Troubled Teens Resources

Teen crisis intervention in the arena of meth addiction is needed on such a comprehensive scale that it boggles the imagination. Some parts of the country have yet to experience the scourge while in other areas, such as in Montana, the problem is epidemic and teens at risk are falling like flies.

Meth is perhaps one of the most frightening drugs around simply because it is so very easy to become hooked and almost impossible to quit. A teen that dares to play with meth is almost sentencing himself to years of incredible humiliation and pain. This is why parents are galvanizing the introduction of intervention programs in city after city. One such program, Mothers Against Meth-Amphetamine or MAMA, a Christian based group, has created a website with downloadable pamphlets, videos and educational material on meth addiction and how to fight it. As is usual with such grass roots efforts, the program came about as a result of tragedy.

“Jim was Dr. Holley’s youngest brother. He was 22 years old when he became addicted to methamphetamine and he was 24 years old when it killed him. Jim killed himself on the 4th of July, 2000 because of the delusions he suffered as a result of his meth addiction. About 6 months before Jim committed suicide, he came over to his sister Dr. Holley’s house. He wanted to talk. And what he had to say was so important it had to be put on TV. So Dr. Holley’s husband recorded it as an interview on the family video camera. Years later, this footage was incorporated into the High Is a Lie video. Dr. Holley explains how meth causes hallucinations, and then Jim has a hallucination. She explains how this drug is addictive the first time it is used, and Jim says, “I’ll never get back what I lost that night.” The video closes with a visit to Jim’s grave.”

MAMA

Teen crisis intervention can come in many forms. From the hullabaloo that surrounds the popular Intervention reality show to the programs provided by school and local governments.

But intervention can come in small moments through simple means, such as movie. America is a story telling nation, maybe much more than is good for us. But spinning a tale artfully and provocatively can drive home a life lesson harder and more permanently than many drug intervention programs can in 12 weeks.

Basketball Diaries is one such tale.

Basket Ball Diaries

“The Basketball Diaries chronicles the wrenching descent of a talented high school athlete into the black hole of narcotic addiction. Jim lives with his slovenly but caring mother in a Bronx tenement, attends a rigid Catholic academy, and pals around with a trio of basketball teammates with whom he gets high and makes mischief… His “normal” life, however, quickly goes south when his best friend dies of leukemia and his coach makes a sexual overture. Heroin helps salve the wounds, but Jim’s growing dependence on the drug so alienates him from his school and family, he winds up a street junkie who steals, assaults, and even prostitutes himself to get a fix. With his hoop dreams shattered and his life in tatters, Jim lives a dangerous day-to-day existence, until a childhood mentor helps him claw his way out of the gutter.”

Addiction a Self-Inflicted Tragedy

The reviewer goes on to admit that he developed little sympathy for the tragic teen characters and maybe that is a good thing. There is a fine line today between self-inflicted tragedy that occurs because of willful stupidity and self-indulgence and the plight of those who actually fall victim to a crime or disease or job loss. Perhaps it is best that teenage drug abusers are not portrayed in such sympathetic tones. There is, in the end, nothing appealing about the slovenly and narcissistic drug addict and though love and sympathy and rehabilitation needs to attend teenage drug abusers, their self-initiated plight in life should reveal them as the pathetic creatures that addiction has transformed them into.