Teen Rehab

Once again another study has shown that teens that drink before the age of 15 may be setting the stage for alcohol problems later in life. Early alcohol consumption may alter sensitive and still-developing brains, triggering a more powerful response to alcohol. This may be one reason that my drinking was such a bigger deal than a lot of my peers. My drinking began at a very early age and I was immediately inclined to drink as much as possible as often as possible. This led me to lose friends, offers to college, and the relationships I had with my family.
Teen alcohol rehab gave me a chance to stop and really focus on my life. I was really unhappy at first, because I couldn’t imagine a life without my protective veil of drugs and alcohol. Without them, I felt too sensitive and raw. In the safety of adolescent treatment, I was able to process these feelings of vulnerability with a loving and supportive staff and peer group. We began work on issues that I still work on today. I learned there that I wasn’t going to change overnight, but that I could learn to live without the use of drugs and alcohol. I have been on this journey for several years now, and am amazed at the life I have had the ability to create without using and drinking. If you’d told me then that I would be writing a pro-rehab blog, I would have laughed in your face. As time has gone on, I realize how integral that early piece of my recovery truly was. With the strong foundation that I got in treatment, I was able to go back into the world of Los Altos a stronger person- with the emotional tools I needed for success. If you or your teen is struggling with alcohol, Contact us today Visions Adolescent Drug Treatment Center.

Bear Grylls vs. Teen Rehab

I love watching Bear Grylls in Man vs. Wild on the Discovery Channel. He is amazing. He makes snow caves and wrestles wild pigs to death and bites through the spines of live fish to survive. He is constantly informing the viewer about the basic survival tools one would need to get by in any situation. While this may be a stretch, it got me thinking about my own survival tools that I learned in teen rehab.
The first thing I need is a good support group. This can include my Visions treatment team, my peers in recovery, my family, and my sponsor. My sponsor is another survival tool I definitely need. Visions helped me find a sponsor when I entered treatment, who is someone that helps me work the 12 steps and was initially my personal introduction to the 12 step fellowships. I call my sponsor daily to check in, a habit I began in teen rehab which I continue to this day. Another tool I can’t live without is my journal. I use writing as a great way to process feelings or to just check in with myself. When I can’t get a hold of anyone, my journal is always there to listen. Along with meetings and activities with my clean and sober peer group, these survival tools are there to help me make it through every day clean. Each one of them was given to me in teen rehab, and I use them on a daily basis years later. It may be weird to say that knowing how to call my sponsor when I need help is the equivalent of knowing how to trap and kill a bird in the middle of the Swiss Alps, but to an addict just out of teen rehab in Palo Alto, it’s the little things that can end up saving your life. For More information about treatment services please click here teen drug rehab.

1 in 5 kids admitted to Adolescent Drug Treatment...

Nearly one in five kids admitted to adolescent Drug Treatment has abused inhalants by the time they reach seventh grade. There are more than 1,000 products that are dangerous when inhaled, such as paint thinner, spray paint, nitrous from whipped cream (think Redi-Whip), or correctional fluid, to name a few. The user can become high, dizzy, nauseous, less inhibited, unconscious…or they can die. Sudden Sniffing Death Syndrome can kill a user even the first time they abuse inhalants.
According to the National Inhalants Prevention Coalition, signs of inhalant abuse include:
-Paint or stains on mouth, fingers and/or clothing
-Spots or sores around mouth
-Red or runny eyes and nose
-Chemical breath
-Drunk, dizzy, or disoriented behavior
-Nausea or vomiting
-Loss of appetite
-Anxiety, excitability, or irritability

Talk to your child about the extreme dangers of inhalant abuse, and keep potentially abused products away from all children and teens. Inhalant abuse is as serious and deadly as any other drug and deserves the same amount of attention.

If you think your teen is abusing inhalants, don’t hesitate to contact us today by clicking here adolescent drug treatment.

The Meth Project

Tom Seibel was interviewed on Forbes.com today regarding the Meth Project, a campaign aimed at saturating the adolescent market, focusing solely on meth use prevention. It’s a noble and productive cause to try and prevent teen drug abuse, but what if you’re the teen who’s already tried meth? I had a compulsion to use drugs that reached beyond common sense; in fact, that is one of the factors that I use to define myself as an addict. I learned all about how bad drugs were for me when I was in junior high. I had friends overdose. I overdosed. But something in me kept me using.javascript:void(0)
Through the help of my friends and family, I was able to get help and go to treatment. I learned in treatment that my addiction sometimes defied logic, which is one of the reasons my parents were so frustrated with me and why I felt so crazy when I was using. I’d always been a smart kid, and the choices I made when I was using were anything but smart. My drug problem didn’t make me a bad teen, or a teen with no willpower- it made me a teen that needed help, simple as that. In rehab I learned to give myself a break and learned to care for myself. So for those of us that didn’t heed the warnings, there’s hope. Rather than spend all of our efforts on prevention, an ample effort towards treatment should be made as well.


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Growing Up as a Teen Drug Addict

Growing up with everything a kid could ever want. I never would have predicted I would become a teen drug addict and a teen alcoholic. I came from a good family and a sheltered environment. When things got rough at an early age I didn’t know how to deal with life. I turned to the one thing I promised myself I would never do, drugs. Some of my friends experimented with drugs and could stop. I was different. I couldn’t stop and I knew I had a problem. My problem rapidly began to tear me and my family apart and my parents sent me to teen rehab. They told me I was a drug addict. I didn’t believe it fit my criteria. I thought a drug addict had to be old or homeless. I was wrong. I learned what an addict was and I was told that I had to get sober, free of all substances. As a teenager I thought I was too young. All of my friends that were my age could take a sip of alcohol at a party and be fine, I couldn’t. This was devastating to me. At first I didn’t want to deal with having a different lifestyle than people my age, never being able to party again. But what I didn’t realize was that there was a large community of people my age doing the same thing. Hundreds of young people who were drug addicts and alcoholics getting sober, some of them had been thru teen drug treatment. All of us getting back on track and doing it together. At first it was hard and at times it still is. But, getting sober was the best thing I could have ever done for myself. I know I have endless opportunities ahead of me. Im the same as every other young person, I just don’t drink and use drugs.

Maggie F.

Internet Addiction Bootcamp

There is a new boot camp in South Korea for internet addiction. This is a new kind of rehab that resembles drug treatment for teens in the United States. But these kids are not struggling with addictions to cocaine, oxycontin or marijuanna. They are dealing with a very real addiction to the internet. Addiction to the internet is recognized as a mental health issue in the United states a "Pathological Computer Use". Millions of Americans are at risk for this disorder.