Browsing the archives for the Alcohol Drug Addiction category
Peer pressure during the teenage years is at the top of the list of factors pushing youngsters into experimenting with drugs, according to Dr. D. Vincent Biase, former director of research and development at Daytop Village, a leading drug treatment center. But it shouldn’t be blamed for drug abuse, which is usually the result of [...]
Some drugs leave an open trail. Cigarette smoke settles in hair, in clothes, and on fingertips, where a parent can smell the evidence. Inhalants often have a peculiar odor, and the containers from which they came are easy to identify. But other drug use is harder to detect.
Parents are understandably reluctant to invade a child’s [...]
Since schools are where the kids are—or should be—most of the time, they are often the setting for the discovery of the drug problem or for conflicts because of it. Parents sometimes saddle them with both the blame and the responsibility. Yet, as an administrator points out, although “the parents think the schools should crack [...]
He’ll get the message when you let him know that it’s no fun for you or anyone else to have him around when he really isn’t functioning. Be prepared for an angry response, but try not to give in. Your child must learn to suffer the full consequences of his behavior.
If your drug-using child comes to visit, he should be asked to leave if he’s high or drunk when he arrives. If he protests, tell him you’d like to spend time with him, but only when he is sober or more in control of himself.
A “Reaching Out Room” in which these students can eat lunch and build new friendships with other recovering kids is also part of the program. This room is staffed all day, so there is always someone to talk to when the going gets rough.
Parents see their children as report cards on their parenting ability. When a child runs into trouble, parents torment themselves: “What did I do wrong? Was there some point when I could have done this instead of that and kept the whole mess from happening?” The truth is, children develop in a particular way because [...]
Deerfield High School in Illinois assigns each returning youngster to a student who has been back in school for a while and can act as a guide.
You can try to hook him up with a counselor or psychologist in school or a student assistance program. Some high schools have special classes or sections for students who have been rehabilitated to provide a buffer between them and those who are still using.
On the other hand, there will be new friends who will respect him for having turned around and will not try to underline his commitment.
Although it’s not always easy to distinguish between drug use and abuse, in young children any use is abuse and should be taken seriously. The same is true of junior high students, although the one-time experiment with beer is not necessarily a sign of worse things to come. However, if drinking or smoking marijuana is [...]
Then, too, the need to develop a separate identity, to go from being a dependent child to being an independent adult, puts children into a push-pull relationship with parents that often feels like an angry tug-of-war.
In other cases, when the personalities of parents and children conflict, tensions rise and can set the stage for drug use. The exuberant, athletic father and the shy, book-loving son may find themselves at odds because of inborn temperamental differences.
When a child runs away, it is like a punch in the nose, a shocking message that says, “You’re such a lousy parent, I don’t even want to live with you.” The child perceives the world away from home as a source of freedom, a carefree playground. Yet most teenagers who run away stay close [...]
She tried to get her to accompany her to an AA meeting, but the girl flatly refused, saying, “Stick to your own problems, Mom.” This mother then asked one of her AA friends if she would invite the daughter to a meeting in a neighboring town as a way of sidestepping mother daughter conflict.
Myths have grown out of the sixties experience. One of them is that if you don’t talk about it, it will go away. Another is that if you do talk about it, it will be okay. A bewildered mother who believed this, and whose son became seriously involved with cocaine, kept repeating, “But we communicate. [...]
In addition to brothers and sisters, other people come into the picture. Grandparents can be very shocked when they learn that an adored grandchild is smoking cigarettes or using drugs. You have to tread easily with these older people, but they often need to know the truth even though they may file it away in [...]
Despite differing orientations and theoretical backgrounds, most treatment programs have similar goals:
? To help your child live a drug-free life. The general attitude, says Dr. David Smith of the Haight-Ashbury Free Clinic, is that “once a person has crossed the boundary into uncontrollable use, she/he may never return to controlled use. It’s as if [...]
Family rules and obligations are sometimes easier to enforce and abide by if you create a family contract. Your children must accept the fact that as long as they live at home, you are responsible for them. Maybe you will feel that a written document is too alien to the way you usually handle things. [...]
It is a lot easier to follow suggestions such as these if you stand together with other parents. A mother from Delaware say, “I believe strongly in parents getting together for education and support. It’s the only way I have survived parenthood—that and Erma Bombeck.”