Approaching the situation with empathy, understanding, and open dialogue can pave the way for healing and recovery. Here, we want to provide guidance on how to talk with a teenager you suspect might be suffering from addiction.

Timing is Everything

Timing and environment play a significant role in how well your conversation will be received. Pick a time when both you and the teenager are relaxed and have ample privacy. Create an atmosphere that is free from distractions and conducive to open discussion.

Approach with Empathy

Start the conversation by expressing your genuine concern and empathy. Begin with statements like, “I’ve noticed that you seem to be going through a tough time lately,” or “I want you to know that I care about you and I’m here to listen without judgment.”

Listening Non-Judgementally

It’s important to create a space where the teenager feels safe and supported. Listen actively and without interruption, as they share their thoughts and feelings. Avoid making accusatory or judgmental remarks, which can cause them to shut down.

Use “I” Statements

When discussing your concerns, use “I” statements to convey your feelings rather than placing blame. For example, say, “I’m worried about your well-being because I’ve noticed certain changes,” instead of, “You’re causing me a lot of stress with your behavior.”

Express Your Observations

Share specific instances or changes in behavior that have raised your concern. Be factual and non-confrontational, focusing on observable actions rather than making assumptions about their intentions.

Educate Yourself

Before approaching the conversation, take time to educate yourself about addiction and its signs. This knowledge will not only help you understand the situation better but also demonstrate your commitment to helping them through this difficult time.

Offer Support, Not Solutions

Rather than imposing solutions, ask how you can be of help. Offer your unconditional support and let them know that you are there to assist them in finding the right resources, whether it’s therapy, counseling, or support groups.

Avoid Lecturing

While it’s natural to want to share your wisdom, avoid delivering lectures or moralizing. Focus on being collaborative and encourage open dialogue rather than a one-sided conversation.

Be Patient

Recovery is a journey that takes time, and relapses can happen. Be patient and understanding, offering ongoing support even if progress is slow or nonlinear.

Maintain Boundaries

While you’re striving to be supportive, it’s important to establish and communicate boundaries. Let them know that while you’re there to help, certain behaviors will not be tolerated. This can include destructive actions or continued substance use.

Seek The Help of a Professional

If you suspect a teenager is struggling with addiction, involving a professional is crucial. Consult with a therapist, counselor, or medical professional who specializes in addiction. They can provide expert guidance and recommend appropriate interventions. In some instances, reaching out to a criminal defense lawyer to discuss the legal ramifications of such a lifestyle may even be helpful.

Celebrate Small Wins

Recovery is a series of steps, and every positive change is worth celebrating. Acknowledge and praise their efforts, no matter how small they may seem.

Communicating with a teenager who might be suffering from addiction requires sensitivity, patience, and an open heart. Your support can be a guiding light on their path to recovery. Remember that they need to know they are loved and valued regardless of their challenges. By approaching the conversation with empathy and understanding, you can make a profound difference in their journey toward healing and a brighter future.

Also read:

Why Residential Therapy Works

5 Benefits of Therapeutic Boarding Schools

The post How to Talk to Your Teen About Addiction first appeared on Help Your Teens.

Alcohol poisoning, car crashes, homicides, and suicides are among the increased risks teens face when they’ve been drinking.  Most teens experiment with alcohol, although parents might want to believe their teen would never drink, it’s more likely they will at least try it once. It’s important that you have conversations with your teenager about the dangers of underage drinking as well as the risks of addiction.

Underage drinking is a significant public health problem. In recent years, researchers found that among high school students:

• Nearly 1 in 3 drink alcohol.
• Almost 1 in 5 have ridden in a car with a driver who has been drinking alcohol.
• One in 20 have driven after drinking alcohol.

A teenager’s decision to drink is typically linked to the following factors:

– Peer pressure. Everyone is doing it! This is where your conversations with your teen are helpful, you can discuss strategies about how to handle peer pressure.

How to help teens handle peer pressure:

“I’ve tried it, I don’t like it much.”
“If I get caught my parents will remove my phone.”
“I’m grounded if I’m caught.”
“I have a lot of homework.”

– Stress and anxiety. Since 2020 teen stress, anxiety and depression has doubled. Young people are finding escapes — self-medicating is one of them. Academic stress is another concern they carry, as well as stress over puberty or popularity.

-Trauma. Transitions that are happening (usually beyond their control) that a teen isn’t mature enough yet — emotionally — to handle on their own. Such as, a parent’s divorce, moving to a new school, breaking up with a significant other or close friend, a death in the family or close friend.

It’s normal for you to feel upset, angry, and worried if you discovered your teen is drinking. Using alcohol at a young age can impact how a teen’s brain develops, disrupts their sleep patterns, delay puberty, make it harder to concentrate at school — and can put their overall health at risk. Underage drinking can have serious implications that may not show up until later in life — so it’s imperative that you address the problem immediately.

3 Tips for Talking to Your Teen About Underage Drinking

1. Have a conversation, don’t lecture.  Talking to your teen about underage drinking should be at a time when your teen hasn’t been drinking. You should both be calm and focused, as well as device free.

Your teen wants to feel understood and heard, so even if you don’t like or agree with what they are saying, it’s important to listen withhold criticism. They may believe it’s okay to have a beer at a keg party, but you must remain calm until they are done talking and then explain the reasons why this not okay. Which will likely end in them not being allowed to attend that party – or parties with alcohol.

2. Discuss the reasons not to drink. Most teenagers believe they are invincible, so explaining the long-term health dangers of underage drinking will likely not dissuade them from drinking. Instead, talk to your teen about the effects drinking can have on their appearance—bad breath, bad skin, and weight gain from all the empty calories and carbs. You can also talk about how drinking makes people do embarrassing things, like peeing themselves or throwing up.

In today’s digital world it comes back to their online reputation. If they are applying to colleges, never doubt it will have an impact on their admissions, especially if they are seeking scholarships in sports or academics. Research has shown the majority of college admissions will scour social media feeds for those digital embarrassing moments, and will remove candidates from their lists. Your teen may not take the picture, but you never know who at the party is taking pictures and posting them online.

3. Drunk driving — kills.  It’s a message that can’t be emphasized enough. If your teen decides to go out and have a drink — it’s a mistake that can be rectified. If they drink and then drive or get into a vehicle driven by someone else who’s been drinking, that mistake could be a fatal one—for them or someone else. Be sure they always have an alternative means of getting home, whether that’s a taxi, a ride share service, or calling you to pick them up.

It’s never easy talking about tough topics, but it must be an ongoing conversation. Things can change quickly in a teenager’s life, so always keep making time to talk about what going on with them — both offline and online. Ask questions and keep setting a good example for responsible alcohol use.

Read: Signs Your Teen Is Drinking

Read: Are Therapeutic Boarding Schools Effective?

Read: 5 Benefit of Therapeutic Boarding Schools

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Is your teen drinking? Have you exhausted your local resources? Contact us for a free consultation to learn about how therapeutic boarding could help your teen and family.

The post Teen Alcohol Use and Underage Drinking first appeared on Help Your Teens.

Years ago when a teenager wanted to score drugs they didn’t have look far, it was to their friends (negative peer group), classmates in school, at parties or even from our home medicine cabinet. Fast forward today and you’ll find young people are now getting drugs online, perhaps now more than ever.

Good teens, bad choices.

Some recent cases were the following:

• Two Utah 8th graders overdosed and died after taking U-47700, a potent synthetic opioid also known as “pink,” they got from other teens who bought it online.
• A Minnesota teen overdosed and died after taking the synthetic psychedelic drug DPT (dipropyltryptamine) he bought online.
• The 16-year old son of famous television therapist Dr. Laura Berman died after overdosing on fentanyl. Berman believes her son bought the drug from a dealer on Snapchat.

According to NIDA (National Institute on Drug Abuse) one of the top reasons young people turn to drug use is to fit in with their peers. It may start by only smoking marijuana or they feel like they need to drink to have a good time with others at a party — but this peer pressure can have a major impact on their actions.  This is crucial to understand because it’s where you can start with your prevention, by preparing your teen to handle peer pressure in a healthy manner.

Signs Your Teen Could Be Buying Drugs Online:

Is your teen acting unreasonably anxious or aggressive when you try to monitor their social media use, search their history, or receive their packages? If your teen is acting suspicious regarding his or her online behaviors, there are additional signs to watch for that may indicate your teen is buying drugs online.

Here are more red flags to be aware of:

• Spending an increased amount of time online or on their phone in privacy
• Lying about the time spent online or on their phone
• Creating multiple accounts on the same platform, making secret accounts, or making accounts under an alias
• Increased spending habits
• Using encrypted messaging apps that are password locked like Signal or Telegram
• Receiving mysterious packages at strange hours
• Hiding or deleting browsing history
• Other signs of drug use like mood swings and behavior changes

5 Ways to Protect and Prevent the from Buying Drugs Online:

1. Keep the communication lines open. Make sure to always have an open line of communication with your young loved ones. Let them keep you in the know about their friends, what’s happening in their school, their interests, and more. Being close to him or her also helps you to notice changes in behavior that could point to drug use.

2. Make sure they know the consequences. Because the drugs can be so readily available online, kids may believe that they aren’t really that dangerous. But many times, dealers will lace pills with other substances (like fentanyl) that will increase the drug’s potency and make its consumption even more dangerous. In addition to possible overdose, using and buying drugs can lead to other consequences. There have been cases where someone has been sentenced to prison for giving a pill to someone who later overdosed.

3. Check out their “searches” (if you suspect drug use). Look through their browser or Google searches (on their computer or cell phones). Keep an eye out for any “How to buy ____ online” -type searches. Bring up anything that causes strong suspicion. This may be an uncomfortable conversation and you may also be accused of spying (which you are technically doing).  But be sure to let him or her know that you are worried and only want to keep them safe. Make sure you point out recent cases in the news about young people overdosing on drugs.

4. Monitor their delivered packages (if you suspect drug use). Drugs are often delivered in unmarked and discreet packages. If you find your loved one getting such mail, or packages that you don’t expect, ask them about it. You may want to stick around when they are opening the package.

5. Using parental control features can help you block inappropriate content or influencers. It may also be time to install an outside service for parental controls.

6. Medicine cabinet check-up. Teens sometimes will leave their drugs accidentally in the most obvious places. Don’t hesitate to go through their medicine cabinet or bedroom especially if you suspect they are using substances.

With drugs being more accessible than ever, the most important things you can do are to educate yourself on the potential danger while maintaining a good relationship with your teen.

Read: 5 Benefits of Boarding Schools for Troubled Teens.

Read: Goals of Behavior Modification Programs for Teens.

Read: Why Residential Therapy Works.

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Are you struggling with a teen that is doing drugs? Have you exhausted your local resources? Learn more about how residential treatment may be able to help. Contact us for a free consultation to help you find the right therapeutic boarding school.

The post How Are Teens Buying Drugs Online first appeared on Help Your Teens.

Parents wondering how to best prevent drug use may only need to look in the mirror for their best answer. How parents approach their duties to their teenagers makes a major difference in whether their young teens will experiment, abuse, or become addicted to drugs.

Thomas Dishion in his article “Prevention of Early Adolescent Substance Abuse Among High-Risk Youth” [University of Hawaii, 1998] identifies certain patterns which prove problematic in increasing the risk of teens becoming drug users. Parent interventions and parenting styles have major impacts on these risks.

Parents need to focus on three primary areas. These include setting appropriate rules and guidelines for teen behavior outside of the family, expressing and enforcing appropriate rules with their adolescent in regards to school achievement, and setting strong boundaries by conveying education and limits about drug and alcohol use.

Drugs That Teenagers Commonly Use

Commonly used drugs by teenagers include marijuana, alcohol, ecstasy, cocaine, mushrooms, acid, and amphetamines. Some teenagers are exposed to drugs such as heroin, crack, and ketamine. These drugs all have different effects on the body, but each one can lead to dependency and a complete change in the teen’s behavior.

The Effects of Drugs on the Body

Drugs can have various effects on the body of teenagers. Some serious health effects come from using and abusing drugs. These include severe depression, mood swings, violence, heart problems, seizures, organ damage, anorexia, obesity, and brain damage. Drugs can also lead to overdoses, causing comas or death.

Signs That Your Teen is on Drugs

Signs that a teenager is on drugs vary depending on the drug being used. Signs that a teen is using marijuana include uncontrollable laughter, red or glossy eyes, slow and loud talking, eating large amounts of food, and sleeping a lot.

Signs of alcohol or downers – such as heroin and ketamine – abuse include slurred speech, difficulty standing or walking, anger, uncontrollable crying, vomiting, and passing out. Signs that a teen is on stimulants such as ecstasy, cocaine, and amphetamines include fast-talking, high energy levels, lack of appetite, weight loss, poor sleep habits, mood swings, anger, and euphoria. Upon signs of drug use in teens, parents should do their research to best help their teenagers get help for the problem.

Establishing Influence on the Behavior of Your Teen Outside the Family

Parents need to remember their teens will likely carry social skills learned within the family into their lives outside the family.

This means parents need to adopt a priority in helping teens learn to interact with others.

These skills include:

• The ability to express their opinion clearly.
• The ability to stand up to peers while feeling good about themselves.
• The ability to ask for help with questions and situations which confuse the teenager.
• The ability to find friends with supportive values.

These skills are communicated through everyday activities within the family. Parents may wish to consider specific exercises to increase these skills. Parents must also keep the channels of communication open, responding with empathy and information when a teenager seeks advice.

Encouraging School Achievement

Students’ performance in comparison to their peers seems to have a relation with drug behavior according to Dishion. Parents need to make homework and other school objectives a paramount concern.

Some ideas to focus on homework success include:

• Setting up specific times for homework and being available to teens during this time.
• Rewarding successful completion of homework projects.
• Providing discipline for failing to complete homework or projects.
• Contacting teachers and principals to clarify and verify assignments.

Setting Clear Limits about Drugs

Parents need to be very clear about their non-tolerance of drug and alcohol use by their teens. Discipline and punishments should be made clear to the teenager. Education about drug effects and dangers should also be reiterated. Many experts agree that education does not increase drug use, but rather may serve to provide teenagers more reasons to say no.

Parents should:

• Have a no-drug policy at home.
• Address drug dangers and effects with their teens.
• Reflect sober living to their teens.
• React immediately and seriously to any violations of the home’s no drug policy.
• Provide ongoing education to the teenager about drugs, especially those drugs receiving social or media attention.

Parents hold an incredible ability to influence their teens away from drug and alcohol abuse. By teaching teens to hold onto their values in the face of peer pressure, establishing good classroom habits, and providing clear boundaries on drug use, parents play an essential role in preventing drug abuse.

Read: 5 Benefits of Therapeutic Boarding Schools.

Read: Why Therapeutic Boarding Schools are Effective.

About the author: Nicholas H. Parker

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If you are struggling with your teenager that’s using or experimenting with drugs and you have exhausted your local resources, learn more about how residential treatment can help your troubled teen and your family. Contact us today for  a free consultation.

The post Preventing Teen Drug Use first appeared on Help Your Teens.

It’s clear that drug education does a lot for some and little for others. Indeed, government-sponsored drug education programs tend to be somewhat weak. It’s therefore vital that you watch for the common signs of drug use in your kids.

15 Warning Signs of Teen Drug Use:

1. Possession of the drug itself is a dead giveaway. While marijuana is fairly distinctive, how do you tell whether a pill has been prescribed or not? The Internet is usually a good resource. Look for the symbol on the pill. Something marked OP will likely be OxyContin, for example. Identify the pill and see what comes up. Alternatively, ask your teen.

2. Odd smells are another sign. It could be a new interest in deodorant or a heady smell of marijuana-laced smoke. If you don’t know what marijuana smells like, it’s time to educate yourself. We don’t suggest smoking it yourself, but you may be able to ask a friendly cop to show you a sample.

3. Paraphernalia for drug taking include roll-ups and tin boxes. For other drugs, it could be syringes and burnt teaspoons. If you see a tin box, open it and take a sniff. If it smells like tobacco, it probably is. If it smells of something else, ask your kid about it.

4. Rapidly changing grades are one of the common consequences of drug addiction or use. If you kid goes from being a straight-A student to getting F’s or D’s, something’s changed. Of course, it could be linked to a number of factors, so tread carefully here.

5. Glazed expressions may be a sign of addiction, but with some teens, it’s hard to tell. Teenagers and twenty-somethings tend not to be the most communicative of creatures, but if your kid starts looking stoned all the time and are accompanied by any of the other factors listed, it’s entirely possible he or she is stoned.

6. Abandoning friends is quite common throughout the teenage years, but it could have a more sinister implication. If your kid starts hanging out with a different crowd who smoke and so on, it could be a phase, but it could be linked to drugs.

7. Abandoning social activities is another potential sign of drug abuse. Again, interests change throughout your kid’s formative years, so tread lightly. It might just be related to a change of tastes.

8. Evasive answers to questions of where your kid has been can sometimes be linked to drugs. As a parent, you’ll never know all the aspects of your kid’s life, and sometimes it could be related to your kid’s interest in dating.

9. Behavioral changes are quite common with kids who take drugs. While the moody teen is a stereotype, it’s one that holds true. If your kid is jittery in the morning and calmer in the evening, he or she could be taking drugs.

10. Memory problems sometimes herald drug use. While everyone forgets stuff, if your kid has problems remembering basic things, you might need to question further.

11.Unexplained injuries can be related to drug or alcohol use. Just as above, however, they could also be related to medical issues or even bullying.

12. Items or money going missing around your house might mean that your kid is stealing to fund a habit. Keep an open mind, however, as it’s just as likely to be a partner or someone else stealing them.

13. Weight changes are a normal part of teen life, but rapid fluctuations could indicate an addiction. Some teens neglect to eat due to drugs or spend lunch money on an addiction rather than eat.

14. Your child is more likely to get ill if he or she takes drugs, as the side effects of some drugs partially suppress the immune system. Inhaled drugs can also lead to respiratory problems.

15. Staying out late is a typical teenage habit, but in combination with things listed above, it’s possible that this could be an indication of drug abuse. Of course, it’s most likely that the drug of choice is alcohol in this case.

Read: 5 Tips to Keep Your Teens Safe From Drugs Online.

Read: Why Residential Treatment Works When Home Therapy Fails.

Read: 5 Benefits of Therapeutic Boarding Schools.

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Are you concerned about your teen’s drinking? Are they using drugs? Have you exhausted your local resources? Contact us to find out if a therapeutic boarding school is right for your teenager. 

The post How to Spot Early Warning Signs of Teen Drug Use first appeared on Help Your Teens.