Troubled Teens Resources

It is easy to dismiss the suggestion that music can propel a susceptible teen towards intoxicants - much like cinematic violence is dismissed as a factor in the de-sensitization of today’s youth.

Today, music is a 24/7 proposition. Music wraps around you like a second skin. Music is the air you breathe and the waters that you swim in. The Ipod exists because it has to. Music can own you as surely as drugs can own you; body,mind and spirit. It is a formidable foe to defeat and it is a rare parent that is not staggered by it’s weight..

The power of music in the drug culture is beyond refute. When the lyrics of a song plays back a disturbed teenager’s brokenness and pain, measure for measure, and the beat syncopates with their rising anger,the combination provides incredibly fertile ground for drugs to take root.

“Consider a few scenes; smoking weed and listening to reggae music, hard-house and ecstasy, poppers and the Queen Shilling, alcohol and Wedgies, psi-trance/mushrooms and physics students and the list goes on.What becomes apparent is how drugs and music almost go hand in hand. This is not surprising when you consider the fact that the vast majority of illegal drug use takes place in clubs, at festivals and at gigs, but what is interesting in all this is the common neurological connection that drugs and music share.Before you were born your brain is already starting to tick to the rhythm of life; the maternal heartbeat, the foetal heart, the rate of breathing, the pitch of your speech and the intonation of your language. Your brain is programmed to understand the patterns and pulses of sound as the language used to encode your memories.”
(Source)

The substance abusing teen leaves evidence of his addiction in many of the choices that he or she makes. From dress, to manners, to demeanor, to music, your child paints a very vivid picture of how they feel about their world. It would serve a parent well to listen to the menu of songs on their teenagers Ipod. If the lyrics sound like these, consider it a wake-up call.

Bury me softly in this womb
I give this part of me for you
Sand rains down and here I sit
Holding rare flowers
In a tomb…in bloom

Down in a hole and I don’t know if I can be saved
See my heart I decorate it like a grave
You don’t understand who they
Thought I was supposed to be
Look at me now a man
Who won’t let himself be

Down in a hole, feelin’ so small
Down in a hole, losin’ my soul
I’d like to fly,
But my wings have been so denied

Down in a hole and they’ve put all
The stones in their place
I’ve eaten the sun so my tongue
Has been burned of the taste
I have been guilty
Of kicking myself in the teeth
I will speak no more
of my feelings beneath

Down in a hole, feelin’ so small
Down in a hole, losin’ my soul
I’d like to fly but my
Wings have been so denied
Alice in Chains