Troubled Teens Resources

Do you need an argument to convince yourself and your husband that looking into schools for troubled teens is the right decision for your Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder teen. After all, he has already abused his Ritalin by selling it to make enough money to buy pot, combining the two. He’s admitted to drinking. He is remorseful, you are angry and his Dad places a great deal of blame on the public school system. And Dad would be right.

Consider this excerpt from the just released National Survey of American Attitudes on Substance Abuse XII: Teens and Parents conducted by CASA.

“This fall more than 16 million teens will return to middle and high schools where drug dealing, possession, use and students high on alcohol or drugs are part of the fabric of their school,”…“Too many of our nation’s high and middle schools have become marijuana marts and pill palaces. Parents should wake up to this reality and realize more likely than not, your teen is going to school each day in a building where drug use, sale and possession is as much a part of the curriculum as math or English and do something about it. For many of our middle and high school students, school days have become school daze.”

(Source)

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?

(Source)

Teen crisis intervention can be initiated with two very simple steps. Parents of troubled teenagers who they suspect may be flirting or participating in drug use, can regain considerable control over their teens activities by 1 - taking back those car keys and 2 - never giving them one thin dime.

A recent report indicates that money and wheels are two of the biggest factors in the continuing battle with teen age drug abuse.

“Money and mobility contribute to drug use among juveniles in Hunterdon County, says Lt. Roy Aycock, commander of the Hunterdon County Narcotics Task Force.

Based on recent arrests, Aycock said he believes the juveniles are driving to meet dealers in locations such as Bound Brook, Plainfield, Irvington and Newark. He added that several private parties were busted this year in the county for suspicion of substance abuse, noting more parties occur during the summer months.”

(Source)

Dealers usually do not come out to suburbia to find your kids. Your teen drives the car that you paid for, they take a couple friends, they pool their money and they go into parts of the city that they have absolutely no business in.

Teens in suburbia often imagine themselves to be “street smart”. Most have no idea of the blood, death and money behind that simple bag of dope tucked into their jean pocket. And most do not comprehend the danger they place themselves in when they enter into gang turf to make purchases. Drive-bys, muggings and just simple hatred have ended many of these teen’s lives.

Money and mobility - if your teen is in danger, take both of them away.

A recent study reveals data about teen age girls that professionals at girls boarding schools or troubled teen boarding schools would most likely agree with. What may surprise some parents of troubled teenagers is that girls appear to be twice as aggressive and combative as teen boys and equal with boys in their drug and alcohol consumption.

“Girls in U.S. juvenile detention centers face different psychological issues than average teen girls and perhaps more severe issues than incarcerated boys.

In a four-state survey, girls were found to be twice as likely as boys to be aggressive, and just as likely as boys to have problems with alcohol or drug use, findings that surprised psychologist Elizabeth Cauffman, who has worked for years with troubled teens in California and Pennsylvania.”

Though in general girls tend to internalize their problems, incarcerated teen girls were more likely to erupt in fights. In addition to marked hostility and aggression, female prisoners experience higher degrees of anxiety, sleeping problems and depression than do boys.

“One helpful change, Cauffman said, would be to evaluate the mental health issues of teens – both male and female – when they enter the correctional system. The Massachusetts Youth Screening Instrument, Version 2, which Cauffman used as the evaluation tool for her study, was designed specifically for juvenile offenders and can be administered by staff at juvenile detention centers. The screening flags areas for concern – such as depression, drug use, or aggression – that may require further evaluation by a mental health professional.”

(Source)

Teen crisis intervention programs are typically spearheaded by community groups who want more safeguards and effective solutions in place when dealing with out of control teens. Some very innovative programs have sprung up across the country by groups of parents who have become alarmed over the prevalence of teen drinking and drug abuse.

In the past, such programs have primarily targeted teens. Unfortunately the laxity of many parents around teen drinking have caused some communities to create laws that hold parents as accountable as their teens if a drinking party goes South. Such as this ordinance recently introduced in a California town that targeted parents who host underage drinking.

“The city is revising its “unruly party” ordinance to make it easier to crack down on teenage drinking — including a provision that changes the definition of a party from five underage revelers to two. The new ordinance will eliminate the current $1,000 cap on the amount the city can recover from party hosts — or their parents — when police respond to gatherings.”

The changes in the ordinance were due to a letter sent out by a parents that described the vandalism and excessive drinking that occurred at an unauthorized party held in their home.

“Local high school parents responded by forming healthy choices committees that promised to work with the schools and community to cut down on teen drinking and drug use and come up with alternative activities for teenagers.”
(Source)

As a parent, you have more power in your community than you may realize. Be pro-active in teen crisis intervention in your neighborhood, It can be as simple as circulating a letter and approaching your local officials for support.

Teen crisis intervention by taxation? A new study suggests that prohibiting drug abuse isn’t sufficient and recent statistics and the interminable war on drugs seem to support that conclusion.

“More than 300,000 people worldwide between the ages of 15 and 29 died from the use of alcohol or illicit drugs in 2000, numbers that University of Victoria researcher Dr. Tim Stockwell called “substantial.”
[..]
In the developed world, the deaths of 31 per cent of people between the ages of 15 and 29 could be linked to drugs and alcohol in 2000.

“It’s by any account a large number of people dying prematurely from totally preventable causes…”

The study suggests that a perhaps a more effective method of discouraging troubled teens from drug use is a combination of “taxes, nagging and creative thinking”. The suggestion is that if you make drugs such as pot and heroin cost prohibitive through a system of regulation, as opposed to prohibition, that teens will be far more discouraged in their pursuit of a “high”.

“The Lancet study found that regulating the use and sale of drugs works the best in preventing further abuse — if it’s expensive and harder to get, teens won’t use it.

“Controls on price, usually through taxation, are among the interventions with the highest evidence for effectiveness in reducing levels of harm in the population, especially for young people,” the study said. The conclusion has led Stockwell to wonder if a similar model is necessary for the sale of cannabis in Canada.”
(Source)

Teen age drug abuse has been linked with Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder and some studies exist supporting the connection. By the same token, if your teen has been diagnosed with ADHD, it doesn’t automatically condemn him to inevitable drug use. In fact, some of the arguments against the use of medication contend that automatically treating a teen with drugs sets them up to view pills as a solution.

A diagnosis of ADHD can cause a parent a great deal of concern if they haven’t done their research. Research will reveal a great many alternatives to medication. Getting a second opinion is also advised. It has become too easy to label the merely restless child as ADD.

“ADHD is a real medical diagnosis, but not every child who is fidgety or can’t focus has it. There is a tendency to think in these terms when a child seems restless, and that is not always fair to the child. An immature system, behavioral or emotional issues, crises at home, diet, vision problems or learning issues could also be the culprit, and it takes time to rule out these other possible sources of the child’s inattentive behavior.”

Nor should a parent feel pressured into immediately medicating their teen. Here are some suggested issues to review before a parent makes a decison.

• Have other causes for my child’s behavior, such as learning issues, been ruled out?
• Does my child have trouble with being easily distracted in all settings, not just school?
• Has ADHD been thoroughly explained to me by my provider?
• Have the possible side effects of medication been explained to me?
• How long should my child be on medication before I see a result? (The good news is that it usually takes only a few days to see a positive result.)
• Do I feel comfortable with my child’s teacher and pediatrician’s level of understanding and knowledge about my child?

(Source)

Long a leader in teenage crisis intervention, a new study reveals that the new DARE program, “Take Charge of Your Life”, is producing positive results with pre-adolescents.

“…those students who received the New D.A.R.E. 7th grade program, “Take Charge of Your Life,” continued in the 8th grade to have improved scores on decision-making skills and beliefs that drug use is socially inappropriate.”

DARE has revamped the program with aggressive high tech presentations and greater interaction between police and the teen.

“The New D.A.R.E. curricula for the 7th and 9th grade incorporate the latest in prevention science and teaching techniques, including high-tech, interactive, and decision-model-based approaches. New D.A.R.E. officers are trained as “coaches” to support kids as they try-out research-based refusal strategies in high-stakes peer-pressure environments. New D.A.R.E. students get to see for themselves — via stunning brain imagery — tangible proof of how substances diminish mental activity, emotions, coordination and movement.”
(Source)

Parents need as many tools as possible to fight the scourge of teen age drug addiction. See if DARE is active in your school and make use of the tools that they provide. It is a sad commentary, but also a stark reality, that elementary school children need to be equipped to fight the popular drug culture that inundates their iPods and MTV.

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.