Troubled Teens Resources

Parents are the most important factor in preventing teen age drug abuse, at an early age children should be taught about drug use and the effects of drug abuse. Teens can experience all kinds of issues and having solid morals and values can help to prevent drug use during stressful times.

“Risk of drug abuse increases greatly during times of transition, such as changing schools, moving, or divorce. If we can prevent drug abuse, we can prevent drug addiction. In early adolescence, when children advance from elementary through middle school, they face new and challenging social and academic situations. Often during this period, children are exposed to abusable substances such as cigarettes and alcohol for the first time. When they enter high school, teens may encounter greater availability of drugs, drug abuse by older teens, and social activities where drugs are used.

At the same time, many behaviors that are a normal aspect of their development, such as the desire to do something new or risky, may increase teen tendencies to experiment with drugs. Some teens may give in to the urging of drug-abusing friends to share the experience with them. Others may think that taking drugs (such as steroids) will improve their appearance or their athletic performance or that abusing substances such as alcohol or Ecstasy (MDMA) will ease their anxiety in social situations.”

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“What do you have to be depressed about? You have everything you could possibly want,” is often the frustrated parent’s response to a teen who confesses that he or she is depressed. But the fact is, all that the teen does have materially is not necessarily what the teen actually wants or needs. An Ipod , tattoos, baggy jeans and mini skirts are what his culture informs he must have. Home, hearth, food and education are what his parents know are necessities to provide. So it is not without cause that a parent would, along with sorrow and fear, also feel a sense of outrage that their teen is struggling and struggling with drug abuse, no less.

Sometimes, when depression manifests as drug abuse, the reasons are far more complex than simple rebellion. Drug abuse in the depressed teen often begins as a form of self-medication, a desperate attempt to feel something, anything but the gnawing despair that haunts them.

“Episodes of major depression may occur suddenly or gradually and usually last several months. It is common for episodes to recur and suicide is a major risk.

The cause of depression is not known, but a number of advances have been made in identifying potential factors. Depression comes in many forms, from mild sadness to a mood disorders such as major depression. Most likely, it is a combination of genetic and environmental factors that are involved in the development of the disorder. Major depression tends to run in families, and it may be triggered by severe stress (e.g., abuse, death of a loved one). Depression is more common in women and people with chronic medical conditions.”
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It is very important that a parent does not make their troubled teenager’s depression and drug abuse about them. Most parent have done it all “by the book” and have indeed provided for their children - body, mind, and (sometimes) soul. A teenager’s depression and subsequent drug abuse can stem from any of several factors, and in many cases the origin of depression are totally beyond a parent’s control, but not, beyond their love and understanding.

It is hard for the rebellious teen to see the down side of a good high. Boredom and alienation drove them into drug abuse and, for a very short time, drugs seem to offer all of the excitement and fulfillment an empty heart could need.
Until you need more. And then more. But what every drug addict will admit is that nothing will ever match the sensation of that first time. Drugs seduce the teenager into believing that they will always deliver nirvana. By the time a teenager realizes that the first thrill will never return, a great deal of damage to body and soul have occurred as the before and after pictures on this page demonstrate.

What a drug addict will state unequivocally is that freedom from drugs results from wanting to be free. And that is the hardest part of all. What can you say to an addicted teenager to make them want to live? Drug addiction is, after all, a long drawn out suicide, a dangerous dance with death.

That is why it is critical that a parent choose a boarding school, boot camp or wilderness program that employs tools and therapies that will help the troubled teenager find the value in who they are. When a teenager has the time and space to take the aborted journey of self-discovery, with sound guidance they will slowly discover their inherent skills and gifts that past pain, trauma or chaos in their lives prevented them from nurturing. When a boarding school’s treatment program can help a struggling teen to then start honing their natural gifts - be it music, writing, or mathematics or mechanics, the teen will grow to start protecting his new found inner wealth as passionately as they once protected their stash. It is much harder to destroy what you love and an addicted teenager is incapable of self love.

“My last rehabilitation was at the Wilderness Treatment Center in Montana. That program changed my life. I am forever grateful. I learned that I was responsible for myself and the direction of my life. The program gave me the ‘tools’ to deal with my drug addiction. The first 30 days were basic counseling sessions (group and individual), mixed in with outdoor recreation and ranch work. After 30 days at the ranch, a smaller group of 4 to 8 kids went into the mountains for 3 weeks of strenuous hiking. Later, when I was a wilderness instructor at the center, I saw more change in the kids during their 3 weeks in the woods than in any other aspect of their treatment. Kids sometimes would have a dramatic shift in their perception of the world. Twelve years later, I still regularly attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, as well as bringing Alcoholics Anonymous meetings into juvenile detention facilities and adult jails.”
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Recovery is often a long and arduous road, but there is hope for parents dedicated to saving their teenager from a life of addiction. Partnership for a Drug Free America has an excellent database of boarding schools, boot camps and drug treatment programs. Find one in your area.

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.”
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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

Your teenager:” Tonight’s gonna be hot. I’m having some cupcakes and, I think my body needs some Vitamin K”

Teenaged friend: “Dude - you stacking it? Man that’s gonna take an interplanetary mission. I’ll just stick with number 9. Glad I just got an ice cream habit, I’d be broke dude.”

If you overheard your teenager in the above dialog, you wouldn’t be listening to a discussion about diet. In fact, those basically nonsensical string of words probably wouldn’t register with most parents.

But if your teen’s conversations with friends are frequently interspersed with unusual words or phrases, I’d suggest you start Googling.

Substance abuse will educate your teenagers in the methods of stealth and secrecy. Often times,drug or alcohol abuse will have been going on for months before a parent recognizes something is off with their teenager.

It does a parent good to be prepared to recognize the signs of substance abuse long before even a hint of possible drug use surfaces. The signs and clues are there and the parent of a troubled teen simply needs to be aware of the language of addiction.

Below is a drug vocabulary test. Can you translate what these terms mean?

• Cupcakes
• Stacking
• Vitamin K
• ice cream habit
• interplanetary mission
• Kleenex
• Brewery
• Number 9
• Bumblebees
• Gangster

“The Adolescent Substance Abuse Knowledge Base will go far to furthering a parents education.

“When it comes to teen substance abuse, it seems like we’re always playing catch up. Anytime a new drug hits the streets, its popularity soars, and we find ourselves fighting against it. At the same time, drugs that have been around for years sometimes rise sharply and unexpectedly in popularity. Why is that? There seems to be no rhyme or reason to either the increase, or decrease, in drug use among teens. Though certain trends have been discovered over the years, the cause of those trends seems a mystery.”

See how you did on your drug vocabulary quiz here.