Troubled Teens Resources

Teen crisis intervention can come in many forms. From the hullabaloo that surrounds the popular Intervention reality show to the programs provided by school and local governments.

But intervention can come in small moments through simple means, such as movie. America is a story telling nation, maybe much more than is good for us. But spinning a tale artfully and provocatively can drive home a life lesson harder and more permanently than many drug intervention programs can in 12 weeks.

Basketball Diaries is one such tale.

Basket Ball Diaries

“The Basketball Diaries chronicles the wrenching descent of a talented high school athlete into the black hole of narcotic addiction. Jim lives with his slovenly but caring mother in a Bronx tenement, attends a rigid Catholic academy, and pals around with a trio of basketball teammates with whom he gets high and makes mischief… His “normal” life, however, quickly goes south when his best friend dies of leukemia and his coach makes a sexual overture. Heroin helps salve the wounds, but Jim’s growing dependence on the drug so alienates him from his school and family, he winds up a street junkie who steals, assaults, and even prostitutes himself to get a fix. With his hoop dreams shattered and his life in tatters, Jim lives a dangerous day-to-day existence, until a childhood mentor helps him claw his way out of the gutter.”

Addiction a Self-Inflicted Tragedy

The reviewer goes on to admit that he developed little sympathy for the tragic teen characters and maybe that is a good thing. There is a fine line today between self-inflicted tragedy that occurs because of willful stupidity and self-indulgence and the plight of those who actually fall victim to a crime or disease or job loss. Perhaps it is best that teenage drug abusers are not portrayed in such sympathetic tones. There is, in the end, nothing appealing about the slovenly and narcissistic drug addict and though love and sympathy and rehabilitation needs to attend teenage drug abusers, their self-initiated plight in life should reveal them as the pathetic creatures that addiction has transformed them into.