Troubled Teens Resources

Teen crisis intervention directed at the scourge of underage drinking is an ongoing campaign for parents, schools and communities. What is undeniable, though parents do not quite grasp this, is the power of parental communication.

Believe it or not, your kids are listening to you. And they are watching you. So, if you are warning them about the dangers of alcohol and drugs, yet drink and medicate yourself, you might have a problem. If you aren’t meeting your teen’s friends, communicating with their parents, or making your rules crystal clear, you might have a problem. The parent who also tries to be their teenager’s friend, will fail at both. Teens want parents.

“Parents’ ability to influence whether their children drink is well documented and is consistent across racial and ethnic groups.Verbally expressing their disapproval of drinking, setting clear rules against drinking, consistently enforcing those rules and monitoring your child’s behavior all help to reduce the likelihood of underage drinking.”

See how you do on the following test, linked below.

• Tell your child that you disapprove of underage drinking?
• Monitor teens while they are in your home?
• Talk to your teen daily?
• Set a curfew and consistently enforce house rules?
• Inquire of another parent about a gathering or party to verify safe situations and supervised homes?
• Welcome telephone calls at your home verifying supervision of gatherings at your own home?
• Check levels of open alcohol beverages in your home?
• Attempt to meet your child’s friends and their parents as their environment changes?
• Call authorities or other parents to report unsafe situations, parties or gatherings?
• Help your child figure out how to handle risky situations with a plan of action?

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The warning signs of a teen crisis can be subtle in the begining followed by more critical signs, without an intervention and the proper reatment your teen is at risk of going down a road of no return. Teen crisis interventions can change and save lives.

Warning Signs

• Change in routine and healthy sleep habits.
• Joining new group of friends who are unacceptable to parents.
• Recent and dramatic drop in school work, attendance or grades.
• Abrupt failure or refusal to contribute to the family in terms of work.
• Deception, lying and keeping their activities a secrete.

Critical Signs

• Dramatic disregard for self-care and hygiene.
• Drugs or drug paraphernalia
• Abrupt change in personality, attitude and emotional stability
• Possession of weapons
• Reckless, destructive and threatening behavior
• Violent, self-harming or suicidal statements or behavior

In most cases it takes time for a crisis to become critical, life threatening, or intolerable. A pattern of crises have usually taken place before yet another crisis quickly becomes dangerous. At some point, one can trace the cause to one or more factors. Identifying these factors can help characterize the evolution of the crisis, the appropriate response, and the duration of intervention that may be necessary.
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For more information, click on the link above.
KD

If parents do not want their sons or daughters enrolled in schools for troubled teens, they’d best include a drug education “module” for their kids just as they made sure that their kids were educated about strangers and sexual predators.

High school presents a whole new battleground for parents and no matter how good your teen is, you can’t predict when a moment of weakness and some available drug will intersect, presenting an opportunity for troubled teenagers to indulge.

But they might think twice if they know that their parents are vigilant, willing to administer drug tests and fully intend to mete out severe consequences for any infractions.

Dr. Phil has a thorough list of suggestions on how to be a conscientious, drug fighting parent. Below is an excerpt, the article in it’s entirety can be found at the link below.

• Lock your liquor cabinet.
  Brandon started on his course with alcohol and drugs at about the age of 13 when his parents went out of town and he decided to raid their liquor cabinet. He chose the clear liquor because it was the easiest to replace with water.
• The most trusting parents are the ones who are the easiest to take advantage of.
  Brandon lied to his parents a lot. He’d tell them he was going out to eat, bowling, or to a movie, when instead he was headed to a party to get drunk. When he came home late, some of his excuses were: he ran out of gas, he had to take some girl home who lived on the other side of town, there was a huge accident so the road was blocked, etc.

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What happens when a teenager never breaks free of drugs? They function, they graduate, and all the while they fall in and out of substance abuse. They are functioning addicts. Typically, at some point, an addict will hit bottom and turn their lives around. As hard as it is for a teen to hit bottom, they have far less to loose than what they will loose as an adult with a business and family.

Though the concentration of this site focuses on teen crisis intervention, addicted adults often began as functioning teen addicts and the teen crisis migrates into a chronic adult crisis. Ex-user,convict,and ex gang member Ronnie Kaplan is making a lot of money keeping these, now, fuctioning adult addicts on the straight and narrow.

“He is 36 and successful, the owner of a high-tech company who also finances music and film productions. But sometimes, in the middle of the night, he’s assaulted by nightmares and cold sweats. That’s when he reaches for the phone to call Ronnie Kaplan.

“I get there and I sit him down and relax his mind,” Kaplan said. “I ask him ‘What brought this on?’ It’s always something.” Once they figure out the trigger, “It’s over.”

“It” is the drug craving. The businessman is a drug addict, and Kaplan is a sober companion, a combination big brother, baby sitter and spiritual guide who uses motivation, prayer and exercise to keep his clients away from alcohol and drugs.”

There is no magical boundary between the age 19 and the age 20, just like there is nothing between age 12 and age 13. We are horrified as drug use drops down below age 13, but there is horror also to be had for those teens that enter adulthood still struggling with a demon that they can’t kill and that hasn’t yet killed them.

Drug addiction is for life. If only the 12 year old could understand that.

“I started on my course with alcohol and drugs at about the age of 13. I got drunk for the first time when my parents went out of town and I decided to raid their liquor cabinet…”

“I had several different techniques to cover up the signs I was using drugs. I pulled hats down over my eyes, I put gum in mouth to cover up my bad breath or I’d put Visine in my eyes to take away the redness completely…”

“Sometimes I wouldn’t go to school at all. It was really easy to get away with this because all I had to do was write a note from my mom, or steal passes from the office, fill them out and turn them back in. I found myself getting away with a lot more than I ever thought I would…”

This is some of the advice given by Brian, a young man who fell into teen age drug abuse a few years after he started drinking alcohol at 13. He was inspired to divulge all of the secretive methods troubled teens employ to cover their drug abuse after realizing how close he came to loosing his life. He attributes his new found respect for sobriety to an intervention arranged by his parents and conducted on the Dr. Phil show.

Sadly enough, he states that those parents who are the most trusting are usually the parents that suffer the most.

Below are more of his recommendations:

• The most trusting parents are the ones who are the easiest to take advantage of.
• Lock your liquor cabinet.
• Double check alarm systems.
• Check their bedrooms.
• Look closely at your child.
• Don’t think your child is too young to be exposed to drugs.
• Know who your child’s friends are.
• Consider where they get their drugs.
• Check your child’s attendance record at school.
• Are you paying for your child’s drugs?
• Check your child’s vehicle after a Friday or Saturday night.
• Look through their pockets, purses, wallets and backpacks.
• Give your kids a random drug test.
• Look for signs.
• Develop an open, strong and trusting relationship with your child, one without judgment.

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