Is your family life in chaos due to the behavior of your teen?
Being a teenager and raising a teenager are individually, and collectively, enormous challenges.
For many teens, illicit substance use and abuse become part of the landscape of their teenage years.
Although most teens who use drugs do not progress to become drug abusers, or drug addicts in adulthood, drug use in adolescence is a very risky proposition.
Even small degrees of substance abuse (for example, alcohol, marijuana, and inhalants) can have negative consequences.
Typically, school and relationships, notably family relationships, are among the life areas that are most influenced by drug use and abuse. One of the most telling signs of a troubled teens increasing involvement with drugs is when drug use becomes part of the teens daily life.
Preoccupation with drugs can crowd out previously important activities, and the manner in which the teen views him or her self may change in unrealistic and inaccurate directions.
Friendship groups may change, sometimes dramatically, and relationships with family members can become more distant or conflictive. Further bad signs include more frequent use or use of greater amounts of a certain drug, or use of more dangerous drugs, such as amphetamines, cocaine, or heroin.
Persistent patterns of drug use in adolescence are a sign that problems in that teens environment exist and need to be addressed immediately.
What causes pre-teen and teen substance abuse?
There is no single cause of adolescent drug problems.
Drug abuse develops over time; it does not start as full-blown abuse or addiction. There are different pathways or routes to the development of a troubled teens drug problems.
Some of the factors that may place teens at risk for developing drug problems include:
- family conflict
- favorable parental attitudes toward adolescent alcohol and drug use, and parental alcoholism or drug use
- inconsistent and excessively severe discipline
- insufficient parental supervision and monitoring
- lack of communication and interaction between parents and kids
- poorly defined and poorly communicated rules and expectations against drug use
It is important to also pay attention to individual risk factors.
These include:
- difficulty maintaining emotional stability
- high sensation and risk-taking seeking
- impulsiveness
- perceived low harmfulness to use
- perceptions of extensive use by peers
- psychological distress
How do you know when to seek help for your troubled teen?
The earlier one seeks help for their teen's behavioral or drug problems, the better. How is a parent to know if their teen is experimenting with or moving more deeply into the drug culture?
Above all, a parent must be a good and careful observer, particularly of the little details that make up a teen's life.
Overall signs of dramatic change in appearance, friends, or physical health may be signs of trouble.
When a parent believes that their child may be drinking or using drugs, here are some things to watch for:
- Behavior problems and poor grades in school
- Change in friendships or extreme influence by peers
- Changes in mood, eating, or sleeping patterns
- Decrease in interest in personal appearance
- Dizziness and memory problems
- Emotional distancing, isolation, depression, or fatigue
- Hostility, irritability, or change in level of cooperation around the house
- Lying or increased evasiveness about after school or weekend whereabouts
- Physical changes such as bloodshot eyes, runny nose, frequent sore throats, rapid weight loss
- Physical evidence of drugs and drug paraphernalia
It's characterized by compulsive--at times uncontrollable--drug craving, seeking, and use that persists even in the face of extremely negative consequences. For many troubled teens, drug addiction becomes chronic, with relapses possible even after long periods of abstinence. The path to drug addiction begins with the act of taking drugs. Over time, a teen's ability to choose not to take drugs can become compromised. Drug seeking becomes compulsive, in large part as a result of the effects of prolonged drug use on brain functioning and, thus, on behavior.
The compulsion to use drugs can take over the teen's life.
Addiction often involves not only compulsive drug taking but also a wide range of dysfunctional behaviors that can interfere with normal functioning in the family, at school, and the broader community. Addiction also can place pre-teens and teens at increased risk for a wide variety of other illnesses. These illnesses can be brought on by behaviors, such as poor living and health habits, that often accompany life as an addict, or because of toxic effects of the drugs themselves. Because addiction has so many dimensions and disrupts so many aspects of a teen's life, treatment for this illness is never simple.
Addiction treatment must help the teen stop using drugs and maintain a drug-free lifestyle, while achieving productive functioning in the family, at school, and in society.
Effective drug abuse and addiction treatment programs typically incorporate many components, each directed to a particular aspect of the illness and its consequences.
Three decades of scientific research and clinical practice have yielded a variety of effective approaches to drug addiction treatment. Extensive data document that drug addiction treatment is as effective as are treatments for most other similarly chronic medical conditions. In spite of scientific evidence that establishes the effectiveness of drug addiction treatment, many parents believe that treatment is ineffective for a pre-teen or teen.
In part, this is because of unrealistic expectations. Many parents equate addiction with simply using drugs and therefore expect that addiction should be cured quickly, and when it is not, treatment is a failure. In reality, because addiction is a chronic disorder, the ultimate goal of long-term abstinence often requires sustained and repeated treatments in various forms.
Addiction Treatment Methods
Teen drug rehab, or teen rehab, much like Addiction Rehab, is "industry slang" for teen drug rehabilitation or adolescent drug treatment.
It is the "catch-all" term used for any treatment of teen chemical dependency, including teen alcoholism, "manufactured" drugs, such as methamphetamine (also referred to crystal meth or meth), MDMA (Ecstasy), and other addictive substances.
Alcohol and drug addiction is a treatable disorder.
Through treatment that is tailored to individual needs, teens can learn to control their condition and live normal, productive lives.
Like people with diabetes or heart disease, people in treatment for alcohol and/or drug addiction learn behavioral changes and may take medications as part of their treatment regimen.
Behavioral therapies can include counseling, psychotherapy, support groups, or family therapy. Treatment medications offer help in suppressing the withdrawal syndrome and drug craving and in blocking the effects of drugs. In addition, studies show that treatment for heroin addiction using methadone at an adequate dosage level combined with behavioral therapy reduces death rates and many health problems associated with heroin abuse.
In general, the more treatment given, the better the results.
Many pre-teens and teens require other services as well, such as medical and mental health services and HIV prevention services.
Adolescents who stay in treatment longer than 4 months usually have better outcomes than those who stay less time. Over the last 25 years, studies have shown that treatment works to reduce drug intake and crimes committed by drug-dependent people.
Researchers also have found that drug abusers who have been through treatment are more likely to graduate high school and have jobs.
Types of Treatment Programs
Unlike adult drug rehab, many times teen drug rehab happens outside of an actual treatment facility, or rehab, in a therapeutic wilderness program, or a "troubled teen" residential treatment center. Most teen drug rehabs attempt to treat not only physical drug dependency, but also include treatment, or rehab, for the psychological drug dependency in teens. Some teen drug rehabs, or teen treatment centers, also provide programs, which may include: dual diagnosis (co-occurring disorders), detoxification, DUI or DWI rehab, or court ordered treatment.
The ultimate goal of all addiction treatment is to enable the teen to achieve lasting abstinence, however the immediate goals are to reduce drug use, improve the teen's ability to function, and minimize the medical and social complications of drug abuse.
There are several types of addiction treatment programs. Short-term methods last less than 5 months and include residential therapy and at times medication therapy.
Longer term treatment that lasts 6 to 12 months also include residential therapeutic treatment.
Most of the programs involve individual and group counseling.
Teens entering these programs are abusers of alcohol and/or drugs other than opiates. Therapeutic communities (TCs) are highly structured programs in which pre-teens and teens stay at a residence, typically for 6 to 12 months.
Teens in TCs include those with histories of drug dependence.
The focus of the TC is on the resocialization of the teen to a drug-free lifestyle.
Short-term residential programs, often referred to as chemical dependency treatment centers, are often based on the "Minnesota Model" of treatment.
These programs involve a 4 to 9-week inpatient treatment phase followed by extended outpatient therapy or participation in 12-step self-help groups, such as Alcoholic Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous or Cocaine Anonymous.
Chemical dependency treatment programs for alcohol and/or drug abuse arose in the private sector in the mid-1980s with insured alcohol/cocaine abusers as their primary patients. The addiction treatment programs that provide other services, such as counseling, therapy, and medical care, generally get better results than the programs that provide minimal services. When your teen is dependent on alcohol or drugs and needs treatment, it is important to know that no single treatment approach is appropriate for everyone. Finding the right treatment program involves careful consideration of such things as the setting, length of care, philosophical approach, accredited academics and your teen's specific and unique needs. We are especially scrutinizing as we visit addiction treatment centers looking to make sure they provide specific treatments for pre-teens and teens.
We have evaluated and researched addiction treatment programs and residential treatment centers all across the United States.
Please contact us for more information on how we can help you with your troubled teen.
