Troubled Teens Resources

When a teen heads down the road of substance abuse parents first reaction is usually shock that their baby has entered world of teen age drug abuse.  In todays society youth are starting earlier and earlier on gateway drugs like marijuana, alcohol, and tobacco.  When the newness wears off they move into more destructive drugs and usually a new circle of friends.  With new more expensive drugs youth are then forced to find ways to support their new sources of recreation.  This usually comes in the form of stealing from family members, shoplifting, and even dealing to pay for their own habit.

Parents are usually shocked to find that their child has been selling drugs to support their own habit.  Once admitted into a program teens will honestly reveal the extent of their abuse.  Most parents are oblivious to the fact that their child was even using drugs let alone dealing in them.  At Tipton Academy many students have come clean about the issues they had prior to their enrollment in this boarding school for troubled teens.  Part of the healing process for parents and students is to for the teen to divulge everything he has done before he was placed.  This can be very difficult, but is very effect in the overall healing process employed by Tipton Academy.

Tipton Academy also has some very effective parent seminars.  These are scheduled quarterly and have proven to be an integral part of the student and parent coming back together.  A parent can feel so alone, especially right after enrolling their child in a program.  Tipton Academy has a parent support network that can provide comfort and a great deal of support.  Parents feel that they finally have someone they can talk to who can understand what they are going through.  If you would like more information please contact Tipton Academy direct 877 968 8443.

One simple weapon against teen age drug abuse is communication. If you are just now getting around to trying to figure out how to talk to your troubled teens, well, you have a lot of catching up to do. Communication isn’t really based on words, no matter how brilliantly they are delivered. Communication starts with relationship. And cultivating that relationship starts at infancy.

Trust and relationship between parent and child starts from childhood up. Trust that parents will need from their kids when they are at logger heads during their teen years. Ideally, at least, there needs to be a history of effective communication for parents to be able to comfortably discuss the dangers that teens face on many fronts.

Communication means that parents have an ongoing dialogue with their teen.

“No loving relationship can exist without communication. Teens believe they have valuable things to say and, when a parent listens genuinely, it helps self-esteem and confidence. The most important thing to remember when it comes to talking about difficult subjects like drinking and drugs is that it’s not a five-minute “talk” — it’s about building an ongoing dialogue. As your children grow up, they will need more and more information, so start early and build on the conversation as your teen matures.
[…]
Virtually all parents in America (98 percent) say they’ve talked with their children about drugs; however, only 27 percent of teens…say they’re learning a lot at home about the risks of drugs…
[…]
Yet the better you communicate, the more at ease your teen will feel about discussing drugs and other sensitive issues with you.

(source)

In a perfect world there would be no teen age drug abuse, no brat camps, no juvenile justice. In that world, young people would not only discover their gifts and talent, they would do so at an early age, allowing them to direct all their energy into learning how to execute their passion successfully, paving a way to a productive and satisfying life.

It seems so simple, yet it is so hard.

“You have to find their passion,” she says of children.”

She is a mother who home schooled her son until fourth grade, “…she exposed him to a world of possibilities“. At 8 years of age, the young man found his passion;rebuilding and designing cars and his parents had faith in his vision.

“Several years and about $50,000 later, according to Bell’s mother, who sold a car and refinanced her home to acquire cars and tools for her son, Bell has become an accomplished welder, cutter and chopper.”

Another phrase I have heard used is that you have to find a child’s gift, that which they were born to do. But how many adults are still trying to find what they love to do, and if they do happen to figure it out, can they make a living from it?

We don’t live in that perfect world, but the principle of finding what you love and doing it is exemplified by this story. A story where parents take the time to know their teen, present the worlds possibilities, and guide and support them as they hone their skills and master their strengths.

Teen age drug abuse, a huge issue in and of itself, is but a symptom of a general troubled teens’ emotional malaise that can manifest in other harmful practices besides just drug consumption. One group of teens dwell in the nether worlds of a sub-culture known as Emos. If you haven’t heard of Emos, you’ll perhaps have heard of “cutting” or self-harm, a practice that is at the heart of this sad, self-absorbed group of teens who choose darkness over light, tragedy over hope.

“One of the most annoying characteristics.. is their refusal to open their curtains. Their world is dark and airless.

If this environment is coupled with the psychological traits of self-pity, introspection, self-dramatisation and hormone imbalance, you have a fully-fledged Emo…”

More or less, Emo teens are the offspring of the Goth culture, participants of which are noted for their fixation on black, death and morbidity. The difference, however, is that Emo’s have as a centerpiece of their world a fixation with hurting themselves.

“The Emos - short for Emotional - regard themselves as a cool, young sub-set of the Goths.

Although the look is similar, the point of distinction, frightening for schools and parents, is a celebration of self harm.

Emos exchange competitive messages on their teenage websites about the scars on their wrists and how best to display them. Girls’ secondary schools have for some time been concerned about the increase in self harm.

One governor of a famous boarding school told me that it was as serious a problem as binge drinking, but rarely discussed for fear of encouraging more girls to do it.”
(source)

Related:

• Private Boarding Schools for Depressed Teen Girls
  

Teen age drug abuse is often the consequence of a teenager self-medicating in an attempt to defeat anxiety and depression. My good friend Angela described her inadvertent route to addiction via amphetamines.

What seems like aeons ago, methamphetamines were regularly - and liberally - prescribed as diet pills. Comic parodies of the age depicted diet pills as “mother’s little helpers”. Angela’s mother always had an ample supply and she discovered, at age 13, that they helped her whip through the homework that had been tedious hell before.

Unfortunately, Angela was coming of age in the “hippie” era and readily discovered that marijuana helped soothe the nerves that the diet pills rattled. By the time she was sixteen, she was a high functioning heroin addict. What started as a 13 year old self-medicating to deal with what is now recognized as ADD, turned into a 16 year long battle with drugs.

A recent study released on marijuana suggests that the same self-medicating mechanism is operative when a teen finds comfort in pot. Apparently, in small amounts, THC, acts as an anti-depressant.

“A new neurobiological study has observed that a synthetic form of THC, the active ingredient in cannabis, is an effective anti-depressant at low doses. However, at higher doses, the effect reverses itself and can actually worsen depression and other psychiatric conditions like psychosis.

It has been known for a number of years that depletion of the neurotransmitter serotonin in the brain leads to depression, so SSRI-class anti-depressants like Prozac and Celexa work by enhancing the available concentration of serotonin in the brain. However, this study offers the first evidence that cannabis can also increase serotonin, at least at lower doses.”
(source)

Articles about teen age drug abuse focus a great deal on meth, heroin, and club drugs. And rightfully so given the prevalence of their use amongst teens. But marijuana is still the most common drug used by teens, so much so that it is close to becoming normalized due to the casual attitudes towards it, emanating from both teens and many parents. But that is not how it is being viewed by the juvenile courts.

One day, a Texas judge was curious if all of the teens standing before him in court would test positive for drugs. He wasn’t expecting that every single one of them would. Wondering if there is a correlation between pot use and truancy, the judge intends to implement a good deal more drug testing in order to find out.

“Ball ordered the students and their parents to report to the Alcohol and Drug Awareness Council..where… counselors will perform interviews to try to identify the problem, and based on the information gathered, will decide whether education or a referral to a level of care is appropriate. No drug charges were filed against the students who tested positive in truancy court because they were not in possession of drugs at the time, Ball said.

Marijuana may seem like an “old school” drug, but its popularity is still going strong among today’s youth…

More than 80 percent of local seniors say the drug is “easy to get”…the average age of first use among Texas students is 13.5 years old, according to the Texans Standing Tall Report Card, meaning most students are in middle school when they first try the drug.”

(source)

Vanity, thy name is teenager. And that’s as it should be - for awhile. Narcissism will, in a healthy human being, give way to compassion, empathy and regard for others. But for awhile, teens are indeed vain. That is what the producers of the newest campaign against teen age drug abuse are appealing to when they developed and produced a short film depicting the grotesque results of meth addiction.

“To avoid tired clichés and hollow messages, the group attempted to appeal to an issue close to the heart of young people — themselves.

“ We really tried to get into the vanity issues of what you look like if you’re a meth user, ” Maloney said.

The spots, which are in both English and Spanish, focus on how quickly the drug ages users by rotting their teeth and wrinkling their skin and how easy it is to become addicted to the substance.

“ Young people will have a little bit more of an in-your-face experience with it in an entertaining way, ” he said. “ There’s no reason to try to sugar-coat this stuff. Be honest and sincere about what you’re trying to tell people, and it comes through. ”

It comes through on billboards, on TV specials saturating the local air waves, and in spots slotted to run between previews and movies at the theater. The power of meth to ravage communities is keenly felt by entire towns whose youth have been targeted by drug cartels from south of the border. A stark, candid presentation was deemed to be the right approach.

“Maloney determined that the same old educational techniques wouldn’t work anymore. Young people are relational, and their own encounters with the ill effects of drug use will convince them more than any cliché ever will, he said.”

(source)

Teen age drug abuse is a concern for many parents and most of these parents are hoping that their teen isn’t using drugs because they are part of a sports team or some type of after school program. We have all heard that kids who are involved in an after school activity are less likely to use drugs. Parents and schools have been tossing around the idea of drug testing student athletes and a recent study was conducted about drug testing student athletes. I am sorry to say that I do not think it would make a difference and this study seems to support my opinion.

“The two-year study was conducted in 11 high schools within 150 miles of Portland, Ore. Participating schools were randomly assigned to one of two study groups: schools that designed and implemented a drug and alcohol testing policy; and schools that had designed a policy but agreed to defer their policy drug testing until the study had concluded.

Athletes at drug and alcohol testing schools were at risk for random testing throughout the academic year. If an athlete tested positive for drug use, the results were reported to parents or guardians, and counseling was mandatory. Before the study began, voluntary consents were obtained from students and parents so that students could complete confidential questionnaires at the beginning and end of each school year. The questionnaires asked about alcohol and drug use and student attitudes about drug testing.

After two complete years, with surveys collected five times, the researchers found that drug and alcohol use during the month leading up to the test did not differ among student-athletes at schools with drug and alcohol testing and those with no drug and alcohol testing at any time point. Ironically, they found athletes at schools with drug and alcohol testing felt less athletically competent, perceived school authorities were less opposed to drug use, and believed less in the benefits of drug testing.
Random drug and alcohol testing does not reliably keep student-athletes from using. In fact, the mere presence of drug testing increases some risk factors for future substance use, Oregon Health & Science University researchers report. Their findings are published in the November issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health, the journal of the Society for Adolescent Medicine.

(source)

K.D.

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.”

(source)
K.D.

Teen age drug abuse can be fought using huge sweeping media campaigns, such as the barrage of anti-meth commercials and programs sweeping across many states in the West, or, it can be fought by making six beds available to teen meth users crippled by their addiction. All efforts, small or large, are critical in fighting this particularly insidious drug.

So this Salvation Army’s outreach of six beds here and another dozen here may not seem like much, they are just as valuable as multi-million dollar ad campaigns for the troubled teens whose lives are impacted.

“The Salvation Army in Victoria, BC has opened a new residential treatment program for drug-addicted youth.

Beacon of Hope House is located in the manse of St. Saviour’s Anglican Church in Victoria West, and it has room six male addicts, each with his own bedroom. Two staff members are on duty at all times, so that supervision is continuous, and clients are not allowed outside without accompanying staff.

The Salvation Army hopes to have a similar facility for females within eighteen months.”
(source)

Unlike other drugs, meth can take it’s addictive grip rapidly. And the downward spiral of the addict is just as rapid. More to the point, recovery is a very hard for the meth addict to maintain. Programs like that above are necessary because they offer the addict a means to separate themselves from their addiction while gaining ways and strength to fight it once they are out of treatment.