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Adolescent Drug Use
A study by the United States Department of Health and Human Services (1999) showed that 54% of high school seniors had tried an illegal substance at least once. This was almost a 10% increase from 1989. 30% of 8th graders had tried an illegal substance. Substances could include alcohol, marijuana, solvents, or other drugs.
Our policy continues to be to encourage teens to not use these substances at all. While drug abstinence is the goal, statistics show that many of our children will not resist the temptation to experiment. The majority of teens who experiment will not progress to drug abuse or drug addiction. But a percent of these young people will.
What can we do as parents? First, we must educate ourselves. Second, we must educate our children. While still stressing abstinence we also must teach them the risks so that if they experiment they are informed and more likely to use common sense.
Parent Education
Did you know that the time for most adolescent drug use is not the weekend? Nationally, the hours of 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. during the school week are the riskiest time. Why? Because that is a time where many teens have no adult presence on the scene. Some studies have shown that making certain teens have an activity during those hours is an excellent deterrent to becoming involved in risky activities like drug experimentation.
Are you aware that alcohol is still the drug most used by teens (not counting caffeine and nicotine)? Where do most kids get the alcohol? That's right! Teens take it from their parents' supply at home.
What do you need to know as a parent about drugs:
- Signs and symptoms of drug use
- Signs of increased drug dependence
- The effect and danger of each drug
- How to help a teen using drugs
Drug education should begin when a child is in grade school and increase in detail as the child gets older. It is not just teaching a child facts and risks, but helping to shape the value, beliefs and attitudes the child has about putting a drug in his or her body. What a parent models is often more powerful that what the parent says.
Teen Education
Schools and parents increasingly educate children and teens about the different kinds of drugs and the effect the drugs may have. Much of our education is based on scare tactics - that is, we try to teach kids about the worst effect drugs may have. This is appropriate in that the effect of drugs can be very costly or fatal. But teens may compare the message they receive from teachers and parents to the "reality" in front of them. The "reality" for some teens is that their friends are drinking alcohol, smoking pot, using Ecstasy, or sampling pills and their friends have not died and seem to be having fun. It is hard for teens to put these two pictures together. The parent/school message is "drugs are terrible for you" and the friend message is "look at the fun I'm having, and I have not been in a car accident or arrested".
While we continue to teach teens "don't use at all", we want to make sure that our teens know which drugs are the riskiest, why you never use drugs and drive, and the dangers of mixing drugs or accepting a drug when you don't even know what it is. Teens need to know what happens to their brain when they use solvents. They also need strategies for refusing to use drugs and for being able to communicate with their parents if they do experiment. Finally, teens need to no the signs that they are getting in over their heads with alcohol or drugs.
Experimentation
If a teen tries a beer or smokes marijuana or uses other substances once or even a few different times, we describe this as experimenting. The teen is checking out what this use is like and how it makes them feel. The motivation is curiosity coupled with a desire to "fit in" or "be cool".
Unfortunately, even experimentation can be dangerous. First time drinkers may consume a large amount of hard liquor not realizing the impact it will have, and can end up in the emergency room or intensive care unit with alcohol poisoning. They may take a handful of pills at a party, and end up very ill from the amount or combination. And driving when you get high one time is just as dangerous as driving if you've been using drugs for months.
Social use
We describe a teen as a "social user" if they have moved past experimenting with a drug, and now use it more frequently when they are in a social setting. "Social use" means the teen is not drug dependent or addicted, but the use of the drug is starting to become more regular. Many adults are like this. Many adults may not drink for days, weeks or months but at a party will have a couple of beers or a glass of wine. Other than that, they tend not to use. Some teens may follow a similar pattern - only drinking when they are at a party with friends. Their behavior is illegal and risky, but the primary motivation is fitting in rather than getting totally wasted.
This is still risky behavior because teens don't understand the limits of what they can ingest and still function. The way they find out is trial and error, and in the process can become very "high" and get into accidents or other problems. Also, the more frequently they "party" and use these substances, the greater their risk for drug abuse and dependence.
Drug dependence
The teen who begins to rely more and more on alcohol and other drugs to "fit in", "calm down", "feel better" starts to use drugs more frequently and readily. Their choice of friends and social outings often is more focused on being with people and in situations where it is easy to drink or use other chemicals. More of their time and attention is now going to getting drunk or high again. The teen begins to hide more and more behaviors from their parent, invest more money in the drugs, and focus more energy on getting high than on studying or family activities. Good friends not in the same drinking or drug scene no longer spend as much time with this teen.
This adolescent is settling into a pattern of drug abuse.
The teen probably feels they are in perfect control of themselves. So what if they decided they weren't going to go out and drink beer that night but did anyway - they were in charge of that decision. So what if they said they would not use Ecstasy again - it was right in front of them and they weren't going to act "like a baby" and refuse it. They gravitate more and more into a drinking or drug lifestyle feeling they have the tiger by the tail and not recognizing that increasingly the tiger has them.
As a teen becomes increasingly focused on drug use, it often takes more of the drug to achieve the same effect. Teens with a family history of drug and alcohol problems are more at risk for becoming dependent themselves.
Drug addiction
We use this term for teens who require a chemical substance in their body or they begin to go into withdrawal. Teens addicted to alcohol, heroin, barbiturates, and similar substances are an example of this. At this stage, daily use of the substance has become a necessity, and most of the teen's time, money and energy goes into making sure they can obtain the substance that they need. There are usually few if any non-drug friends left, and the teen lies, steals, and/or commits illegal acts to stay supplied.
Signs and Symptoms of Drug Use
There are many signs of drug use, but how many and the type depend on what drugs the teen is using. Changes in appetite, difficulty sleeping or strange sleep cycle, increased laziness or lack of motivation, shaking hands, pupils larger or smaller than usual, tremors, excess sweating, slow or staggering walk - all of these are possible physical signs. Behavioral signs include changes in overall attitude and personality with no identifiable cause; sudden moodiness or irritability; unreachable, very private and secretive behaviors; unexplained need for money; chronic dishonesty; school performance goes down; less interest in family activities; and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Each substance can leave its own mark. For example, teens using glues, aerosols and vapors may have watery eyes, headaches and nausea, rashes around their mouth and nose; increased nasal secretions, and drowsiness. Teens using depressants like barbiturates or tranquilizers may act as if they are drunk on alcohol but no smell or evidence of alcohol is found.
How to Help
Early education and good communication on the topics of drugs and alcohol is essentially to helping prevent problems. Modeling behavior that teaches the teen that drugs are not needed to have fun or "get through the day" are important. And keeping your teen involved in structured activities during after-school hours has been shown to be a good deterrent.
Knowing where your teen is at night and on weekends is critical. Set the standard early in your child's teens that you need to know where they are and who they are with at any given time. Don't be afraid to set consequences if teens are not behaving in a responsible manner, or to say "no" to parties that are unsupervised or where alcohol may be present. Arrange for check-in times and sometimes surprise your teen by checking up on them. If you keep alcohol, prescription pills or other substances at home, only keep what you absolutely need for a given period of time. Be aware how much you have and monitor to be certain teens aren't using substances at home. Teach your child that if they are ever in a position of not knowing how to get home, or are at a party and need to leave, that they should call and you will get them home safely and save the lecture for the next morning.
The above strategies are good ones for prevention and monitoring, but if your child has started to abuse drugs and alcohol, more help is needed. There are drug and alcohol counseling programs in most communities, and most professional counselors in this area can talk with your teen to help them assess their level of involvement with alcohol and drugs. If a teen is enrolled in an outpatient counseling program for drug and alcohol use, it is important that you be available to meet with the counselor and to follow up on suggestions of things to try at home. The family physician may need to be involved, and/or random urine drug screens used to help monitor your child's progress.
If a teen has developed an addiction, inpatient hospitalization in a specialized program may be necessary. The teen will have a long road of recovery ahead of them that may be marked by set backs and relapses as well as successes. The people that love a teen who is addicted often are heartbroken and desperate. They are watching their child destroy their life and they can't control or stop them. But they can get involved and try to get their child into care and follow-up services. If your child is addicted to a substance, involve yourself in some counseling to better understand what this may mean for your child and your family, and how to set limits and cope.
Learn more
Part of becoming more educated about drugs and alcohol involves learning. Your local drug and alcohol counseling programs will be able to provide you with pamphlets and point you in the right direction to learn more about a given drug or problem. If you have access to a computer, go on line to www.acde.org This is the site for the American Council on Drug Education and on-line fact sheets are available here for parents.
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