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Drug use among teens is rising
Come on, be truthful now. Would you really know if your teen was experimenting with drugs? Many parents don’t have a clue, but in this first part of a 2 part series, I wil show you some behaviors you can look for if you believe your teen is using. And even if they are not using, you will be armed with the knowledge and ability to better detect if something is wrong.
If you’re like most parents that have gone through this, when finding out their teen was experimenting, or addicted to drugs, it hit them like Hulk Hogan slapped them into next week. And making matters worse, they were unprepared for the aftermath, often leaving them numb, in disbelief, and ready to accept ANY explanation the teen might conjure up denying he/she is using. One of the most popular excuses teens give when caught with drugs is: “it’s not mine. I was holding it for someone else.” If you buy this, please slap yourself in the face to wake up because you’re unconscious.
A former client of mine told me that when caught with heroin packs by his mother at age 14, he told her that he had found them at school in the bathroom, put them in his pocket, and forgot about them. He said that he didn’t know what it was. His mother promptly flushed them down the toilet, and forgot about the matter. Two months later, she finds a pack of syringes, and burnt bottle cap in his pocket when she was going through them before they went into the washing machine. When he got home from school, his mother was standing in the kitchen waiting for the confrontation with the syringes, and bottle cap spread out on the table waiting to testify against him. That was an easy one to get out of. Someone at school must be using drugs in the bathroom, and he thought he better pick the stuff up before someone got poked, or something. He said he was going to dispose of them in a dumpster on his way home from school, but forgot. His mom, a little more suspicious now, but far away from accepting otherwise, asked a couple of quick questions about using drugs, and he said, “No, mom, I wouldn’t do that." The paraphernalia was thrown away, and that was the end of that. Mom bought the lie again. Ten years later, he was a client of mine in an inpatient treatment program in Detroit recovering from a $100.00 a day heroin habit, had the AIDS virus, and nursing leaking abscesses.
Why was the mother so naïve in the face of such incriminating evidence? Two reasons: 1) she was uninformed about drug behavior/culture, and 2) she was in denial.
No parent wants to believe that their kid is experimenting with, or addicted to drugs. It is much easier to believe that everything is just swell. Being naïve about the drug culture, and the signs of teen drug use, made it really easy for her son to fabricate just about any excuse, and serve it up to his mom on a platter. Parents can become so entrenched in denial they ultimately end up hurting their child, and themselves further. Parents can also be professional enablers which is detrimental to the drug user.
Just recently, 3 of my parent’s friends found out their teens were using drugs, one in each family. Teen prescription drug abuse is getting worse, currently 1 in 5 teens get high with them, and parents need to be well-armed with the knowledge to teach their kids about the dangers involved. And teach them earlier in their lives, well before they hit their teens. You can find an abundance of information on the Internet, and my page provides the links to get there. Two excellent cites I recommend are Partnership for a Drug Free America and SAMHSA. If you want to ask me questions, fell free to email me. I will answer you promptly, and confidentially.
Food for thought: Its not the drug dealers you need to be worrying about, it is friends, relatives, and the medicine cabinet in your own home.
National Prescription Drug Threat Assessment 2009 here
If you or a loved one needs help with any type of drug problem, contact these sites depending on where you live. SEMCA (Wayne County residents), CARE (Macomb County residents), PACE (Oakland County residents), Drug Free Detroit (City of Detroit residents).
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Articles you may be interested in: Helping to protect your children from prescription drug abuse, Teens more at risk for addiction than adults.
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