Troubled Teens Resources

Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder certainly seems a precursor for teen age drug abuse and out-of-control behavior when handled incorrectly or left undiagnosed. The likelihood of a troubled teen falling more into a negative and resentful mind frame as a result of ADD related poor school performance and erratic behavior is almost certain unless interventions are introduced.

Such an intervention worked wonders for one ADD teen.

“Like other high school graduates, Isaac Castleberry feels a little uncertain about his future. But not so long ago, the future seemed even darker. A lifetime of struggling with attention-deficit disorder and a learning disability in reading had left the teenager and his parents, Charlotte and Frank Castleberry of Gainesville, frustrated and searching for answers.

School simply didn’t work.

“My son was putting in time,” said his mother.

Graduation with a B average seemed improbable at one time.

But Isaac, now 18, has accomplished just that through Success Oriented Achievement Realized, or SOAR, a North Carolina-based “high-adventure program” for students and adults with learning disabilities and attention-deficit disorder or attention-deficit hyperactive disorder.

“Looking back, if I could have (gone to the school) my whole life, I would have,” Isaac said.”
(Source)

It is an all too common example where public schools, for all their best efforts, failed to work effectively. Be it a troubled teen boarding school with programs similar to SOAR, or summer brat camps or a military boarding school, parents often find the most effective therapies and behavioral programs outside the mainstream public school system.

Josh had been through the juvenile system twice now, in both cases it was because the troubled teen had been caught stealing in order to finance his growing drug habit. The first time he had been through the juvenile system, Josh had been repentant after coming back home. But the lure of drugs, the need to be with his friends, and his dislike for school had been more pressure then the teen could endure.

The troubled teen age son of a single mother, he had little supervision after school and no father figure to replace the father who abandoned the family early on. So it wasn’t surprising that he ended up back in the system. His mother was growing desperate for a solution .

” Bottoming out ” - that is what the drug therapy counselor had told Josh’s mother. Sometimes the only lesson that taught an addict that it was time to quit was to loose it all. She watched his chest slowly rise and fall as the intravenous needle kept his bodily fluids up. The phone call from the police had come when all such phone call do, in the early morning hours when the sound of the ringing phone could only mean bad news.

The bad news was that her drug abusing teenager had been shot in the course of robbing a store. When he left here he would leave in handcuffs. The only alternative to jail was for Cheryl to find a teen drug treatment program in a boarding school, military school, or teen boot camp.

Cheryl was weary and dead inside. She feared loosing her job. She had missed too many days running intervention for her troubled teen. Where was she to begin and how could she afford it? As she watched Josh’s pale and drawn face, she could imagine no bottom lower than this.

Cheryl is not alone. Thousands of single parents face these dreadful circumstances when raising an at-risk teen alone. If you share a similar experience to Cheryl’s, this page will give you some basic guidelines as you begin the search for the appropriate drug treatment program and boarding school for you troubled teenager.

There are so many ways for a troubled teen to harm themselves, so many negative influences that a parent has to be aware of that, often times, a beleaguered parent is well advised to seek a residential treatment program at a teen boarding school. At an accredited boarding school, at least the parent can trust that a trained professional can attack the debilitating depression and desperation that hound the at-risk teen on an even playing field, away from all the seductions of drug abuse and the attendant ills that accompany addictions.

Listen to this cry for help.

“i cut myself and i cant stop. i do it every day. and i love the feeling but i know its wrong. i cant do it anymore, but i have to. PLEASE HELP ME.”
(Source)

Could you answer that question if your struggling teen were to cry out to you? Not many parents can. That is, however, the type of questions mental health experts and treatment counselors at a brat camp or military school can address.

As a parent of a struggling teen you are dealing with life and death issues and no matter how competent you are in your given field, no matter your education, a parent is wise to defer to the experts that can be found in a reputable teen boarding school.

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