Troubled Teens

When you look at the numbers of random public shootings carried out by troubled teens in the past few years, you have to wonder what’s going on. Is it drugs? Is it nutrition? Is it really a chemical imbalance of some kind? Is it social stress?

February 12 of 2007, hit too close to home for me. That was the night that an 18 year old troubled teen went on a shooting rampage in the Trolley Square Mall of Salt Lake City, Utah.  When I turned on the news and heard the coverage I think my heart stopped for a second because I knew my husband was suppose to be at that mall that evening. Within seconds of the news footage I received a phone call from him. He had apparently left within minutes before the shooting. When I looked at the timeline I realized how truly lucky we were. Earlier that day he was planning on taking our 6 year old with him to the mall but at the last minute decided not to. Taking kids always makes things twice as long and he just wasn’t in the mood for a longer trip.  I am thankful for that because if he had taken our son that night, they would have still been at the mall during the time of the shooting. They could have been shot!  Even if my child had not become a victim of the shooting, imagine the mental trauma he would have to deal with seeing people get shot or simply knowing he was in the mall when something that horrific happened. He’d be scared to go anywhere! 

If you know of any troubled teens, regardless of the kind of trouble, don’t ignore it, get them some help before something like this happens.

A father from the snowy mountain west region of the US cautions teens about the consumption of energy drinks. He recently lost his 16 year old son while on a ski trip after consuming too many energy drinks in one day. Apparently his heart simply stopped. He’s not alone though. There have been many energy drink related deaths, especially when mixing them with alcohol within the past couple years.  Since then some companies have put warnings on their drinks.

Ever notice the warning labels on them? You’d have to wonder about the safety of a drink when you read “may cause hyperthyroidism, psychiatric disease, spasms…”  What about the ones that say “do not drink if you are pregnant, have asthma or are taking asthma medication, or if you are being treated for high blood pressure”? Does that make you wonder why it would be on there and what other problems it could cause?

These drinks are loaded with unnatural caffeine, sugar and potentially harmful chemicals that could cause serious health problems. These kinds of energy drinks are also believed to cause sleep and behavior disorders, depression, heart disease, diabetes, etc.

Today’s troubled teens blog isn’t intended to slam energy drinks, but is more of a word of caution. Be sure to read the labels before consuming.

You can find numerous articles on this subject by going to: www.energydrinkwarnings.com

Yesterday’s troubled teens blog told the success story of a mother who completely changed the eating habits of her family, resulting in a remarkable difference in her troubled teens’ behavior.  Today I thought you may want to know some specifics that she included or excluded in her families diet.

Please don’t take this as a medical claim or medical advice. This blog is simply sharing what one mother did.

• Stayed away from food with refined sugars. (used natural sweeteners such as Yacon, honey, real maple sugar, organic sugar cane).
• Avoided foods loaded with sugar period (ie. Soda)
• Foods high in Omega’s (eggs, etc.)
• Used 100% Olive Oil vs other oils
• Avoided anything that was partially hydrogenated (chips, etc)
• Used organic foods whenever possible and affordable
• Consumed hormone free milk, chicken, etc. 
• Consumed foods high in antioxidants (cherries, pomegranates, etc.)
• Consumed food high in naturally occurring B12
• Consumed a Marine Phytoplankton drink (contains over 66 naturally occurring and bio-available vitamins, minerals, amino acids, enzymes, etc.)

As complicated as it sounds, it really isn’t. She basically stuck as close to nature as possible. Back in the day, it was easy to do because there was no other option. Now we have prefabricated foods of every kind, which is great, we just have to look what’s in it.

Hope this helps you and your family.

It’s no big secret that nutrition and exercise affects us physically, mentally and yes, behaviorally. More and more studies are showing this to be true. That’s why Carol, a mother of two troubled teens completely changed their entire families lifestyle, especially in the food department.

Carol actually had five teenagers at that time, three of which were fine and two that were behaviorally and emotionally troubled.  They all grew up in the same environment and there was never any favoritism played, so why would those two have these problems? What made them different than the other three? Carol understood everyone has different personalities, but mothers’ intuition went deeper than that. Desperate for answers, she spoke with many health practitioners, studied numerous articles and even went as far as having the two teens evaluated by a psychologist.  The psychologist came up with nothing.

Just when Carol thought she had hit a brick wall, she happened upon an article and study that discussed the link between nutrition and teen behavior. At that point that’s when she realized that was the main difference between the two teens and other siblings. These two teens ate junk in comparison. So she actually sat down and prepared meal plans with specific foods that are believed to help regulate the neurochemicals, which are linked to brain function and problems such as depression, etc. There were lots of fresh fruits and veggies that are loaded with antioxidants, vitamins and minerals. In addition, she knew she couldn’t control everything her kids ate but realized she needed to stop bringing home junk foods like soda and chips.

Although it was not an easy change, according to Carol, there was a remarkable change in her teens’ behavior and attitudes towards life. The kids themselves claimed to notice they could think clearer (no more brain fog). So folks, the kind of foods we eat really make a difference in our daily lives.  Give it a try.

If only us parents could get a sneak peak into our kids lives when they think we’re not looking. Well that wish came true for some parents courtesy of Youtube.com.

In this first situation, a mom received a phone call from another parent regarding something she found her teens and friends watching on Youtube.com. The concerned and informative parent (also a very good friend) thought this mom may want to see what her daughter was up to and provided the link. Apparently her 15 year old daughter had gone to a party, gotten a little tipsy and did some very embarrassing things. By the time the girls parents were able to track down the person who uploaded the video and get them to take it down, the entire school had seen it and the whole town was talking about it. Her parents were completely shocked because they had no idea about this part of their daughters’ life.  No one did really, except for select friends.

In another situation, a concerned friend had tried numerous times to seek help for her friend, but no one believed the concerned friend. Parents and other adult authority figures refused to believe this troubled teen could do what the concerned friend was claiming. They even tried to accuse the concerned friend of jealousy.  As a last stitch effort to save her friend, she secretly video taped her at a party and sent an anonymous email to the troubled teens parents with a link to the uploaded video. They sure believed her after that and the troubled young lady got the professional help she needed.

Laura a new RN, fresh out of college, went into complete shock when she first entered the field, working at a regular clinic with numerous doctors. It was unbelievable as to the number of patients seeking prescription narcotics. It was literally every other patient.  Some patients had a very good reason for it, but the majority of patients were simply addicted (or selling them) and willing to do just about anything to get the prescription.

She admitted she also had no idea how many “twins” existed in the world. Often times when she had to tell a patient we couldn’t fill their prescription because records show that another doctor in the state filled the 30 day supply just two days ago, their response would be, “It was my twin. They stole my identity.” Some would even claim that their pain pills were stolen. Both scenarios really do legitimately happen, but when the same people are continuously coming up with some kind of drama, reason or excuse, then that’s usually a sign there’s a problem. What some people don’t realize is that doctors and pharmacies report each and every narcotic prescription to the state. Doctors have access to this report and can pull it at any time.

Troubled teens weren’t the problem in this case. It was actually grown ups usually between the ages of 20-45.

The problem progressively got so bad, that this particular clinic completely stopped prescribing narcotic prescriptions. They even stopped carrying the injections for migraines. Instead, the clinic started giving out information of pain management clinics, etc. The strongest painkiller they would give was Tylenol 3. 

As I was a reading a success story about a troubled teen, there was a phrase that jumped out. It was, “go after jobs (you want), not just that ones that are advertising in the paper”. Wow, that is excellent advice for anyone, not just troubled teens. It goes right along side of the expression “life is what you make it, so go for it!”.(I don’t remember who I heard that from).  All too often we limit ourselves or forget to think outside the box. We’re all guilty of it at some points in our lives.

A large part of a child and teens learning come from not only personal experiences, but the observations and examples of adults, mainly authority figures in their lives (ie. parents, professionals, etc). If they see us grownups limiting ourselves, they will learn the same.

Teenagers need to be encouraged to find their interests and goals, then pointed in the right direction how to get there.  In an article I read, one troubled teen who was reflecting back, made the comment, “I had no goals, no structure, no motivation. I didn’t think there was anything I could do. I didn’t know what was out there. I got bored and got into trouble. Now a world of opportunities has been opened up to me and I can’t believe I didn’t know about this before.”

Be sure to explore our entire website to learn more about troubled teens.

The world if full of wonderful and charitable people who would give in a heartbeat. Charity isn’t always monetary. It can be giving of ourselves. For example we could give of our time to tutor troubled teens who need extra help in school, so they don’t get frustrated and drop out. Education is often the best charity.

Four years ago Shelly (age 15) found herself pregnant and in an emotionally abusive relationship with her 18 year old boyfriend.  To make matters worse, she was kicked out of her home when her family found out about the pregnancy. To avoid public humiliation, she also dropped out of school once she could no longer hide it.  No one in the school knew what happened to her, so they didn’t know to even offer help or educate her about her options. Little did she realize at the time, the local area had a school specifically for teenage parents. She didn’t know what to ask or who to ask about her options, as it had never come up with anyone she knew. She eventually had the baby and her boyfriend took off (a good thing as it turns out). She was temporarily able to keep a roof over their head via handouts from people but unfortunately she became very unmotivated and increasingly depressed. Eventually the handouts ended and she soon discovered getting a decent paying job was impossible with not even a high school diploma or any experience.

A stranger heard about her situation and immediately knew he wanted to help. He knew a free handout would only make the problem worse.  Education was the answer in Shelly’s case. This Good Samaritan gave her the information and resources available that she needed to make a step forward. He didn’t do it for her however. Once the information was in her hands it was up to her to make the phone calls and she did. She was willing to put in the effort, she just needed to be pointed in the right direction. 

It’s no big secret that productive hobbies are a great way to keep kids and teens out of trouble. Some choose collecting and trading collector cards, some choose snowboarding, but then others choose something truly unique like collecting sharks teeth that wash up on shore. Or how about collecting meteorites?! Now that’s one you don’t hear of every day.

Collecting meteorites is not only fun, but it opens a world of questions and interests that teens curious minds begin researching. One teen from Arizona even found a way to pay for his way to college by selling his meteorites at the many rocks and mineral shows across the nation. 

Another teenager from Mississippi was already a troubled teen when he started his meteorite collection. His counselor recommended to his mom that she encourage him to start a hobby. She knew it had to be something truly unique. As a surprise reward for good grades one month, she bought him an inexpensive metal detector. The idea was just to go out and have fun finding coins and other little treasures. She had no idea what he would find or what it would turn into. Sure enough he found little meteorites which sparked an interest. To motivate him to behave and have good grades, she would take him on meteorite hounding adventures. With his parents support and involvement along with his inexpensive hobby, this young man is apparently doing very well staying out of trouble and keeping the grades up.

Two new studies have insights on troubled teens and how alcohol addiction could start before they are even born. It can start with the drinking habits of their mothers. If a baby’s mother is abusing alcohol it can have a profound effect on her baby. That is not new information. But what is surprising is that the baby can come to prefer the taste and smell of alcohol.

Note that the research was done in the lab and not on real people, but it gives some insights into how alcohol abuse can run in families. Researchers at the State University of New York Developmental Ethanol Research Center studied rats to learn about how they develop before birth. As the young developed nervous systems they found the mice adapted to whatever their mothers eat and drink. So if young rats were exposed to alcohol later they came to prefer it.

We already know that foetal alcohol exposure increases the chances of babies getting Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, which leads to profound neurodevelopmental problems including mental retardation. I’m always surprised how much a mother influences a baby’s development. The information is not meant to condemn mothers - but will hopefully empower them. What they eat or drink can have a profound affect later when their babies become teenagers.

In one study, baby rats exposed to alcohol before birth drank significantly more of it in youth but not in adulthood. The researchers let the rats choose to drink alcohol from bottles. The complete study is published in the December issue of Behavioural Neuroscience.