Troubled Teens Resources

Parents are warned that the initial period of time after a young man or woman returns home from a troubled teen boarding school is a critical part of their continued recovery. Relapse is a realistic concern and the parent or care giver of a troubled teen has to be cognizant of the factors that will tempt the teen to return to drug use.

For anyone who has ever quit smoking cigarettes, they find that they also cut down considerably on coffee or beer. Why? Because the act of drinking the cup of coffee or can of beer is associated with smoking the cigarette that used to accompany it, triggering a craving for nicotine.

For the recovering teen addict, triggers are those places and people that the teen went to and associated with while using drugs. Music can also serve as a powerful trigger, diverting the teen’s attention back to the evocative stimuli that formed a soundtrack to their time as a user.

An effective teen boarding school or brat camp will have equipped the teen to deal with these expected challenges. Learning methods of defeating temptation is simply a necessity in life and it is a coping skill that an effective teen treatment program will impart.

“Among other things, addicted people must learn how to avoid contact with the triggers that may set in motion their brain’s demanding cry for drugs or alcohol. And when those triggers are unavoidable, people must develop the skills that will prevent the craving from taking over. Learning these skills must be a core element of any treatment program; maintaining them should be part of an after care program or long-term recovery plan.”
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A milestone in a troubled teenager’s journey to healing is when they return home from teen boot camp or from the boarding school where they successfully completed a drug treatment program and rehabilitation. It is a time of joy, appreciation and fear. Fear of relapse can haunt the teenager as well as the parent.

An effective boarding school treatment program will have provided the troubled teen with a variety of tools to combat relapse.

One of the most important weapons against relapse is to have successfully implemented a complete change in lifestyle. It is important not to revisit “the scene of the crime”, i.e., old hang outs or gathering places where the struggling teen may run into the old crowd. New friends are part of the process, friends who are committed to the teenager’s success. Even new music and clothing styles can help the transition as th e old styles very often reflect the drug culture the teenager has just shed.

“A lifestyle change is not easy to make or maintain. Lapses (a one-time return to addictive behavior) and relapses (a return to an addictive lifestyle) do occur. Some people relapse several times before new behavior becomes a regular part of their lives. Thus, it is important to learn about and use relapse prevention techniques. Before discussing prevention, it is useful to understand the nature of relapse.”

Here are a few basic principles to apply in preventing a relapse.

• Ask for help from an experienced peer and use relaxation skills to reduce the intensity of the anxiety associated with cravings.
• Develop alternative activities, recognize “red flags,” avoid situations of known danger to maintaining new behavior, find alternative ways of dealing with negative emotional states, rehearse responses to predictably difficult events, and use stress management techniques to create options when the pressure is intense.
• Reward yourself in a way that does not undermine your self-caring efforts.
• Pay attention to diet and exercise to improve mood, reduce mood swings, and provide added strength to deal with stressful circumstances and secondary stress symptoms, including loss of sleep, eating or elimination problems, sexual difficulties, and breathing irregularities.

Relapse Prevention