight plan will include a checklist, which th author created to help teenagers and their families figure out where they stand and what to expect with each passing phase. The metaphorical journey will be written in a humorous tone to discuss serious problems in down-to-earth, everyday language which readers can easily relate to. The mission will be to bring the young voyagers back safely from their trek into outer space as happy, healthy adults. Each chapter will be filled with practical suggestions and tips, which follow in sequence as the story line unfolds. A number of moving, real-life adolescent case histories will also be used to add to the human-interest element of the book. More than just a survival guide, this book will raise a call to arms for combating the powerful societal pressures that threaten the health and well-being of young people today.

Dying to be Perfect

How Teens Can Stay Happy, Healthy and AliveBy Robert Michael Cavanaugh, Jr.

AuthorHouse

Copyright © 2009 Robert Michael Cavanaugh, Jr. MD.
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4490-1520-6

Contents

PROLOGUE.................................................................ixCHAPTER 1 From the Cradle to the Cockpit.................................3CHAPTER 2 Fasten Your Seatbelts..........................................7CHAPTER 3 You Have Reached TIME ZERO.....................................13CHAPTER 4 School Daze....................................................26CHAPTER 5 Staying Out of Harm's Way......................................32CHAPTER 6 Getting into the Spirits.......................................38CHAPTER 7 Personal Chauffeurs and Bodyguards Needed......................42CHAPTER 8 Birds of a Feather.............................................47CHAPTER 9 Society Says...................................................52CHAPTER 10 Fun and Games.................................................58CHAPTER 11 Their Bodies Grow Faster Than Their Minds.....................65CHAPTER 12 Off the Wall..................................................70CHAPTER 13 Entering Never-Never Land.....................................81CHAPTER 14 A World Apart.................................................82CHAPTER 15 Testing One, Two, Three.......................................89CHAPTER 16 Beyond the Body and the Brain.................................97CHAPTER 17 Moonshine on their shoulders..................................105CHAPTER 18 Learning Street Smarts........................................109CHAPTER 19 Follow the Leader.............................................113CHAPTER 20 Food, Fashion and Fitness.....................................116CHAPTER 21 Give 'em a Break..............................................130CHAPTER 22 Hismones and Hermones.........................................134CHAPTER 23 Falling Below Rock Bottom.....................................139CHAPTER 24 Return of the Refugees........................................149CHAPTER 25 Ready or Not, Here I Come.....................................151CHAPTER 26 Suffering from Senioritis.....................................154CHAPTER 27 Keeping Their Guard Up........................................158CHAPTER 28 Wanted: Sober Genes...........................................163CHAPTER 29 Designated Drivers or Designated Dupes?.......................167CHAPTER 30 Hello, Good Buddy.............................................172CHAPTER 31 Finding Themselves............................................175CHAPTER 32 From the Mosh Pit to the Medic's Tent.........................180CHAPTER 33 Sowing their Oats.............................................186CHAPTER 34 Facing Foreclosure on Life....................................190CHAPTER 35 Falling into Place............................................193Acknowledgement..........................................................195

Chapter One

From the Cradle to the Cockpit

As the dawn of puberty arrives, Mother Nature's computers wake the young adolescent up to get ready for the long-anticipated voyage from childhood into the outside world. To use a space flight comparison, years of programming must now be timed properly so the new astronauts will make it safely through the launch, the orbit, and the reentry into adulthood.

As the final countdown begins, the young explorers lie waiting on top of the giant boosters of the spaceship that will blast them into their journey. They are busy going over the flight plan and getting last minute instructions from the adults in mission control.

Checklists, emergency plans, and survival kits are stowed for safekeeping, within easy reach. Every safety preparation anyone can think of has been made. But it's impossible to know every danger ahead of time, and there will be many unexpected challenges.

As the separation from childhood gets closer, the winds of uncertainty often take over, whispering into the crew compartment and flickering alarm lights in the command center. As a result, adolescents and their parents get nervous, not sure they want to go through with it all. An eerie mist or heavy fog may reduce visibility, making everyone even more unsure about what lies ahead. Just when conditions begin to clear up, storm clouds may suddenly gather overhead, casting a shadow of doubt about whether the countdown should continue. Sending up trial balloons to search for safer skies may prove to be a good strategy in such situations, when things don't seem to be going according to plan.

Rather than scrubbing the mission completely, sometimes it may be better to press the hold button and postpone the launch for a while, depending on how strong the confusion is. Before anyone gets too overtired or stressed out, this is a good time to check for any power failures caused by short circuits, blown fuses, or drained batteries. Sometimes only a jump-start is needed for astronauts who are frozen by the fear that they might not perform perfectly from the very beginning. A more complete rewriting of the flight plan may sometimes be needed for those who continue to be paralyzed by the fear of failure.

Family secrets for health and happiness are usually handed down from one generation to the next. However, passing the torch to teens can always be a little tricky. The keepers of the flame must be patient, and be prepared to take some heat. It's easy to get burned when the rockets fire up for a team of rookies in hot pursuit of their lifelong dreams. Unfortunately, happiness may prove to be very hard to find for many young people today. They've been brainwashed to believe that joy comes from getting something they do not have, rather than recognizing and appreciating what they do have.

There's probably no better example than the modern Olympic Games to show how this attitude has been carried too far. Competitors who do not win a gold medal, break a world record, or score a perfect 10, seem to be considered unimportant by the public. Their accomplishments are not fully recognized, their success is not fully appreciated, and their names are quickly forgotten. Instant replays and computers show and take apart every move they make, and magnify every mistake. Many dreams are shattered and hearts are broken, not because the achievement wasn't a great one, but because the performance wasn't polished to absolute perfection.

Once the spaceship takes off, the adolescent pioneers will be propelled into an uncertain new frontier, and precarious proving ground. With adults expecting more and more of them, and with friends their own age demanding that they act a certain way, many of the new astronauts will begin to wonder, "Am I made of the right stuff?"

Mother Nature has created a very challenging schedule for adolescents, with certain objectives for growth and development to be finished in a pretty short period of time. In addition to these natural, down-to-earth demands, teenagers must also measure up to modern society's false standards on how to look, feel, and act. This poses a direct threat to their growth as individuals, as well as to their physical and mental wellbeing. Since magazines, television, movies, and other media are constantly telling teenagers that perfection is the most valuable product, it's very easy for young people to get caught up in what may be termed the Perfect 10 syndrome. To look perfect you need to be good looking, have a great body, and wear fashionable clothes. To feel perfect you need to...