Browsing the archives for the Alcohol Prescription Drugs 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 [...]
But this is my house, and the bottom line is I won’t have it around.” You can use the same approach when it comes to other drugs. You have to be prepared for tension and even an angry “Well, then, I won’t visit anymore.”
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 [...]
Many parents ask, “What should I do if my son lights up a joint while he’s visiting us?” First of all, be clear about your convictions before an incident occurs. If you’d rather your child didn’t hide the fact that he or she is using pot, make this plain.
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 [...]
Crisis intervention centers are often community-based storefront facilities staffed mainly by nonprofessionals who have themselves been drug abusers. They are not likely to fall for the youngster who says, “I experimented just that one time,” or “I was keeping the stuff for a friend.” The centers provide emergency help, short-term treatment, and evaluation and referral. [...]
But what seems like rebellion may really be a child’s way of saying, “I don’t know who I am, but this I do know—I am not you. I’m different.” The child rejects parental attitudes and expectations on the road to developing his own ideas and personality.
Of course, it is a lot easier to bring up a child who is calm, respectful, and obedient than one who is rebellious and demanding. Although impulsivity, an “I want what I want when I want it” attitude, doesn’t cause drug abuse, it may make it more likely that drugs, which provide instant gratification, will [...]
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 [...]
Sometimes the force of law is necessary to get a child to accept help. A parent’s asking the court to step in and order treatment is called “creative coercion” by Peter B. Rockholz, a Connecticut social worker with more than a decade of experience in the residential treatment of young alcohol and drug abusers. “It’s [...]
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 [...]
Often parents really don’t want to hear about their children’s experiences smoking marijuana or popping pills. They ask tentative questions (“You’re not smoking, are you?”), don’t wait for the answer, and then quickly drop the subject. Many children are consummate con artist. They tell parents what they want to hear. This combination of denial on [...]
Separating is part of parenting, and the time must come, early for some, later for others, to loosen the grip so the chills can grow up. At a certain point, you are no longer responsible for your child’s life, debts, or the consequences of his or her behavior.
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.”
Basically, adolescent drug abusers are treated in three different types of settings: drug-free outpatient; short-terms impatient; and therapeutic community. (For the small proportion of opiate abusers, there is also methadone maintenance—the use of a drug to block the craving for heroin, provided in an outpatient clinic. Some critics see this treatment as substituting one drug [...]
Most parents have not practiced talking to their children about touchy subjects, and the use of alcohol, tobacco, and drugs is among the touchiest. It’s easy to talk about the weather. It’s easy to talk about the home team. It’s even easy to talk about taking turns or caring for pets. But when parents and [...]
How will you feel when you have seen a counselor, spent thousands of dollars and hundreds of sleepless nights, had countless arguments with your husband or wife and friends, had several encounters with law enforcement agencies, and carefully selected what you thought was best—and nothing has worked? Your kid is worse than ever .He is [...]
Conversations with your children have to be appropriate to the child’s age and ability to comprehend. Toddlers can be encouraged to tell you what happened at day care or a fourth-grader can discuss what he liked best in his school lunch. Later, attitudes about drinking, smoking, and taking drugs can be passed on by comments [...]