Troubled Teens Resources

“Matt says at the facility they were forced to wear the same clothes and shave their heads, and they aren’t allowed to speak unless spoken to. “They strip you of your identity,” he says. Matt spent three months at Casa by the Sea, but “most people are there for years,” he says.
[…]
“They scared me straight,” he says.”

Not even the most severe schools for troubled teens will put you through that. But if it is your third time in rehab for meth addiction and you aren’t even out of high school yet, severe consequences are in order.

The frightening aspects of addiction may however follow troubled teens far into adulthood. Because it re-trains your brain. It acts on reward centers in such a way that they may ultimately be incapacitated, suggesting an addicts ability to “activate” the pleasure or reward centers in their brain just may not function anymore.

“When a person uses a substance for a long period of time, the neurons that produce dopamine can become impaired, and they appear to turn off. When this happens, the body stops producing dopamine because the drugs look and act just like it, Parker says.

“The trick is to find behavioral ways to turn them back on,” he says. “But it’s unclear whether that is always possible.”

Some drugs, Parker says, can damage a person’s neurotransmitter systems so badly that he may never be able to return to homeostasis, the body’s normal state before the addiction.”

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Schools for troubled teens, drug rehabs, military teen boot camps all address addiction in the individual. But addiction does not grow in a vacuum. Countless documentaries and books explore the cultures of addiction and the environments that spawn it. One such documentary, Cottonland, has met with much acclaim. It studies dependency and it’s connection to the dependencies that societies develop collectively.

“In her new film, Ackerman reveals how easy it is for a social dependency on the state to carry over into a personal dependency on a potent little pill, the prescription painkiller OxyContin. With the collaboration of recovering addict Eddie Buchanan, Cottonland guides us through a culture of despair. We encounter a number of smart, self-aware men and women at different stages of dependency. Some have managed to shift to the detoxifying effects of methadone; others remain in thrall to the power of their addiction. All speak candidly and unflinchingly of the ritual of the fix.
Nance Ackerman’s analysis is as sharp as the end of a needle. Her film demystifies the world of the addict, while showing us the complex social nexus that contributes to such severe dependency.
How does an entire community fall into despair? What happens when the social order is weakened by forces beyond its control? Cottonland draws a coherent line between economic and social depression. In its pointed focus on the troubled community of Glace Bay, this fearless documentary also asks us to consider the deeper roots of widespread social problems.”

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Teen age drug abuse quickly descends into addiction if the first forays into experimentation are not quickly cut short.Teens at risk for addiction are not always easily identifiable, though those who seek drugs as refuge from depression or anger are more likely to fall into addiction than those teens who are more emotionally stable.

A teen heroin addict is all the more tragic. For a troubled teen to seek the quiet stillness of heroin’s slow suicide over family, love, and life is beyond the comprehension of those who helplessly watch.

That a teen addict can destroy the lives of those who love them is dramatically demonstrated by a recent case that came before a judge in Great Britain.

“A desperate dad risked his own freedom to take drugs to his heroin addict son inside prison.

William Thompson had already re-mortgaged his home to pay for detox programmes and suffered the break-up of his marriage during his son’s decade long addiction to the deadly drug.

But the devoted father went a step further on December 2 last year when he risked his own liberty after a phone call from his son begging for help.
[…]

The court heard how taking drugs into prison is ordinarily met by an immediate jail term.

But Mr Recorder Martin Bethel today took pity on Thompson and suspended his sentence.

Defence barrister Glen Gatland had told the court: “He has done everything a father could possibly do to try and wean his son off this terrible, terrible curse he has.”

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Those teens and many parents who think any type of teen crisis intervention is overblown hype ought to spend a few hours reading the stories of teens who have lost their lives or sanity, or both, on meth. Teens are notorious for “knowing it all and one thing troubled teenagers will flatly declare is that they can’t or won’t get addicted - nope - never happen to them.

“I met a few guys that turned me on to some meth one night. I wasn’t afraid of it because I knew I was different. I have been through a lot in my life and was always was always
ok. I could use a little and still get my life together in Atlanta.”

But that is not how meth works.

“Addiction happens quickly.

Within days, all I cared about was more meth. I started shooting meth.
[…]
I hadn’t been in Atlanta six months and I went from a guy with $15,000, high hopes and plans to homeless, penniless, sick and begging for money from passersby. In the bitter cold nights I could usually call my parents or grandparents and talk them into a hotel room. They would beg me to come home and get well, but I couldn’t. I needed the meth.
[…]
Meth is a killer.It presents itself as your best friend, but quickly becomes the antichrist in your life. Once you’ve been there you almost can’t escape — I’m still not sure I’ve escaped.”

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He is still haunted, still pursued, still vulnerable. To this day the boy can not go back to Atlanta, the city he used in, for fear of triggering the addiction one more time.

Guess I’m stuck on the meth meme today. There certainly are some compelling stories of how absolutely corrosive and vile this addiction is. One young man, when describing the destruction meth wrought in his life, said something that caught my attention.

“The meth gets you thinking three things. You have a fear of life, fear of success, and fear of self. When this happened I seemed to not have the will to go or ask for help. ”

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Just as that is the exact formula for a life of failure, it’s opposite is a good description of how schools for troubled teens and military boarding schools turn the addict around.

A good teen boarding school will have teachers and programs that teach teens to embrace life, not fear it. A good teen program will teach a troubled teenager the incremental steps of achieving success - the discipline, the perseverance - all of those little mental muscles that a recovering teen has to ‘work out’ until they are fit and toned.

Fear of self is also part and parcel of addiction. When your life is collapsed around you, friends gone, money depleted, health deteriorating, an addict grows to have a deep distrust of themselves. Unworthiness shrouds the self-image in a veil of self-recrimination and hate.

Fear of self can, however, be transformed into confidence in self. The troubled teen school dedicates much of their curriculum to helping a teen gain mastery over their talents, teaching them skills that the teen can leverage to pursue any goal that they finally decide on.

Sometimes troubled teenagers think that what actually constitutes teen age drug abuse and addiction is up for debate. Ask them to answer yes or no to the following questions just to see how they perceive addiction.

No online questionnaire is going to suffice for professional counseling for teens at risk, but actually seeing how your teenager perceives addiction might give you an opportunity to educate them. There are no wrong or right answers in this exercise , just an opportunity to see the extent of drug awareness your teen exhibits.

1. Do you sometimes get angry or disappointed at yourself for not being able to quit using drugs?
2. Do you undergo personality changes or mood swings related to your drug use?
3. Do you sometimes put using drugs ahead of your significant relationships in your life?
4. When you use drugs, does it take more to get you high than it used to?
5. Have you ever been in trouble with the law due to drug use, for driving, possession of drugs, selling or other drug related activity?
6. Has your drug use caused fights and arguments with family members or friends?
7. Does using drugs make you feel depressed, angry, or upset?
8. Have you broken promises to yourself that you will quit or cut back on your drug use?
9. Has a major area of your life been negatively affected by your drug use (work, close relationships, health, school, self esteem)?
10. Are most of your friends into using drugs?
11. Do you find it necessary to lie to employers, relatives or friends in order to hide your drug use?
12. Have you ever thought that you have a drug problem?
13. Has your sleep been significantly affected by drug use (either sleeping too much or not getting enough sleep)?
14. Have you ever been encouraged by others, whom you trust, to stop or cut back on your drug use?
15. Have you ever wished that you could talk to someone who could understand your drug-related problems and offer real help?

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Teens at risk typically do not wake up one morning and rob their neighbor. There is a long road a troubled teen must travel before their life degenerates into that of a thief, or worse, a murderer. But it is a road usually fueled by addiction and addiction usually starts innocently enough. A joint here, a small dime bag there, troubles at home, troubles at school - for emotionally immature teens, all of these factors can rapidly snowball to stimulate more drug use, robberies to support the drug abuse, and the beat goes on, we all know this too common tale.

“Cory Miller is a 17-year old inmate. Last year, he was charged as an adult for two armed robberies and sentenced to six years. Today instead of just serving time, he’s taking the time to tell teens how to stay out of trouble. Miller says, “Trying to meet them and help them see that the streets and all the crime ain’t worth it. It’s going to amount to being here.”

Ironically, Miller was in this same classroom four years ago, listening to an inmate tell him how to stay out of jail. He didn’t listen. Plotkin says, “Unfortunately he made some wrong choices and ended up exactly where that inmate was, he saw, as a youngster.”

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Though parents often cringe at the idea of schools for troubled teens, a jail sentence is far more severe. If you suspect that your teenager is going rapidly down that road to crime and addiction, start doing your research into troubled teen boarding schools that will offer your teen the detour he needs to take before he takes that road directly to jail.

Teen crisis intervention is most affective when it is delivered from a person who has walked in the shoes that their teen audience is presently walking in. Former addicts intimately know the territory that a teen drug addict must navigate . They quickly recognize excuses and rationalizations because they have made them all themselves thousands of times.

Sometimes an ex-addict’s face and eyes tell a story that no other visage can communicate. No matter how unnecessary and useless the horrific pain caused by addiction may be, the hopelessness, fear and soul exhaustion felt by an addict is innervating and real. Troubled teenagers, broken by addiction, will instinctively recognize the signs.

“Mason used to be a heroin-addicted bank robber, which led to incarceration inside Milhaven Penitentiary, and a string of other Canadian and U.S. prisons.

“If I wasn’t using drugs I wouldn’t have turned to crime to feed the addiction.”

He survived 15 years in the joint, witnessing “all sorts of crap”– including murder.
[..]
After he got out of prison, the Southern Ontario native managed to kick his drug habit and better understand the root of his addiction. He later studied to become a specialist in addictions recovery.”

Mason conducts ‘field trips’ that he calls “Kids on Skids”, touring teens at risk through neighborhoods that are ravaged by teen age drug abuse and crime.

“[The addicts] know the kids are down here for an education before it’s too late and they end up on the Downtown Eastside,” he says. “This is hard-core reality. It’s ugly back there.”

Some of the kids on the tour are as young as 11 years old. He hopes the tour will change their life trajectory.
[..]
“Their eyes are open; they’ve seen it; they’ve smelled it and they’ve walked through it.”

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Private boarding schools, brat camps and schools for troubled teens can probably all take a bit of credit for the recently released optimistic report on teen age drug abuse. They, along with thousands of community led efforts across America have been waging a seemingly endless battle to protect teens at risk for addiction, pregnancies, academic failure and criminal behavior. The report, issued in December, goes over the latest statistics from the “drug czars”.

“There has been a substance abuse sea change among American teens,” said John P. Walters, director of National Drug Control Policy. “They are getting the message that dangerous drugs damage their lives and limit their futures. We know that if people don’t start using drugs during their teen years, they are very unlikely to go on to develop drug problems later in life. That’s why this sharp decline in teen drug use is such important news: It means that there will be less addiction, less suffering, less crime, lower health costs, and higher achievement for this upcoming generation of Americans.”

Keep up the good work, but don’t let up. There are active online campaigns to keep your teen tempted. A teenager is quoted as admonishing parents for not keeping up-to-date on the latest pro-drug propaganda throughout the web. It is a wise caution to heed.

“Teens report that their parents seldom stay current with the threats posed by pro-drug sources of misinformation, such as Internet content that normalizes and trivializes drug use. Parents need to keep talking to their kids about the dangers of drug use and stay on top of current technologies that could pose additional risks to their teens’ health and safety.”

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Attention Deficit Disorder when treated with medication has a definite downside that is not fully or adequately discussed by advocates of Ritalin and other various amphetamines. It can start a troubled teen down the road to addiction. Be it Ritalin or any other mood altering drug, when administered without any attempt to address the behavioral problems sans drugs you are instructing an adolescent that the answer to all of his problems will lie in a pill.

And for teens who experience some kind “high” from their medication, the next step is to see if doubling up on the dose makes them even higher.

“At least one boy admitted to police that he snorted prescription medication in a bathroom at Lake Denoon Middle School on April 3. Four kids had their hands on the bag of attention deficit drugs, according to Muskego police.
[..]
Many drugs now abused by teens are found in the family medicine cabinet.”

Unfortunately,a teens education can be derailed when being treated for ADHD.

“One former addict is not surprised that middle school kids abused attention deficit pills. Jordan Neary, 23, said he started on the same destructive path in his early teens.

“I ended up in the ICU at the age of 16,” he told TODAY’S TMJ4 reporter Tom Murray. “I overdosed right in my high school.

Doctors prescribed Adderall and Ritalin for Neary’s attention deficit disorder, but medical use turned to dangerous abuse.”

The middle school teens now face expulsion and the young man quoted above struggled with his addiction for years before being able to achieve sobriety.

He’s been sober for four years and now counsels incoming addicts at Teen Challenge of Wisconsin, a Christian-based drug rehab program. He said he sees a lot of his own struggle in the people he treats.

“So many of them make statements of how, as a young boy, they started snorting and taking larger amounts of their Ritalin,” he said. “It made them more comfortable with taking a pill.”
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Parents will want to investigate all alternatives to medication and consult with more than one authority before deciding how to work with their teen’s ADD.