Troubled Teens Resources

Attention deficit hyperactive disorder can set an at risk teen up for a fall if left undiagnosed. Or so it seems when hearing the story from a neighbor, Jean.

“I didn’t have a clue about ADD until my son was diagnosed. I’ve heard that a lot - parents discovering they had ADD that way - through studying their kid. Anyway, the first thing I was concerned about was that he would do what I did. I didn’t realize at the time, when I was a kid, that so much of my anxiety and frustration wasn’t normal.

But now, when I look back and remember going through my moms medicine cabinet and finding her diet pills and thinking I found heaven. The clarity and the relief - well, i can remember it to this day. And I think that was when I started self medicating and ended up using speed - well, that’s what they called meth back then. I was so grateful for Jason’s diagnosis. He doesn’t have to fall in the same trap.”

Jean’s trap lasted 16 years before she finally quit using drugs of all kinds at age 29. Back then there wasn’t nearly the amount of information on either ADHD or teen age drug abuse that there is today. Schools for troubled teens were not as proliferous and any type of teen age drug abuse was usually treated in a psychiatric hospital as a mental illness.

Testing your teenager for ADD doesn’t mean that you have to subject he or she to Ritalin. Jean worked with her son’s ADD with nutrition and classes that focused on teaching him to work with his condition.