Troubled Teens Resources

Sometimes parents don’t know where to turn. Teen age drug abuse, binge drinking, steroids, violence, internet addiction. Raising teenagers anymore is like going to war. And now some towns and school districts are taking the war directly to the parents, demanding that they do their part.

“Underage drinking is not new, but school districts seem to be talking about it more, while enforcing tough policies that often require year-round compliance. Still, the parties continue.
[…]
The Lake Shore School District last year started requiring parents to attend a mandatory session on drug and alcohol awareness before their children can attend school dances.

“They all go in with a little angst, as in ‘Why do I have to be here?’…“They come away with a tremendous amount of knowledge and the understanding of how important it is to fight this.”

And for a good many student athletes in this Buffalo community, the season is over. It sounds like the schools and police have a great deal more educating to do before teens at risk are going to get the message.

“More than three dozen high school students — most of them athletes — are serving suspensions this week for drinking alcohol during parties in at least three different incidents in Erie County last weekend.

On Grand Island, a birthday party last Saturday got out of hand, attracting at least 70 teenagers.

The same night, 34 underage drinkers were at a house party in Evans.

And in Sloan, eight students showed up drunk to the homecoming dance.

School administrators spent the week interviewing students, talking to parents, and meting out the punishment required by codes of conduct. For some of the athletes, the sports season is over.”
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“I don’t believe that every problem requires a therapist,” Townsend says. “Part of the job of parenting is helping kids succeed with problems. Help them come up with solutions.”

Parents of teens at risk often feel that they are walking through land mines. The threats to troubled teens today come from all sides - from a pop culture that undermines parental authority by promoting teen age drug abuse and irresponsible behavior, to sexual predators on the internet, to the possibilities of their teen being diagnosed with any number of “disorders”…what is a parent to think? Which expert do they trust?
Well, that is the problem solving that parents need to do while teaching their teens to solve problems on their own. Parents know their teens better than any expert but the one obstacle to that insight being useful is when parents ignore their gut.

“Parents’ gut instincts are right on the money,” says Linderman, author of the new book The Teen Whisperer: How to Break Through the Silence and Secrecy of Teenage Life. “They say they knew it. They could feel it, but they didn’t want to admit it. They need to remove that denial. They need to see the reality of what’s going on.”

Stanton Peele, a psychologist, attorney and addiction expert from Chatham, N.J., is familiar with parents in denial. He says many parents are not realistic about expectations. “We think that drugs and alcohol are two bad things out there and we need to beat them back. We figure if we just warn and scare kids enough, everything will be all right. But we know that doesn’t work.”

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One front in the war on teen age drug abuse is the ongoing battle against meth. Meth takes an immeasurable toll on the communities it infests. Unlike other drug pursuits, meth carries with it the additional dangers of meth labs, volatile chemicals and explosions. Yet all drug battles need concerned citizens and funding. Take away support and the dealers win.

Michigan has made great strides in protecting their teens at risk from meth, but without continuing financial support, all efforts are for naught. As a parent, be aware of legislation and political maneuvering that might affect anti-drug programs in your area.

“Two years ago, southwestern Michigan was awash in methamphetamine.

Hundreds of meth labs had been discovered in homes, hotel rooms, trucks and woods. Houses were rendered unlivable by meth chemicals. Children of meth addicts were abused and neglected. Dozens of cattle died at a Richland farm after thieves stealing anhydrous ammonia — an ingredient in meth — left a valve open, allowing release of the poisonous gas.

Police, state and local officials took action. They poured time and money into combating the meth problem. The state Legislature voted to put pseudoephedrine — another ingredient in meth — behind the counter at pharmacies. Police worked overtime, money became available to help property-owners clean up contaminated sites, children were removed from dangerous homes where meth was cooked, addiction-treatment programs geared at getting people off of the very addictive drug were set up.”
[…]
…if the state government shuts down on Oct. 1…so would state funding to combat meth. Even the state Web site identifying contaminated properties would shut down.

This area has made important strides in fighting off a very dangerous plague.

We can’t afford to retreat.

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That teens at risk have trouble comprehending cause and effect and the concept of consequences comes as no surprise. But now teenagers are dealing with drugs that have consequences beyond their own lives. I wonder if they would feel anymore compelled to stay far removed from any teen age drug abuse if they were made to understand that they themselves could one day - though they never planned to - give birth to children that they will be forced, because of their addiction, to abandon.

“Children of drug addicts live a terrible existence, deprived of stable and nurturing parents from the moment that they are conceived. It’s a problem so pervasive that Australia is even considering the forcible removal of children from addicted parents.

Young children of drug-addicted parents should be forcibly adopted out, said an Australian parliamentary report that cites children dying in the custody of addict parents or being abandoned to eat dog food.

But the report drew widespread criticism on Friday from anti-drug campaigners, who called it draconian and harmful in the fight against drugs.

The report on the impact of drugs on families recommended adoption as a “default care option” for children aged under five who come to the attention of child protection agents through their parents’ drug addiction.”
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Teenagers always swear that they will never treat their own children as poorly as they imagine that they are being treated. Perhaps they could be made to understand that, because of their addictions, that they will likely treat their future children to a life that is far worse.

There are many schools for troubled teens that offer strict rules and regulations that some teens need , but some teens need something different. There are new types of schools that are not only giving teens an education but teaching them new skills and helping them gain a new out look on life and the world. These new schools use different kinds of ways to help teens at risk that some other schools don’t offer.

“Outback feels it is critical for students to continue their education during their expedition, rather than taking a break from school altogether. Outback, in conjunction with Woodland Hills School, has designed a unique academic program that helps students continue their education while receiving intense clinical support, treatment, and development. We find that students rediscover a joy of learning while in the Outback program - so they are inspired to succeed in school when they return home.”

“Kids relate to symbols - clothes, name brands, hot gadgets, and celebrity icons.Outback’s use of metaphors and experiential education to effect a symbolic rite of passage have more impact and are more effective than talk-therapy traditionally used for adults. Students begin a transformational journey against the backdrop of mountains and blue sky.”

“In an independent research study by Keith C. Russell, PH. D., of the University of Idaho’s Wilderness Research Center, various outdoor education programs for adolescents — including three Aspen programs — participated. The study concluded that participation in such outdoor programs resulted in clinically significant reductions in severity of behavioral and emotional symptoms. More than 83% of participants made such improvement. Almost half (46%) of participants returned to a normal range as a result of treatment. After an 18-month study, researchers concluded that the participants not only maintained their outcomes, but continued to improve after treatment.”

If sending your teen away to a boarding school full time is something you feel is too extreme for your teen , there are many other programs to consider. These programs will still let your teen get the credits that they need for there education , but they will get treatment at the same time in a much different way.
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Teen crisis intervention starts long before your teenager reaches adolescence. Reports indicate that kids as young as nine and ten are choosing to play around with drugs. For good or ill, celebrities like Lindsay Lohan and the thoroughly disgraced Britney Spears can serve as a lesson for your young teens. It’s obvious that they can no longer serve as role models but they can teach teens at risk that drugs can destroy even the best and brightest.

That is one mother dealt with her daughter’s disappointment with Lindsay Lohan.

“I thank Lindsey Lohan for forcing me giving me the opportunity to talk to Ellie about the dangers of drugs and alcohol. It’s a conversation I might have saved for later, when she was a bit older, but thanks to the widely reported exploits of this girl, Ellie now has a basic understanding of addiction and the difficulties of recovery.

I am not sure exactly how Ellie found out about Lindsay Lohan’s troubles, but she did. And the look on her face as I explained what happened to her broke my heart. I know Ellie has to grow up sometime and learn about these things, and common wisdom has it that the earlier you begin these conversations, the better off your kids will be. But try as I might, I can’t put a positive spin on the reality that Ellie’s childlike adoration of Lindsay Lohan turned into an innocence-shattering lesson about poor parenting and bad choices.”

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And that is the best thing you can do when your teen’s idols are busted for drugs - use it as a life lesson, a demonstration of how drug addiction can ruin the lives of young people who have everything to live for.

Teens at risk for teen age drug abuse often fall into experimenting with drugs as a means of dealing with their extreme frustrations at school. Poor academic performance or an inability to keep up with classmates can be cause for humiliation and fear of rejection. Very often these are bright teens whose parents are bewildered that their grades do not reflect that.

Immediately a parent tests for Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder and dyslexia and other conditions. But researchers are now looking at other possible reasons for poor school performance. No, not another disorder, but it points to the possibility that the “powers that be” in academia are demanding more from children and teens than their brain development allows for.

“Ellie has a problem with working memory, a term used to describe the ability to retain information from the top of a page to the bottom. Working memory comes under the umbrella of executive function, a thinking skill that refers to the tasks executives tend to excel at, such as prioritizing, organizing, and mentally shifting information around. It’s a skill that develops progressively, starting in the elementary years and continuing into adulthood.

If you’ve never heard of executive function, brace yourself. It’s bursting onto the educational scene.

…educators and psychologists say increased academic demands in the last five years or so are straining students’ developmental abilities to remember facts and organize thoughts. What may look like a learning disability or a behavioral disorder may be neurological wiring that needs to mature. Some children grow into it or manage to get by. Others, such as Ellie Honan, just can’t keep pace with the academic demands despite the internal struggle.”

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Teen age drug abuse quickly descends into addiction if the first forays into experimentation are not quickly cut short.Teens at risk for addiction are not always easily identifiable, though those who seek drugs as refuge from depression or anger are more likely to fall into addiction than those teens who are more emotionally stable.

A teen heroin addict is all the more tragic. For a troubled teen to seek the quiet stillness of heroin’s slow suicide over family, love, and life is beyond the comprehension of those who helplessly watch.

That a teen addict can destroy the lives of those who love them is dramatically demonstrated by a recent case that came before a judge in Great Britain.

“A desperate dad risked his own freedom to take drugs to his heroin addict son inside prison.

William Thompson had already re-mortgaged his home to pay for detox programmes and suffered the break-up of his marriage during his son’s decade long addiction to the deadly drug.

But the devoted father went a step further on December 2 last year when he risked his own liberty after a phone call from his son begging for help.
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The court heard how taking drugs into prison is ordinarily met by an immediate jail term.

But Mr Recorder Martin Bethel today took pity on Thompson and suspended his sentence.

Defence barrister Glen Gatland had told the court: “He has done everything a father could possibly do to try and wean his son off this terrible, terrible curse he has.”

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The fight against teen age drug abuse, specifically against prescription drug abuse, is a bit harder for parents and law enforcement in the state of Florida. Both abusers and dealers have been flooding into the state because it’s one of several states in the country that does not keep a central data base of prescriptions filled.

Recent reports have indicated that illegally obtained prescription pills now out paces illegal drug abuse as the reigning threat our teens at risk face nationwide.

“Drug abusers and drug dealers have discovered a soft spot in the nation’s prescription drug system — the Sunshine State — and they’re exploiting this weakness with increasing regularity.

The number of prescriptions written in Florida for morphine, codeine, meperidine, oxycodone and hydrocodone rose 142 percent between 1997 and 2005…Between 2000 and 2006, an average of 341 people died in the state each year by overdosing on Oxycontin and Percocet.

There’s a reason Florida has become so popular with the prescription drug crowd — and it’s not the sunshine.

The state lacks a central database that would enable authorities to monitor excessive — and suspicious — purchases of prescription drugs, and investigate abuses.
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Drug addicts and dealers often will choose the path of least resistance. When one state cracks now on some aspect of the drug trade, the purveyors of illegal products inevitably seek out new territories.”

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Parents are already likely aware of the newest and startling report detailing the state of teen age drug abuse and the rampant amount of prescription drug abuse by teens at risk. The most startling aspect of the report, however, was not the alarming numbers of offending teens but that parents are either, for the most part, unaware or indifferent.

“Despite indications that most parents have their heads firmly planted in the sand (if not buried somewhere even less pleasant), 4 out of 5 high school students say they are regularly exposed to drugs in their schools.”

Those whose duty it is to collect the collapsed and comatose bodies of overdosed American teens are not very surprised and offer very basic counsel that parents need to start heeding.

“For those of us in the EMS fields, this may not come as much of a surprise. Even in my supposedly protected rural area, I am always taken aback by the number of overdose calls we get at local schools. The most important warning that comes from this report is that the parents seem to be completely unaware of the this increasing trend in their children’s schools. We can do two things:

1. Take care of our own first. Talk regularly and often with your own children about drugs in their schools. What drugs do they come in contact with?
2. Get involved in your community education projects. Talk to your local police agencies about what drugs they are seeing more commonly on the street this year. Arrange to provide assistance to their school outreach programs with a demonstration of the life-saving techniques we will have to use in the case of an overdose.”

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