Troubled Teens Resources

Teen age drug abuse can ravage a teenager’s life well into adulthood. Though many teens are able to skate through light drug use with few ramifications, the use of drugs by teens at all often indicate an underlying emotional problem. The same old question arises when mental health professionals and parents review the poor behavior of their teens at risk; is it normal teen angst or are there psychological issues that demand a more in-depth approach?

Oppositional Defiant Disorder, ADD and teen depression will likely be with us for as long as there are teenagers. How to treat these issues is a dilemma for both parents and for the mental health profession .Many of those health professionals are concerned with the over zealous use of psychotropic drugs in handling out-of-control teens.

“Recent studies have documented a dramatic increase in prescribing rates for all of these medications to children and adolescents. The increases range from 200 percent to over 500 percent and the most common diagnoses for which atypical anti-psychotics are prescribed in the pediatric population include oppositional defiant disorder, conduct disorder, mood disorders and attention-deficit-hyperactivity disorder. Boys are more likely to be prescribed atypical anti-psychotics than girls and white, non-Hispanic youth more likely than minorities.

There are two problems associated with these changes. First, clinical enthusiasm for prescribing the medications clearly exceeds the evidence of their effectiveness; and second, there are serious metabolic side effects of atypical anti-psychotics that may be especially serious in children. Both are cause for concern.

While there is beginning evidence that certain atypical anti-psychotics are useful in treating aggression, irritability and behavior problems associated with pediatric bipolar disorder and other disorders of childhood, the evidence is not sufficient for any of the medications to have Food and Drug Administration approval for use in children and adolescents. Thus all prescriptions are “off label” and evaluation of their efficacy is uneven.”

(Source)

“When the choice is clear - behave and stay with the group or misbehave and be removed - these kids make the right choice, and keep on making it.”

Referred to above are physically aggressive pre-schoolers. The writer notes that a procedure recently implemented in her day care has been effective in reducing aggressive behaviors in those toddlers who has been continuously presenting behavior problems.

It is referred to as Separate,Isolate and Relocate or SIR. The offending toddler is separated from their playmates, isolated in a non-stimulative environment until a parent retrieves them and then sent home where they continue to be isolated in their room - sans play things - and then sent to bed after dinner.

“It generally takes two or three experiences with SIR to persuade an aggressive preschooler of the benefits of non-aggression. Interestingly enough, these children seem to figure out how to behave pro-socially when they aren’t getting their way without anyone counseling them or role-playing with them. In other words, the problem is not a lack of learning, but a lack of motivation. When the choice is clear - behave and stay with the group or misbehave and be removed - these kids make the right choice, and keep on making it.”

The same theory applies to troubled teens. If there are no consequences for poor behavior, they have no motivation to change that behavior. It can’t be said enough, the sure fire way to exercise teen crisis intervention is to prevent the evolution of negative behavior that will necessitate intervention down the road.

“…the mother of a 4-year-old recently reported, “After the first `therapy session,’ he played well with the other kids for two weeks, after which he needed one more trip home and to his room, and that was it.”

(Source)

Consequences are the best teachers around.

Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD)has been debated for the last twenty years with many parents still feeling confused when their teen is diagnosed.

What we do know for sure is that teenagers who display the noted traits of ADD are vulnerable to more at-risk behaviors, if for no other reason than that their inability to pay attention and tendency to cause distractions sets them up to be viewed as a trouble maker.

One parent pulled her son from the public school he attended and placed him in a troubled teen boarding school. Not because she disagreed with the diagnosis but because the public school’s method of dealing with ADD was so counter productive. When speaking with the public school counselor about her concerns that one of Ritalin’s long term affects might be a shortened life span, the counselor blithely responded that even if that was the truth, better a short “quality” life than a long life as he was.

If they had no more vision for her son than that, she would place him in the hands of those professionals who could teach him the coping skills that have proven effective in teaching teens to mitigate and control the effects of ADD. She found that the training he received at boarding school taught him to use his ADD as an asset by employing methods to utilize it instead of be ruined by it.

The poor behavior that he had begun to exhibit was soon replaced by self-discipline, conscientiousnes and a strong sense of responsibility. Instead of heading down an ever spiralling self-destructive path, he is now preparing for college.