You, Your Teens and Drugs

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You, Your Teens and Drugs

• Liberty Day Ruihley, MS
• Prevention Specialist
• Bluegrass Prevention Center
• 859-225-3296 ext. 652

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• What parents may not realize is that children
  say that parental disapproval of underage
  drinking is the key reason they have chosen not
  to drink.
• Charles Curie, SAMHSA Administrator
• US Department of Health and Human Services

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Parenting tips that promote resiliency
PROTECT

• SUPERVISE
• How do we do that?

• Be Concrete
• Be Specific

• Be Repetitious
• Be Consistent

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PROTECT

• Teens have little difficulty finding alcohol
• According to the American Medical Association 67
  of teens say it is easy to get alcohol from their
  home (without parents knowledge)
• Monitor Childs Computer Usage
• It is possible to buy drugs and alcohol over the
  internet
• Question spending/review credit card expenditures
• Lock the medicine cabinet
• Keep tabs on prescription medication

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Parenting tips that promote resiliency
CONNECT

• Open the lines of communication by making time
  and listening
• Try to understand
• Be careful to avoid roadblocks to clear
  communication
• Be involved
• Know your kids friends and their parents
• Who? What? When? Where?

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CONNECT

• Did you ever use drugs?
• Honesty is recommended
• Shortdetails unnecessary
• Clarifyfind out what reason your child is asking
• Example answer When I was young, I tried drugs
  because some of my friends took them. I thought
  it was necessary to be accepted by my friends. In
  those days, we did not know as much as we do now
  about the negative effects of smoking marijuana
  or take other drugs. If I had known what I know
  now, I wouldnt have taken them. My job as a
  parent is to keep you from making the same
  mistakes I have made.

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Parenting tips that promote resiliency
EXPECT

• Teach accountability responsibility
• Expect your children to follow the law
• Give appropriate consequences when your child
  breaks the rules
• Be consistent!

Each of our choices..Either, protects what we
value and what we want for our families, OR, puts
what we value and what we want for our families
at risk.
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Dont forget...

• Love Our Kids!
• Praise when praise is due!
• You are the model of the behavior that you will
  see in your children.

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Whats the Big Deal?

• Research shows that the younger children and
  adolescents are when they start to drink, the
  more likely they will engage in behaviors that
  harm themselves or others (including use of other
  drugs, having sex, poor academic performance)
• People who reported starting to drink before the
  age of 15 are four times more likely to also
  report meeting criteria for alcohol dependence at
  some point in their life
• More children are killed by alcohol than all
  illegal drugs combined.

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Whats the Big Deal?

• Marijuana is the most widely used illicit drug
  among American youth with nearly 50 of 12th
  graders having tried marijuana at least once.
• Marijuana is addictive. More kids enter treatment
  each year with a primary diagnosis of cannabis
  dependency than for all other illicit drugs
  combined.
• Long term studies of high school students and
  their patterns of drug use show that very few
  young people use other drugs without first trying
  marijuana, alcohol, or tobacco.

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Disease Concept of Chemical Dependency

• It is a chronic, progressive, treatable disease
• Chronic means for the rest of your life
• Progressive means that it takes time to develop
  and it continues to develop even in the absence
  of the drug or alcohol
• Major point is tolerance
• When addiction occurs, recovery happens only with
  sustained abstinence.
• Understand that addiction has a biological
  component making those with a family history at
  greater risk

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Knowing the Signs

• You know your child and his/her behavior.
• Consider the types of changes that might occur
  with drug abuse problems
• Behavioral Changes, social problems
• Problems at home, at school
• Legal problems
• Physical signs
• Attitude changes

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What Should You Look For?

• Negative changes in schoolwork
• Missing school or declining grades
• Increased secrecy about possessions or activities
• Use of incense, room deodorant or perfume to hide
  smoke or chemical odors
• Subtle changes in conversations with friends
  (i.e. more secretive or using coded language)
• New friends

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What Should You Look For?

• Change in clothing choices
• Increase in borrowing money
• Evidence of drug paraphernalia
• Evidence of inhaling products and accessories
• Bottles of eye drops (masks bloodshot eyes or
  dilated pupils)
• New use of mouthwash or breath mints
• Missing prescription drugs or alcohol from within
  the home
• www.theantidrug.com

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I suspect my child is using drugs What do I do?

• Talk to someone you trust
• Understand your child is at a crossroads and
  needs your help
• Love the child, not the behavior
• Get more information

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Taking ActionTalk to your teen

• Tell them specifically what you have noticed
• Tell them how you feel
• Remember the roadblocks to communication
• Expect some resistance
• Keep your cool as best you can
• STICK WITH IT, remember you love her/him

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Commitment

• What we say matters
• If your kids dont hear about drugs and alcohol
  from you then they will hear about it from
  someone else
• Stick with itits hard and uncomfortable
  sometime but making the commitment to keep your
  kids safe and healthy is worth it

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Questions?

• Thank you for your time and effort in being here
• Pass the wordprevention starts at home