Troubled Teens Resources

Two new studies have insights on troubled teens and how alcohol addiction could start before they are even born. It can start with the drinking habits of their mothers. If a baby’s mother is abusing alcohol it can have a profound effect on her baby. That is not new information. But what is surprising is that the baby can come to prefer the taste and smell of alcohol.

Note that the research was done in the lab and not on real people, but it gives some insights into how alcohol abuse can run in families. Researchers at the State University of New York Developmental Ethanol Research Center studied rats to learn about how they develop before birth. As the young developed nervous systems they found the mice adapted to whatever their mothers eat and drink. So if young rats were exposed to alcohol later they came to prefer it.

We already know that foetal alcohol exposure increases the chances of babies getting Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, which leads to profound neurodevelopmental problems including mental retardation. I’m always surprised how much a mother influences a baby’s development. The information is not meant to condemn mothers - but will hopefully empower them. What they eat or drink can have a profound affect later when their babies become teenagers.

In one study, baby rats exposed to alcohol before birth drank significantly more of it in youth but not in adulthood. The researchers let the rats choose to drink alcohol from bottles. The complete study is published in the December issue of Behavioural Neuroscience.

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.
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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…
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Yet the better you communicate, the more at ease your teen will feel about discussing drugs and other sensitive issues with you.

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Teen crisis intervention typically targets troubled teens. A new program circulating through the nation targets the parents of those teens. Many parents simply have no clue what to look for beyond easily recognized drug paraphanilia, such as pipes and bongs.

Some parents are very removed from anything to do with teen drug abuse because they can’t imagine their own teens using. Word to the wise - all teens are at risk and parents need to be drug educated regardless of how confident they are that their teen is “clean”.

“The program featured a mock bedroom of a teenage drug user and around 70 items or indicators were placed throughout it. Parents had the opportunity to walk through and try to identify possible signs of drug use.

In addition the Department of Public Safety provided a teenage drug user’s car exhibit out in front of the high schools so parents could also find possible signs there too.
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“Our goal is that hopefully a parent will see something during the event and a voice inside their head will be screaming to them that something is not right. Even if we just reach one parent, that could be one teen that we save,” Teresa Burnett said.

Gregory Flores, of Port Arthur, admitted he has always had little knowledge as to what drugs are out there, but feels he is not alone.

“It’s alarming. I knew kids were doing some of this. After seeing all the ways that they can hide what they are doing shows that they are smart, but we need to get them focused on being smart in school,” he said. “Parents also need to educate themselves so that they can see what is really going on.”

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These are exactly the kinds of adolescents that schools for troubled teens, brat camps and other programs for troubled teens are designed to catch. Those teens who are floundering in school, who haven’t strong family support. They are the ones who are vulnerable to the call of gangs of the temptations of drugs. These types of teenagers need a sense of purpose and programs like the community supported Silver Star Youth Program are indeed life savers.

“Larry Seta, 19, has a high school diploma, a job and a wife he married just two weeks ago. Seta says he owes everything to the Silver Star Youth Program at Rancho Cielo outside Salinas.
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When Seta entered the Silver Star Youth Program at Rancho Cielo, he said, he spent the first two and a half years in and out of the court system.

Seta said he felt isolated and didn’t know how to apply himself. He only had a few credits of the 220 needed to graduate from the youth rehabilitation program.

But program officials guided him onto the right track, Seta said, and he was able to graduate and get his high school diploma 10 months ago. He now works at Salinas Steel Builders. Two weeks ago, Seta married, and in five months, he and his wife are expecting a child.”

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Some troubled teens can’t be helped simply because they really do not want to apply themselves. But for those teens who have the heart to live a productive life, but no clue how to accomplish that, guidance and mentoring prove key to their learning how.

What is teen crisis intervention? It can be whatever it takes that will make the difference in a troubled teenagers life. It could be a specialty school, or schools for troubled teens, it could be a mentor, or it could be any of the various programs for troubled teens that are made available through various sponsors, grants and non-profits.

Some of the most effective programs are ones that first engage the teens heart and teases his creativity. Thus, programs that give at-risk teens their first introduction to the arts - to writing, photography,painting,etc - can often serve as the pivotal deal breaker in a teen’s burgeoning criminal career. When a teenager is introduced to their own gifts and talents, they have a new choice that can turn them away from drugs and crime.

“Best known for his role as a troubled teen on television, Edmonton-based actor Dakota House is using the arts to reach out to at-risk aboriginal youth.

House… held a fundraiser for his non-profit organization, Going M.I.L.E.S., last night in downtown Edmonton.

The name stands for Motivating, Inspiring, Leading, Empowering and Succeeding.
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“It sets (youth) up for the future” by teaching them skills and giving them confidence, said House.
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House, 33, found himself in trouble on more than one occasion in his younger days…Now drug- and alcohol-free for almost three years, the actor said he has learned from his mistakes and like other Going M.I.L.E.S. participants, including ReddNation and Dallas Arcand, makes a good mentor.

“Everyone on board is a role model,” said House. “Youth can identify with us.”

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Should a fourteen year old girl who gave meth to six classmates have a teen crisis intervention or spend some time in juvenile detention? I think this is a question that a large number of people are asking these days, what is the best way to handle a troubled teen.

“If the teenager who brought methamphetamine to a St. Paul middle school were older, she’d probably be going to prison.
Instead, the 14-year-old girl’s guilty plea Wednesday likely will result in drug intervention.
Though police caught the girl who handed out the drugs during lunch at Hazel Park Middle School Academy Tuesday - resulting in her and six other students being sent to area hospitals as a precaution - the investigation wasn’t over Wednesday. Police still want to know where the girl got the crystal meth. They say they found an additional 2 grams of the drug in her home Tuesday night.
Police are looking at the girl’s parents as a possible source, authorities said.On Wednesday, the 14-year-old girl involved pleaded guilty in Ramsey County juvenile court to second-degree sale of a controlled substance. She is being held in the county’s juvenile detention center until her next hearing on Oct. 10, according to the Ramsey County attorney’s office.
For an adult who pleaded guilty to the same charge, there would a presumptive prison sentence, said Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom. In juvenile court, there aren’t sentencing guidelines.
The 14-year-old girl might face detention, but “she’s very young - I would think the intervention would focus on treatment and supervision to ensure there aren’t any future problems,” said Backstrom, whose office isn’t involved in the case.
Before a judge determines the girl’s fate, officials will prepare a report that likely evaluates whether she has a prior criminal history, her school records, her home life, and her mental and chemical health.”

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K.D.

Parents researching schools for troubled teens have their work cut out for them. May we suggest that you listen to this Teen Options podcast that will give you a good start in organizing your search.

As you peruse the internet you will run into different reports about various youth institutions throughout the country. As usual, the press sensationalizes incidents of possible abuse, failing to sing the praises of the many youths that have had their lives turned around by time spent in a troubled teen program.

The article excerpted below is more balanced than most, touching on possible problems as well as recognizing the good that this youth ranch has achieved.

“Mount Carmel Youth Ranch is a group home where troubled boys ages 12 to 17 from around the country spend from three weeks to 18 months living and working on a 40,000-acre cattle ranch.
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Boys must first enroll in the ranch’s wilderness program, where they live in a rustic cabin with few amenities and no running water.

For three months, they earn credit for good behavior toward greater privileges before moving to the long-term bunkhouse, a more traditional group setting.
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Activities, which also earn school credit, include such ranch chores as mending fences and delivering calves.”

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Parents need to do the same thorough research regarding programs for their teens as they would were they investing in a business or real estate. Sound direction and good counsel is readily available for diligent and conscientious parents.

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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Military boarding schools or other private boarding schools are often the only opportunity that a troubled teenager has to find and focus on a positive role model.

A program aimed at teen crisis intervention in LA has been supplying role models for their delinquent teens for over 19 years. One statement by a volunteer mentor/cop is striking.

“Police sergeant Thurman MacNeal is one of 3,000 men who have trained as Role Models. As a black cop whose interactions with black boys too often involve handcuffs, he says, it can be ”discouraging because so many of these young men have so much talent it’s amazing. But because of other things that are going on with them and because those talents are not being developed . . .” The thought trails away.”

No matter it be via troubled teen boarding school or mentoring program or a small community effort, the biggest gift you can give a troubled teenager is the gift of himself. In order to do so the teen needs an environment and role models that can help them learn what their gifts, skills or interests are and then be given the programs that will help them develop those talents.

“I believe children who have a vision of themselves in the future have hope. And without a vision of yourself in the future, you don’t value your life and consequently, you don’t value the lives of others.”

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Troubled teenagers with a history of Oppositional Defiant Disorder are exceptionally fortunate if they find themselves in the care of strong, loving parents. Some accounts of ODD behavior are indeed difficult to read . You wonder how any one parent can sustain a healthy environment for their other children when so much time must be dedicated to managing one out of control child or teen. You wonder how marriages survive and families stay intact.

For those parents undergoing such a trial, it is often good to hear an honest account of day to day life.

“People seem to be under the assumption that children with disabilities are “special” and I mean, sweet, loving, holding flowers, blowing kisses and waving at others with a sweet and age delayed hello from their wheelchairs. Angels, precious little angels. Yeah, whatever. If mine is an angel he works for the other side. He is mean, angry, violent and destructive. He has ODD. ..
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Daily, I am hit, I am scratched, I get called names, I get spit on, I get my hair pulled. Some days more than others, of course. Daily, I clean up pee and poop from clothes and from other places.”

Yet, what makes it all do-able is that mysterious ability of some parents to love through it all.

“In spite of all of this, we love him, we love him enough to deal with all the crap, every day, and still love him, not for what he does, but for who he is. A child, our child. We love him enough to dread that a day might come where we can’t do this anymore.”

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Parents must do what is best for their situation, be it send the teen to a specialty school, such as the many schools for troubled teens or, if family and resources are strong, keep working with the troubled teen in the home. But to raise such a teen without any outside help is very ill advised.