Friday 10 February 2012
Saturday 4 February 2012
Friday 3 February 2012
TEENAGE DRUG ABUSE
Teenage Drug Abuse
Communicating with teens can be a challenge, especially because they are beginning to spread their wings and desire independence from mom and dad. Stay calm.
The most common mistake parents can make is trying to force ideas and values on the defiant teenage mind.
There's a leadership responsibility that always needs to be in evidence, and parents need to be parents. However, parents need to meet their children where they are at. That means trying to understand the situation from your child’s perspective.
Teenagers will probably come up with some very wrong reasoning, seriously flawed ideas and their whole world view will likely be counter to that of their parents. But they have a NEED to be heard and respected.
It’s one thing to accept an opinion counter to your own, and it’s quite another to approve of it. Try working with your child's ideas and concepts, and have an open and non-threatening discussion about them. You can establish rules of engagement with your teen and agree that both of you are allowed to express ideas and opinions without fear of retribution.
The key is to remember that the parent needs to be the one in control. As a chaplain, I do a lot of counseling work and my approach is entirely patient-centered. They establish the themes of the conversation, but even though I am not deciding the topic, or necessarily directing the conversation, I am still in control.
Remember that your teenager, like a patient in a hospital, is probably going to be very myopic. He/she will see things only from their perspective.
Take a step back and see the entire situation. Go with their feelings, their concerns and walk down their path. Share the experience.
Teenage Brain and the Teenage brain on Drugs
I think I’m like most people who used to believe that the brain matured at the end of childhood. Wow, how could I have been that wrong? Do parents know this? Probably not. The brain actually doesn’t mature until a person reaches 24 years of age.
The reason why this is important is that it should send a shocking warning signal to parents of teenage drug abuse and that their teenaged son or daughter is at high risk for trouble if they take drugs.
The idea of a developing brain on drugs is just, well, scary. The brain develops in sections. Picture this as being development from back to front. First to develop is the motor coordination and sensory processing in the cerebellum, in the back of the brain. Next, the nucleus accumbens, regulating motivation, kicks in. The amygdale, controlling emotions develops next. Finally the prefrontal cortex, regulating judgment is finished. Teenage drug abuse and hurt this development.
That is exactly why physical development does not correspond with mental and emotional development. Take as look at high school athletes. We see a man-child out on the field, who has the ability to score touchdowns, dunk a basketball or throw a baseball 90 miles per hour, but he is still a child. Teenage girls, who may have begun developing sexually as early as the fourth grade, are still children.
As the brain develops, we move into adulthood. If the brain is not allowed to fully develop, or that development is slowed because of teenage drug abuse, you can see that the child is in serious jeopardy of having problems.
I mentioned the physical development. Even that is not complete during the early teen years.
“Oh, but my Johnny is level headed.” Don’t count on it. Remember, the front part of the brain, which regulates judgment, is the last to develop. Bad planning and bad judgment are hallmarks of teenage existence. Teenagers like activities with high excitement and low effort. They can’t necessarily control their emotions, so the hot emotions come out quicker than the cooler ones. They are interested in experimenting and teens are known for thinking that smoking, drinking or taking drugs is “mature.” Children graduate from high school, then go off to college in the fall and all too often indulge in binge drinking and experiment with drugs.
Parents can’t raise their kids in a bubble, but they need to know what’s out there and how teenage drug abuse can impact their child’s life. If a child is not fully capable of making a good decision, parents can help them form a good plan by openly discussing drug use with them. Let this discussion be a discussion, not a lecture.
Be aware of what your kids are doing. Your son may shave, but that doesn’t make him a man. Your daughter may be 17, going on 25, but that doesn’t make her an adult. They are still children.
Drugs and Teens: What can parents do?
It’s every parent’s nightmare facing teen drug addiction and it is becoming very common in Punjab where children from 15-25 age group are suffering from addiction. As children enter their teenage they begin to separate from parents, explore the adult world and fashion an image of their place in it.
The SIGNS of DRUG and AlCOHOL ABUSE in TEENAGERS
As children enter their teen years it is natural for them to want to break away from the family. When kids go to extremes to make sure you don’t know who they’re with or what they are doing, the red flag should go up. When they become secretive and guarded, when their privacy at home prevents your open access to them, look for something beyond mere adolescent rebellion.
The more educated parents are about drug and alcohol abuse, the easier it will be to quickly intervene and help your teenager before the problem progress into full-blown addiction. There are physical signs of substance abuse, but it's important to remember that these signs may also indicate another problem. Different substances have different symptoms, but an illness (other than substance abuse) should never be ruled out. These symptoms along with behavioral signs, such as lying, depression, missing school, and secretive behavior, are indications of substance abuse.
When teenagers begin to experiment with drugs at an early age they are at a higher risk for teenage drug abuse and problems associated with drugs and alcohol later in their lives. Early adolescent tobacco use is also an indication of later drug use and abuse. Because teenagers are still young and more often than not fully dependent on their parents for support, they do not see the consequences of the actions they are taking in concern to drugs. Some teenagers are able to experiment with drugs and never experience the pain and agony of teenage drug abuse either because they had a bad incident on drugs or because they never got addicted.
Some teenagers are also at a higher risk for teenage drug abuse depending upon their family history. People with a history of drug and alcohol abuse in their families can often pass down the traits for addiction to their children. Children, who are depressed, have low self-esteem or feel like outsiders are also prone to drug use and teenage drug abuse.
Communication is Essential Communicating with teens can be a challenge, especially because they are beginning to spread their wings and desire independence from mom and dad. Stay calm.
The most common mistake parents can make is trying to force ideas and values on the defiant teenage mind.
There's a leadership responsibility that always needs to be in evidence, and parents need to be parents. However, parents need to meet their children where they are at. That means trying to understand the situation from your child’s perspective.
Teenagers will probably come up with some very wrong reasoning, seriously flawed ideas and their whole world view will likely be counter to that of their parents. But they have a NEED to be heard and respected.
It’s one thing to accept an opinion counter to your own, and it’s quite another to approve of it. Try working with your child's ideas and concepts, and have an open and non-threatening discussion about them. You can establish rules of engagement with your teen and agree that both of you are allowed to express ideas and opinions without fear of retribution.
The key is to remember that the parent needs to be the one in control. As a chaplain, I do a lot of counseling work and my approach is entirely patient-centered. They establish the themes of the conversation, but even though I am not deciding the topic, or necessarily directing the conversation, I am still in control.
Remember that your teenager, like a patient in a hospital, is probably going to be very myopic. He/she will see things only from their perspective.
Take a step back and see the entire situation. Go with their feelings, their concerns and walk down their path. Share the experience.
Teenage Brain and the Teenage brain on Drugs
I think I’m like most people who used to believe that the brain matured at the end of childhood. Wow, how could I have been that wrong? Do parents know this? Probably not. The brain actually doesn’t mature until a person reaches 24 years of age.
The idea of a developing brain on drugs is just, well, scary. The brain develops in sections. Picture this as being development from back to front. First to develop is the motor coordination and sensory processing in the cerebellum, in the back of the brain. Next, the nucleus accumbens, regulating motivation, kicks in. The amygdale, controlling emotions develops next. Finally the prefrontal cortex, regulating judgment is finished. Teenage drug abuse and hurt this development.
That is exactly why physical development does not correspond with mental and emotional development. Take as look at high school athletes. We see a man-child out on the field, who has the ability to score touchdowns, dunk a basketball or throw a baseball 90 miles per hour, but he is still a child. Teenage girls, who may have begun developing sexually as early as the fourth grade, are still children.
As the brain develops, we move into adulthood. If the brain is not allowed to fully develop, or that development is slowed because of teenage drug abuse, you can see that the child is in serious jeopardy of having problems.
I mentioned the physical development. Even that is not complete during the early teen years.
“Oh, but my Johnny is level headed.” Don’t count on it. Remember, the front part of the brain, which regulates judgment, is the last to develop. Bad planning and bad judgment are hallmarks of teenage existence. Teenagers like activities with high excitement and low effort. They can’t necessarily control their emotions, so the hot emotions come out quicker than the cooler ones. They are interested in experimenting and teens are known for thinking that smoking, drinking or taking drugs is “mature.” Children graduate from high school, then go off to college in the fall and all too often indulge in binge drinking and experiment with drugs.
Parents can’t raise their kids in a bubble, but they need to know what’s out there and how teenage drug abuse can impact their child’s life. If a child is not fully capable of making a good decision, parents can help them form a good plan by openly discussing drug use with them. Let this discussion be a discussion, not a lecture.
Be aware of what your kids are doing. Your son may shave, but that doesn’t make him a man. Your daughter may be 17, going on 25, but that doesn’t make her an adult. They are still children.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)