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Treatment-Hotline2 :: Substance Abuse :: Teen Addiction
Why Do Sally And Johnny Use Drugs?
addiction and alcoholism are believed to be a learned behavior that is masking a person's emotional or physical pain. There are almost as many treatments as there are addicts and alcoholics.
Educate yourself before making any type of life-changing decison regarding alcoholism, addiction and substance abuse treatment.
Right at the top of virtually every parent's concerns is the fear
that their children might become involved with drugs. And they are
right to be concerned. Whether in cities, suburbia or rural
communities, whether in wealthy or poor neighborhoods, drugs are now
readily available to all young people. And even the seemingly
nerdiest kids can speak with apparent fluency and familiarity about
marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and such strange-sounding things as
blunts, ecstasy, roofies, Special K, and crystal meth. Drugs are an
equal opportunity destroyer. Fifty percent of young people have used
an illegal drug by the time they leave high school. What's a parent
to do? How can you predict if your children are going to use drugs?
What can you do to prevent it? How can you help them once they've
started using?
The first step is to understand why Sally or Johnny might be using
drugs. Researchers have identified over 50 factors that might put
someone at risk for drug use. These risk factors can be found at the
individual, the family, peer groups, and broader community levels.
They include things like having too much free time, weak family
structures, peer group, social pressures, and the glorification of
drug use by some in the popular media. But those risk factors really
only talk about overall probabilities of whether young people with
certain characteristics might be more or less prone to using drugs.
Knowing about these risk factors can help keep a parent alert, but
no set of risk factors determines that a particular child will use
drugs, and many kids who have many of those risk factors don't even
try drugs. So parents really have to deal with the individual
child's situation and state of mind.
Two Paths to Drug Use
Research on the pathways to drug use and addiction suggests the
immediate decision to use drugs is driven, basically, by one of two
types of reasons. One group of young people seems to use drugs
simply to feel good. They are seeking novelty or excitement, to have
a good time. I include in this group those who say they use drugs
just because all their friends are doing it; they just want to join
in common fun or to be "cool." These kids are the ones most likely
to be responsive to prevention programming that educates about the
harmful effects of drugs on their bodies, and are most influenced by
the powerful protective factor of having strong and loving parents
interested and involved in all aspects of their lives. These kids
also seem to have the best chances of being successfully taught to
seek alternative ways of having fun and to resist the temptation to
seek novelty in drugs and other harmful ways.
But there is also a second, very different group of young people who
are using drugs for quite different, actually more intractable
reasons. These are kids who in some way or another are suffering and
use drugs to try to make themselves feel better, or even normal.
This group often includes people stuck in very difficult life
situations - poverty or abusive families, for example. It also
includes kids suffering from a variety of untreated mental
disorders, like clinical depression, manic depressive illness, panic
disorders, schizophrenia. Estimates are that as many as 10 million
children and adolescents may suffer from emotional and psychiatric
problems of such magnitude that their ability to function is
compromised, and the majority of those kids are at extremely high
risk of becoming addicted to drugs.
These young people are not using drugs just to feel good. These
children are actually trying to medicate themselves with drugs. they
use drugs because they think they will make them feel better, or
normal, in the same way that other people might be given
anti-depressants or anti-anxiety medications. The problem, of
course, is that using illicit drugs is not an effective treatment.
In addition to other, perhaps more obvious problems - like that
their use interferes with normal functioning - this kind of drug use
actually will ultimately make them feel worse, not better. Medical
research has shown clearly that this kind of drug use only
exacerbates underlying psychological problems.
Treatment Different For "Self Medicators"
Both the preventive and the treatment approaches for these
"self-medicating" young people need to be quite different from the
approaches one would use with novelty seekers or social users. For
example, it can't be very meaningful to warn people who feel
terrible today that using drugs may alter their brains a month from
now. Their problem is getting through today. And encouragement to
seek alternative sources of fun or to seek nicer friends doesn't
seem very meaningful for them either. Again, they are trying to get
through today's issues.
Even the otherwise powerful protective factor of loving, supportive
family involvement in the life of the child is not very effective in
these areas. Those young people who are trying to self-medicate must
have help with their underlying problems. They need professional
treatment.
Whatever the reasons, how do you know if your children are using
drugs and what do you do if they are? Telltale signs include recent
mood and energy level changes, changes in eating habits, specific
signs like redness around the eyes, and changes in social and
educational performance. Listen carefully to what your children are
telling you about their lives and how they feel. And watch how they
behave. It may seem natural for an adolescent to be a bit surly, but
most adolescents are not actually sullen, withdrawn, apathetic and
lethargic. You should talk to your child about any of these
symptoms. You do need to know.
What Can Parents Do?
What, if the answer is "yes," your child is using drugs? What do you
do? In a small percentage of cases, parents can work with their own
kids to get them to stop using drugs. This might be easiest when the
young person is just using drugs occasionally to have a good time.
And, of course, the earlier you start talking to your children about
drugs, the better the chances are they won't become involved with
them. If a child reaches the age of 20 without using alcohol,
tobacco or marijuana, the probability is almost zero he or she will
ever develop a serious drug problem.
But if you suspect your child is really trying to self-medicate, or
if you suspect your child is using regularly or even is addicted,
you need to get help right away from the professionals. These are
not problems the typical parents can handle alone. And help is
available. There are many professional social workers, nurses, drug
counselors, psychologists and psychiatrists well trained to deal
with both mental disorders and drug use problems. Your child's
school, your family doctor, or community health center can help get
you a referral. Do not assume Sally or Johnny's drug use is just a
passing phase or something every kid must go through. It isn't. It
may well be the beginning of a lifetime of problems that could be
prevented with early intervention.
Alan Leshner is Director of the National Institute of Drug Abuse.
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