Troubled Teens Resources

“I think it struck a chord at the right time,” he says. “I think we lived in a world that parents had defined as gloomy and with this movie, kids the world over are saying ‘Life is good. It’s complicated but it’s good’. “

And that is likely the key reason High School Musical has met with such resounding success. Teen crisis intervention starts with making sure that nothing ever replaces the message that “Life is good.”. And I would disagree with the notion that parents are spreading the opposite message.

The message of doom and gloom is a Hollywood staple, even more so now, with heavily politicized scripts being written into every teen drama and comedy. The scripts tell them that America is bad and that Al Gore’s climate hysteria is a sure bet (in my generation we were told we’d all be dead of famine by now) and that the end of the world, in one form or another, is just around the corner. In the background there are choruses of thugs calling women “hos” or Nirvana wanna-bes spilling their angst ridden lyrics on to gloom laden guitar chords.

But life is good and the complications are challenges to be welcomed. If parents can keep that message louder than MTV’s message, their troubled teens‘ risk of falling into the casual drug use of today is far lessened.

“There’s a certain safeness and hope (that) kids are responding to and embracing.”

(source)

Yeah, well that’s what happens when you depict kids enjoying something other than drugs and sex. The rest of Hollywood needs to get a clue.

Teens at risk are not necessarily easy to identify. Some teen drug addicts, like adult drug addicts, are known as high performance addicts. Even thought they are actively on an illicit drug and spend a great deal of energy acquiring the drug, they still perform well in school and manage to hide their addiction from their parents.

As diligently as parents seek ways to constantly monitor their troubled teenagers, those teens are just as industriously figuring out ways to pull the wool over their parents eyes.

Teen crisis intervention starts with thorough and sound information on drugs, drug culture, and teen behavior. What better person to offer a parent insight into their drug addicted teen than a former teen addict?

A new book just released by such an author might just prove be a good investment for parents just starting their library devoted to teen help.

“Clean: A New Generation in Recovery Speaks Out” is written by Chris Beckman of MTV’s Real World Chicago fame. The book moves quickly through his teen years describing his first encounter with Jim Beam at 11. Yes, you read that right, 11.

Beckman makes an excellent case for alcohol being considered a gateway drug. There is a considerable amount of controversy about that theory, but Beckman shows a clear progression of abuse starting with alcohol and ending with hard drugs.
Interlaced throughout the book are stories of addiction and recovery from others who share their journeys. Clean, also provides the reader with a plethora of resources on where to get help, risk factors, and related health issues.
(Source)

Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder is said to dissipate to a great degree by exposing teens at risk to the great outdoors. When you think about it, this “disorder” didn’t exist, for all intents and purposes, thirty years ago. Not saying the condition wasn’t perhaps present, or that some of us aren’t wired to proceed through life at 90 miles an hour. Just suggesting that thirty years ago, when a kid jumped on his bike and sailed out of the driveway, that need to go fast, to satisfy restlessness, to get a constant stream of stimuli, was satisfied.

Consider this sad fact, out of Los Angeles.

“In San Diego, 90 percent of youngsters do not know how to swim and 34 percent have never been to the ocean even though it is only 15, 20 minutes away from their homes, according to the organization, Aquatic Adventure, which is trying to change that.

Because kids don’t bike much anymore, either for transportation or recreation, bicycle sales are down 31 percent in the past five years. The outdoors industry is surviving by selling high-end expensive equipment to adults rather than entry-level gear for kids.”

(Source)

Nostalgic though it may be, those days of yore when there were three TV channels and kids preferred the company of their pals over the latest MTV reality show, were days when you rarely heard the phrase teen age drug abuse. Neither did you hear the words ADD, meth labs, or Ritalin.

No, you can’t bring the innocence of long ago back, but you can raise your troubled teen according to the same principles; play hard, work hard. A teen who does that all summer instead of getting down with his iPod won’t need to hear those words either.