"Friendly" Pressure

By Elizabeth

Sometimes, peer pressure happens in more low-key ways from your friends, close or less close. This could be to hang out more than you want to, go to a party that isn’t good for you. Your friends may see this as trying to make you ‘live a little’ or ‘go out of your comfort zone’ and sometimes you may feel like it’s not okay to say no to doing these things, even if they’re just normal friendly hang-outs.

I used to be a different person when it came to hanging out with people; I would often go out and leave early and many of my friends would complain that I was too ‘boring’ for them, and often would turn them down to hang out if it was something I was a bit scared to do. They would pressure me into going, and I would give in no matter how little I wanted to go. This was at the start of 2017, and it wasn’t until late October that I realised that they had been pressuring me into doing these things. I realised after it started to shift towards party with alcohol and sneaking out of the house, even if I didn’t want to do these things. But because of what people said about me not wanting to go out with them, and the good fun it seemed to be, I became unable to ever turn these things down.

Peer pressure can take several forms, and it’s ways like this it’s hard to tell that it’s even happening. Sometimes you just need to take a step back from it all and realise that it’s okay to not do everything, that you can say no to doing things and people will still like you. You shouldn’t be forced to spend your time one way or another, and if you feel uncomfortable with a situation you can leave whenever you want. People will understand.