Troubled Teens Resources

Teen age drug abuse is an issue parents need to start worrying about way before high school these days. Troubled teens are being introduced to drugs and alcohol before they are officially teens and many parents are unaware. I wonder and worry that by the time my son gets to elementary school there will be a drug dealer on the playground.

“Substance abuse is alarmingly common among today’s youth. According to the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention at the U.S. Department of Justice, by the eighth grade, 52 percent of adolescents have consumed alcohol, 41 percent have smoked cigarettes, and 20 percent have used marijuana. Additionally, half of all high school seniors report drinking alcohol in the past 30 days with a third reporting being drunk at least once in the same period.

Teens who use drugs and alcohol regularly or episodically — meaning they use them in abundance whenever they can get them — could suffer both short- and long-term harm. Depending on the substance, the child could experience cognitive thinking and memory problems, chemical imbalances, sleep disturbances, appetite changes and mood disruption.
Because adolescence is such a turbulent time with so many physical and emotional changes anyway, parents need to be especially watchful to detect substance abuse issues.Whether your child is abusing or you just want to minimize the chances he or she will, the strategy is the same: Pay attention. Know your children, know their friends and pay close attention to their behavior. Make the time to drive your kids to and from events. Above all, talk with them about anything and everything, including drugs and alcohol.

Research from the Partnership for a Drug-Free America indicates that kids who learn a lot about the risks of drugs at home are up to half as likely as their peers to try or use drugs. So, simply by talking to your kids about the dangers of drug use, you can help them to be drug free.”

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K.D.

If parents don’t think that their teens are using drugs and alcohol they might what to read up on the studies that have been done, and take a good hard look at the teen sitting across the dinner table from them tonight. Teen age drug abuse has unfortunately become a norm instead of an isolated phenomena.

“In a survey taken in 1995, two-thirds of all of the 12th grade students interviewed said that they felt that they had to choose whether or not to use drugs before they graduated from high school. In studies done in 1998 and 1999, 56 percent of 12 to 17 year old reported that marijuana was easy to get and 72 percent of this group reported that alcohol was very easy to obtain. By the time they are 17 years old, 56 percent of adolescents state that they know a drug dealer.

Among the substances abused are: alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, cocaine, opiates, “club drugs” (ecstasy, etc.). stimulants, hallucinogens, inhalants, prescription drugs, and steroids.

Drug and substance abuse among teenagers, is substantial. Among youth age 12 to 17, about 1.1 million meet the diagnostic criteria for dependence on drugs, and about 1 million are treated for alcohol dependency.”

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KD

Teen age drug abuse has become a concern for many parents, but many of these parents don’t know where to turn for help and answers. There are many resources and information for parents needing teen crisis interventions, treatment centers, and the signs and symptoms of drug abuse. Some major companies are stepping up and campaigning for teen drug abuse awareness in the hopes that parents and teens can change the staggering numbers of cases that seem to be rising every year.

“MetLife Foundation will begin the next phase of its award-winning parenting skills campaign, airing education messages created in cooperation with the nonprofit Partnership for a Drug-Free America(R) on radio stations in 11 markets nationwide through November. The radio campaign is backed by web resources and a free brochure for parents.
The campaign features radio messages, in both English and Spanish, which stress to parents the importance of talking with kids about drugs and alcohol, and staying involved in their children’s lives in order to keep them healthy and drug free. Disturbingly, at a time when teens are faced with new threats such as the intentional abuse of prescription (Rx) painkillers and over-the- counter (OTC) cough medicines, the number of frequent discussions between parents and teens about the risks of drug abuse has decreased significantly.”

Many feel that school is where teens are learning about saying no to drugs, but that isn’t enough, parents need to stay on top of teaching the morals and values their children need to make the right choices in life.

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KD

Something parents never imagine doing is raising their grandchildren. But teen age drug abuse doesn’t live in a vacuum. Often irresponsible behavior results in “unwanted” children that the teen can’t possibly raise. Who does? You do.

When addictions started in youth continue into adulthood, marriages fail, addictions escalate, and there seem to be more and more grandparents planning how to raise a second family than planning for retirement.

“In Wisconsin, one in 10 grandparents will be the primary caregiver of a grandchild at some point in their lives, according to the Grandparents Raising Grandchildren….
[…]
Across the country, the number of children living with grandparents with no parent in the household has grown 51 percent from 1990 to 2003, according to a UW-Extension publication on “Wisconsin Families: Issues and Demographics, Grandparents Caring for Grandchildren.”

“I think the use of drugs and alcohol, incarceration and mental health issues are all adding to that,” said Claire Culbertson, Caregiver Program coordinator for the Area Agency on Aging in Dane County…”

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“That’s why we nipped it in the bud,” Karen explained. She had just finished months of research into girls boarding schools for the next school year. Karen was very frightened that she’d be in the same position as her older sister whose daughter started using drugs as a high school freshman and was pregnant by her sophomore year. Abortion was not an option.

“I can see the writing on the wall, Karen fretted. “She gets absolutely worthless counseling at school, unless it’s from her drug friends and there are too many drugs at her school. I can’t fight this alone. At boarding school she has a fighting chance, but not in this school system.”

Don’t run the risk of ignoring your troubled teenagers self-destructive behavior. Too often the results last far longer than the span of their teen age years.

Teens at risk for teen age drug abuse can be diverted from that path if their vision for the future can inspire them. Often troubled teens have no way of visualizing another life or a future that they can believe in. Programs that can give the troubled teen a new paradigm, a new perspective, are worth their weight in gold.

A program that is bound to inspire some of the teenagers who are enrolled is Maryland’s National Guard Freestate Challenge Academy is The Silver Wings of Maryland- a program where troubled teens can soar without a single drug in their system.

“The way Bill Almquist tells it, pilots tend to sit around talking about who’s flown where and how many times. But the talk stops short at action.

About 10 years ago, Almquist, who at age 87 lives in Oak Crest Village, asked some of his fellow pilots to put their time where their mouths were, so to speak, and start helping youngsters who had lost their way.

His urgency came from hearing the dropout rates, and even more dire, the increasing statistics on teen suicide.

“Flying is more exciting than drugs and alcohol,” Almquist said in a 2006 video segment for Oak Crest Village’s television station.

“The turnaround of these kids is miraculous. When they first come, you have a very coarse person who speaks a language which you can’t understand,” he said. “And when they’re leaving they’re ‘yes sir, no sir’ and they shake your hand.”
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You don’t have to scratch the surface all that deeply to find the earnest and innocent teen that still lives behind the hardened facade that a troubled teen always erects as a defense. Check into flight lessons or a similar program in your area. Give your teen a new vision for their life.

A good friend did this week-end what, I imagine, thousands of parents across America are doing. Renting limos for their teenager’s proms. She made a specific point of instructing the driver, in front of all of the teenage passengers, that if any alcohol or illegal substance were to be discovered or if any one of the teens were acting intoxicated, that he was to call her immediately. She made it clear to the teens the consequences that they would face if any deviation from the rules occurred.

A recent study indicates that parents remain the strongest influence in a teen’s life. Use your power as a parent. Teen crisis intervention starts with prevention and education. The following are suggested guidelines to use in letting your teen know exactly what your position is on drugs and alcohol and the consequences for violating the rules.

TIP 1: Clearly state what actions you expect your teen to take when confronted with substance use. Teens who know what their parents expect from them are much less likely to use substances, including alcohol.

TIP 2: Talk about the alcohol use that your children observe. Parents need to make it clear how they want their children to handle substances, such as alcohol and tobacco. Children need to have controlled exposure to learn the rules of acceptable use.

TIP 3: Help your teen find leisure activities and places for leisure activities that are substance-free. Then, keep track of where, with whom, and what your teen is doing after school and during other free times.

TIP 4: Limit the access your children have to substances. Teens use substances that are available. They report that they sneak alcohol from home stocks, take cigarettes from relatives, and obtain marijuana from people that they know well.

TIP 5: Inform teens about the honest dangers that are associated with alcohol use and abuse. Although teens are not highly influenced by such information, some discussion of negative consequences has some impact on the decisions they make.

Especially emphasize how alcohol clouds one’s judgment and makes one more likely to be harmed in other ways.
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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.”
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“At age 16, Caitie C. was pulled over by the Laguna Beach Police and spent a night in jail as a result of her first DWI (driving while intoxicated). “I pulled into a little market to use the pay phone, and there were cops sitting in the parking lot as I drove my car into a pole,” she said. “They did a Breathalyzer and took me in, handcuffed.”

You have to ask why we even allow 16 year old teens to have a car and cell phones and all the other luxuries unless they have exhibited maturity commensurate with the priveleges that they are granted. But teens have come to view these coveted possessions as rights and parents have bought in.

Caitie began drinking began when she was 14. The article also describes Alexis who began drinking when she was 12 and quickly accelerated to a meth addiction that required a complicated intervention. What both girls seemed to have in common was the usual combination of too much time and money and too little interaction with parents.

Teen age drug abuse does not happen in a vacuum. For parents to not recognize aberrant behavior in teens so young suggests a significant family melt down. The article describes it as “alienation”.

“Underage drinking often starts with alienation at home,” according to Wayne Rothwell… He says a sense of isolation sets in and a breakdown of communication develops between the parent and the child.
[..]”Drugs and alcohol are easily available and a way for them to escape from uncomfortable feelings.”
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It used to be teenagers turned to their parents when struggling with “uncomfortable feelings.” Years ago there was an ad campaign that asked parents “It’s midnight. Do you know where your kids are?” Now it is the kids who are wondering where their parents are. And some just give up looking for them.