Troubled Teens Resources

Troubled teenagers who indulge in binge drinking or teen age drug abuse have given many communities incentive to implement teen crisis intervention measures in order to stop the carnage. Communities who are tired of waking up to headlines listing the latest teen fatalities from drunk driving or drug overdoses.

Being proactive in their community is an uncomfortable role for many parents. And while it is certainly not true that it takes a village to raise a child, it helps if each parent is responsible and vigilant for their own.

That’s why programs like the one in Hinsdale are becoming more prevalent. Parents are being provided a hot line to report drunken teens and adults who allow underage drinking in their home. They also can turn in their teen’s contraband drugs. It may be a small effort, but then, that is how the war is won - one battle at a time.

“On Tuesday, the [Hinsdale]chiefs talked about expanding…Operation STAAT… to get to the root of underage drinking early.
[…]
Neighbors who suspect a teen party can anonymously call a hot line and are encouraged to record license plates of vehicles parked in the vicinity. The program also calls for community service for offenders.
[…]
STAAT offers help for parents who suspect their teenagers have been drinking. Police officers will be dispatched to a home to administer a preliminary breath test. If the teenager fails, a juvenile officer will meet with the youth and set up community service hours. If parents say the teenager continues to drink, he or she can be charged with underage drinking.”

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Troubled teenagers hunger for the sound of their parent’s listening. I know, oddly worded, but what they so very much need is the silence of empathy. The listening ear willing to hear them define their world. And as a parent listens and learns the language of their teens private world, they will begin to build a bridge of mutual respect. Bridges run two ways. If your teen feels safe in welcoming you into their world, they may be more prone to listen to your wisdom about the world at large.

“I’ve been parenting for over two decades. I’ve seen a lot of hype and fads come and go. I’m sure you would agree that what stands the test of time deserves our attention. Building relationships is what remains constant. And the number one thing you can focus on to improve any relationship is listening.

I can guarantee you, your teenager is craving for you to listen…really listen to her.

She probably won’t admit it, of course. But take a look at the clues. Your teenager is drawn, like a magnet, to those people who are hearing her. Paying attention to the questions going through her head. Listening to the angst in her heart. Accepting her for who she is.”

(Source)

As is often stated here, teen crisis intervention need not be all that complicated. It is as simple as that teen who is “drawn, like a magnet, to those people who are hearing her”, being drawn to you. Trusting you, rather than the drug culture competing for her attention through her iPod and MySpace. It is obvious who is going to give your teen the wisest counsel.

There are probably many times when a teen ends up in a compromising situation that they never had any intention of becoming involved in. They think they are just going to hang with their buds at the park or mall and then the teen driver diverts everyone to a party he got word of. If your teenager is the only one in the car who doesn’t want to attend they will be under incredible peer pressure to keep their objections to themselves.

The less exposure a teen has to drugs the less chance of teen age drug abuse. Wouldn’t it be better if your teen could ease himself out of the situation by making a quick phone call that guarantees a cab ride home?

Another scenario is the date gone bad. Where does your teen daughter go if the date she is on becomes uncomfortable or threatening. What if her date gets stoned or drunk? If she has to get out of the car or leave a party, how will she get home?

There is a nationwide service that addresses those concerns and it seems a simple solution.

“For parents, SafeCar means not having emergency cab fare saved or spent elsewhere. When a cab ride “feels free,” parents help students who are unable or unwilling to spend their own money on a taxi (a big issue). Load as much or as little as you like. Reload as you go.

SafeCar’s network of over 40,000 local taxicabs across the country means that we can get you home from virtually any location. Plus, we work with the best partners in every area so you don’t have to ride in a random taxi.”

SafeCarServices

They offer a free 30 day trial and with prom season around the corner, it might be worth testing. The above link will tell you more. Let us know what your experience is if you try it.

“Rather than demand obedience, Positive Peer Culture demands that young people become the mature and productive human beings they can be. Unfortunately, many adults do not really believe that young people possess the quality of “greatness,” which is perhaps not surprising since youth seldom are provided with opportunities to display their true human potentials. Positive Peer Culture is concerned with setting expectations high enough to challenge the young person to do all he is capable of doing. To expect less is to deprive him of the opportunity of feeling as positively about himself as possible.”
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“Unfortunately, many adults do not really believe that young people possess the quality of “greatness,” which is perhaps not surprising since youth seldom are provided with opportunities to display their true human potentials.”

Nothing is present day culture calls greatness from our youth. A teenager is instead summoned to greed, base sexuality, self-indulgence, anger and self-loathing.

What if someone, someway, could summon what was great in your teen, instead of what is callow and mean. A teenager will not put a needle in their arm or a pill in their mouth if they are made aware of and believe in their worth.

Positive Peer Culture is a program employed by Tipton Academy for Boys, a troubled teen boarding school that wants at-risk teens to come face to face with their greatness.

Repeating the theme that prevention is the best teen crisis intervention, a new law in Alabama goes a long way towards making a teenager think long and hard about the consequences of unruly behavior or illegal activities.

The bill, introduced this week, will make when a teenager gets a driver’s license contingent upon his behavior at school from the age of 13.

“A bill has been introduced in the Legislature that would take into account a student’s disciplinary record when he or she applies for a driver’s permit or license. The more points accumulated on the disciplinary record, the longer the student will wait to get a permit or license.

Schools would begin keeping track of disciplinary infractions when students turn 13. Each point accumulated would delay by one week the time a student may apply for a permit or license.

Known as Taylor’s Law, the bill would use an existing state tracking system for student disciplinary records to keep tabs on who’s been good and who hasn’t been good.”

Introduction of the bill, a refinement of an earlier bill introduced in 2004, was due, in part, to the death of a 42 year old father of two. He was struck by a drunk 19 year old plowing along at 85 mph.

It is a wonderful lesson in cause and effect, all the more effective given that teens prize driving privileges very highly.

” Driving is a privilege granted by the state, not a right, and those who wish to obtain a permit to learn to drive or a license must pass written and practical tests. If Taylor’s Law is enacted by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Bob Riley (he supports the act) students will have a new standard of behavior to live up to.

Already, teenagers in Alabama must be enrolled in school to apply for a permit or a driver’s license.”
(Source)

The constant stream of pharmaceutical commercials aimed at adults do little to help a parent teach a troubled teen that medication isn’t the first or best answer for solving problems. In a culture and society that emphasizes instant gratification, teaching an at-risk teenager that restraint and discipline are virtues becomes an increasingly uphill battle. A specific problem with prescription pills is the veneer of safety that they offer. A drug abusing teenager is likely to think he is safer taking a pharmaceutical than he is with a street drug.

Just as a parent has to accept the reality of malicious strangers and predatory sex offenders as given threats in their at-risk teen’s everyday life, parents need to be aware of a constant underlying theme in film, in advertising and in music is to “get high” or “feel better”. A combination of peer pressure and society’s unfortunate obsession with the quick fix can cause a teen to conclude that self-medicating is a normal and acceptable way of dealing with upset and pain.

“According to the most comprehensive study on U.S. teenage drug abuse, the intentional abuse of legal medicines continues to be a “pernicious problem”.

“Overall prescription drug abuse has become a more important part of the nation’s drug problem,” said Dr. Lloyd Johnston, who runs the ongoing University of Michigan study.

Last December, the survey found that 9 percent of 16- to 18-year-olds intentionally abused prescription narcotics such as Vicodin in 2006.

“The use of Oxycontin has doubled among 8th graders (12- to 14-year-olds) since 2002,” Johnston said.

Other common household drugs popularly misused included dextromethorphan, found in cough syrups.

The Partnership for a Drug-Free America, a not-for-profit lobby group sponsoring the briefings, said parents are part of the problem.

“The problem in general is the parents’ attitudes (were) as bad as the kids on this subject,” said Steve Pasierb, chief executive of the Partnership.

“The parents think they know all about drugs so they say, ‘At least it’s not heroin’,” he added.

“Kids like it because it’s hot and it’s new, they believe it’s safe and there’s relative ease of access.”

And taking tablets from home medicine cabinets is cheaper than buying drugs from street drug dealers.
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“Kids see prescription drugs differently,” said Dr. Herbert Kleber, a former U.S. drug policy adviser to the White House. “They’re more pure and have a guaranteed potency.”

Kleber said most of the kids get information online on what drugs to take. “There are numerous Web sites they can go to learn the pros and cons,” he said.”
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Tear down. Build up. Wax on. Wax off. Process. Because healing is a process it can’t be rushed. There are no effective ‘quick fix’ teenage treatment programs. Your drug abusing teen is broken inside. Re-building them inside, empowering your teenager with the use of their own skills and talents, teaching them the value of their life and the values of the lives of those around them takes time.

Choosing a boarding school that fails to offer programs designed to walk your teenager through all the necessary stages of recovery is the same as building on a faulty foundation. Not only do you want to create a stable foundation but the teenager needs also to be equipped with tools to maintain his new purchase on life. That is the why selecting a boarding school that implements a comprehensive treatment program is critical for your teenagers recovery.

Programs of that caliber can be found at Tipton’s Academy for Boys. One component of Tipton’s multi-pronged approach is the use of Positive Peer Culture

“The Positive Peer Culture discipline has a long and successful history. The Tipton Academy incorporates some of the basic components from this discipline. PPC is neither a loosely organized program nor one that is totally run by the adolescents. There is a keen understanding of the need to have adults oversee the process without derailing it by taking over. When a youth arrives at the Tipton Academy, he will be assigned to a group and its staff mentor. He will remain in this group throughout his stay. Each group will have responsibilities associated with it. Groups will be assigned varying details, community service projects, group aspects of the animal assistance program, sports/academic etc. teams, and group PPC sessions. In the group he will learn teamwork, sound decision making in the absence of specific guidelines, and how, through cooperation, significant accomplishments can be made. Staff are taught to understand the need for youth to learn how to work through their issues to help them prepare for similar situations they will have when returning to their families.”

“Unfortunately, many adults do not really believe that young people possess the quality of “greatness,” which is perhaps not surprising since youth seldom are provided with opportunities to display their true human potentials. Positive Peer Culture is concerned with setting expectations high enough to challenge the young person to do all he is capable of doing. To expect less is to deprive him of the opportunity of feeling as positively about himself as possible.”

As a parent of a struggling teen you will have already accumulated a great deal of information on a variety of boarding schools, boot camps, and wilderness schools. Much as a student decides on academic curriculum, a parent will be seeking a boarding school for their teenager that incorporates curriculum and programs that will supply their teenager with simple, viable tools with which to modify their behavior and tools with which to successfully navigate through the traumas and pain that life inevitably brings.

The teenager often has no ability to recognize their “own greatness“. Indeed, quite the opposite occurs within a unhappy teenager’s mind; self-loathing,doubt, and shame will blind a young person from recognizing the wealth of strength and talent that they have yet to tap into.

It is very hard to destroy what you value and once a teen is able to experientially comprehend the value and gifts that they possess, their instinct will be to nurture and protect who they are, not self-destruct. To successfully walk in the power of one’s own strength, to supply the wind for one’s own sails, is headier than any narcotic available. Ask any teen who has successfully embraced their recovery programs and shed their addictions. The radiance of renewal and recovery is unmistakable.

” Positive Peer Culture makes no pretense of turning over all decision making to the students. Adults never abdicate their authority or responsibility. Instead Positive Peer Culture is so designed that adults are in control without controlling. A flight instructor does not give full control to the student pilot but is always available to take charge if hazards are encountered while the student learns to fly. So in Positive Peer Culture, adults assign responsibility to youth and then teach them to follow through on that responsibility.

The notion of heavy demands on students is not altogether fashionable, and traditional mental health concepts have sometimes been interpreted to say that setting high expectations actually is harmful for young people; hence, those with problems sometimes have not been sufficiently challenged to use the strength they possess. These ideas were criticized by Victor Frankl.

“If architects want to strengthen a decrepit arch, they increase the load that is laid upon it for thereby the parts are joined more firmly together. So if the therapists wish to foster the patients’ mental health they should not be afraid to increase that load through a reorientation towards the meaning of one’s life.’”
(Source)

Any boarding school or youth camp a parent chooses will need to incorporate programs and disciplines compatible with the teenager who is in criss. Positive Peer Culture presents another school of thought that parents will want to investigate when deciding which boarding school will prove the best fit for their teenager.

Your teenager:” Tonight’s gonna be hot. I’m having some cupcakes and, I think my body needs some Vitamin K”

Teenaged friend: “Dude - you stacking it? Man that’s gonna take an interplanetary mission. I’ll just stick with number 9. Glad I just got an ice cream habit, I’d be broke dude.”

If you overheard your teenager in the above dialog, you wouldn’t be listening to a discussion about diet. In fact, those basically nonsensical string of words probably wouldn’t register with most parents.

But if your teen’s conversations with friends are frequently interspersed with unusual words or phrases, I’d suggest you start Googling.

Substance abuse will educate your teenagers in the methods of stealth and secrecy. Often times,drug or alcohol abuse will have been going on for months before a parent recognizes something is off with their teenager.

It does a parent good to be prepared to recognize the signs of substance abuse long before even a hint of possible drug use surfaces. The signs and clues are there and the parent of a troubled teen simply needs to be aware of the language of addiction.

Below is a drug vocabulary test. Can you translate what these terms mean?

• Cupcakes
• Stacking
• Vitamin K
• ice cream habit
• interplanetary mission
• Kleenex
• Brewery
• Number 9
• Bumblebees
• Gangster

“The Adolescent Substance Abuse Knowledge Base will go far to furthering a parents education.

“When it comes to teen substance abuse, it seems like we’re always playing catch up. Anytime a new drug hits the streets, its popularity soars, and we find ourselves fighting against it. At the same time, drugs that have been around for years sometimes rise sharply and unexpectedly in popularity. Why is that? There seems to be no rhyme or reason to either the increase, or decrease, in drug use among teens. Though certain trends have been discovered over the years, the cause of those trends seems a mystery.”

See how you did on your drug vocabulary quiz here.