Top Ten List for Better Communication with Teens

Top Ten List for Better Communication with Teens:

Most of these are common sense, but we forget to address the obvious when we are busy with our own lives

1. Remember that during adolescence, communication generally decreases and a child will confide less in parents. This is a fairly normal process, so parents should not overreact.

2. Listen to what is being said; that is, try to understand the teenager’s feelings and where they are coming from.

3. Stop what you are doing and look at your teenager. Listen when they speak to you. Put the cell phone away for a minute and stop texting.

4. Be sure most of your communication is positive, not negative. Don’t dwell on mistakes, failures, misbehaviors, or something they forgot to do. Give them positive communication and talk about their successes, accomplishments, interests, and appropriate behavior. Modeling appropriate behavior is also a plus.

5. Talk to them about their interests (e.g., music, sports, computers, cars). Have conversations with them without having to make a point, teach them something, or impress them. Talk to them just to talk and to have positive verbal interaction.

6. Avoid talking too much - giving long or too-detailed explanations, repeating lectures, questioning excessively, or using other forms of communication that will result in the teenager turning a deaf ear to you.

7. Try to understand your teen’s feelings. You do not have to agree or disagree with them; just make him aware that you understand how they feel. There are times when you do not have to fix things in order to make them feel better. Again: LISTEN!

8. Do not overreact to what is said. Remember, sometimes teenagers say things that are designed to get a reaction from their parents. In addition, do not say “no” too fast. Sometimes it is better to think about the request and give a response later. In other words, think before you open your mouth.

9. Try to create situations in which communication can occur (driving to the doctor’s appointment, having the teenager help you with household tasks, eat dinner together!). You have to be physically close to the teenager for communication to occur. A television in the adolescent’s room can be an additional barrier to family communication. Whenever possible, the parent should try to do things with the teenager, rather than separately. Although the child may not frequently accept them, provide opportunities for him to do things with you.

10. Try to avoid power struggles, confrontation, and arguing matches. Your goal should be to have the communication move toward a compromise situation, rather than a battle. When appropriate, involve the teenager in decision making and setting realistic and enforceable consequences for his or her behavior. Make sure that they understand that you are the parent.

Teens Are Never Compliant, But...

Compliance:
The simplest way I can define Compliance is to do what is suggested or asked of us, by someone wiser than us or a person we look up to; questions are ok. To follow ones request without question is more of a dictatorship.
In working with adolescence that are at risk (abusing substances, dealing drugs, or other negative behaviors)compliancy is crucial. While in treatment teens(and after) need to follow the rules and recommendations given by myself as their Chemical Dependency counselor or their therapist. The goal is that they begin to act accordingly in order to change their behaviors. Also, if they do follow the suggestions they will begin to feel better about themselves and less likely to go back to the harmful lifestyle. Encouraging them to ask questions helps empower them to begin to see the benefits and begin to self-monitor. I feel that compliancy is very valid in this area as well in my personal life.
On a personally level, compliance is important for my success. I have not always felt this way; in fact it was the exact opposite. Today I realize that the rules and structure are done for the safety of society. I may not agree with all of them but when I follow them my life stays somewhat peaceful. When my supervisor gives me direction I need to listen and put his words into action. I may ask the question but ultimately he is the supervisor and I am there to learn from him. Just like I try and teach the young adults I work with I try and live by the same code.

Brian Wildason

How to Diagnos Addiction

Criteria for diagnosing addiction

The DSM-IV is the diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. This is a handbook, published by the American Psychiatric Association, which is used by mental health care professionals that lists different categories of mental disorders and the criteria for diagnosing them. The DSM-IV is used all around the world by clinicians, psychiatric drug regulation agencies, researchers, health insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies and policy makers.
Some criteria from the DSM-IV that may qualify someone for the disease of addiction are as follows:
- You reduce or completely blow off your social, school of recreational activities.
- You increase your time and energy spent on using or getting substances to use.
- You have tolerance; it takes more than it used to in order to feel an effect.
- You have symptoms of withdrawal (i.e. hangovers, irritability, sleeping after binges, “crashing”)
- You have unsuccessful or persistent efforts to cut down or control your using, or you have consequences of using.
- You use longer than you intended to of you use for a longer period of time than you intended to.
- You continue to use even though you know it causes physical of psychological problems or despite knowing that it aggravates a physical of psychological problem.
- You continue to use despite legal consequences.
- You continue to use despite poor performance/consequences at school or work.
You can have the disease of addiction with or without physiological (physical/body) dependence. This means that even if your body isn’t addicted to drugs or alcohol, you may still have the psychological dependence.

Dusters

Dusters

Huffing, or inhaling substances is common form of drug abuse among kids and teenagers, there are many products that can be bought legally at the local store. Some typical household products teens are using include glue, butane, thinners, paint, and a wide variety of aerosols. Huffing is on the rise according to research and can be deadly. Many teens huff because it does not show up on drug tests. It’s a cheap, two-minute high that causes an intense feeling of euphoria, loss of balance, slurring of speech, and some visual hallucinations.

One particular huffing agent known on the street as a “duster” seems to be broadly in use. Dusters are small aerosol canisters used for cleaning particulate matter and dust off of hard to reach places. Teenagers may ask for them to clean their computer, but they may be using them to get high. Huffing of aerosols can cause immediate damage to the brain and can cause heart failure. Long-term use of inhalants can cause liver and kidney damage. Studies have also shown that inhalants cause memory and hearing loss amongst chronic users. Many users have blackouts, and again, inhalants can be deadly.

Online Salvia Dealers

Salvia Divinorum, a strong hallucinogen that legal in most states, is readily available to teens everywhere over the internet. Online salvia dealers are reaching out to teenagers by marketing salvia as completely a completely safe, non addictive, spiritually enhancing herb. Many sites warn buyers that they must be eighteen to purchase salvia but there is no way to verify age online. If the teen has a credit card then the dealers will sell them the salvia. A typical warning on a website selling salvia is at the very bottom of the page in small print and reads something like; by purchasing this item, the buyer certifies they are 18 or older and responsible. The teenagers searching for salvia online, even if they are 18, will most likely not be responsible because they are searching out a strong drug which they can smoke or ingest to produce a psychedelic high. Most teens that are looking to escape from reality by using drugs are not responsible. Therefore the responsibility falls on the online dealer because dealers need to know better than to sell a dangerous drug online that teens can have access to.

When Confronting Teens About Their Drug Use

When confronting teens about their drug use, teens often respond with minimization, rationalization, excuses and flat out lies. If you find drugs in your teen's room and confront them on it, you may hear things like; "those aren't mine", "I bought them, but decided not to use them", "I have only used them once", "My friend bought it and asked me to keep it for them", "It's only weed, it's natural" or "Thurman Murman gave it to be for free, so I'm not spending your money". If signs are pointing toward your teen and drug abuse, when confronting them, you may hear things like; "I'm just all way tired", "I'm just not hungry", "I'm not interested in college anyway", "I'm FINE", "Stop trying to ruin my life", "My eyes always look like this", and "I don't smell like chemicals, that just my detergent".
If you suspect your teen of using drugs, contact a professional. Tell the professional, only the facts about what is going on and not what your teen may be trying to convince you about. The professional will then be able to better guide you toward a solution. It is import to communicate your teen. But remember, drug users are not the most honest people in the world. Take what your teen says about his/her drug use "with a grain of salt".

Long Term Effects of Ecstasy

Long Term Effects of Ecstasy

University of Adelaide researchers have found that ecstasy taken on a few occasions could cause long-term brain damage from severe damage to brain cells, with the potential to cause future memory loss or psychological problems.

Dr. Rod Irvine, of the University's Department of Clinical and Experimental Pharmacology, with an increased use of ecstasy among teens, major health problems can be expected in the future.

"For many years it has been known from animal experiments that small doses of ecstasy - even if only taken on only a few occasions - can cause severe damage to certain brain cells," Irvine said in a news release. "More recently, evidence has started to accumulate suggesting that this damage may also occur in humans."

Brain scans and psychological assessment of teen ecstasy users has been used to obtain this information.

"If our suspicions are proved correct, it will mean many of our young people will have memory loss or psychological problems in the future."

Irvine's research shows that the drug seems to work mainly through its effects on one type of brain cell, and even through one molecule in those cells. He said, "the way the body reacts chemically to ecstasy is important in producing adverse effects, as is the surrounding temperature, which can lead to users overheating."

Irvine is looking at the shorter-term consequences of ecstasy "overdoses" and has found that the high rate of death is due to a different strain of ecstasy appearing on the market in the mid 1990s.

"Normal ecstasy contains the pharmacological ingredient known as MDMA as its main ingredient, but the new strain often contained no MDMA but rather a more potent chemical known as PMA," Irvin said.

"PMA hasn't been around since the early 1970s when it was responsible for the deaths of several people in Ontario, Canada, and now it's reappeared," Dr Irvine says. "We don't know where the PMA came from, but we do know that it has been prevalent since the mid 1990s."

A Family Disease

Drug addiction and Alcoholism is a family disease. Teens that have parents who are drug addicts or alcoholics need to be particularly careful because they have a greater risk of becoming chemically dependent. One in four children will be exposed to alcoholism or drug addiction before turning eighteen. Children of alcoholics are more likely to have behavioral problems, lower IQ’s, and to inherit the disease of alcoholism.

Teens with alcoholic parents are genetically prone to alcoholism. That means that if a teen knows they are predisposed to alcoholism they need to stay away from alcohol and drugs at all costs. But these teens are in a catch 22. They have most likely witnessed their parents consume alcohol or do drugs many times making it seem normal. This makes teens with alcoholic or drug addicted parent more likely to drink and suffer the cost if they are an addict/alcoholic. All teens need to try to avoid drugs and alcohol but teens with chemically dependent parents need to be particularly aware of the risks involved in drinking and using drugs.

Teen Expulsion Over Myspace Photos

Expulsion Over Myspace Photos
Anthony Allen, 17 years old, is one of five kids banned from Belleville High School in Ann Arbor, Michigan on November 3rd 2007. The five students posted pictures on Myspace, a popular internet networking site, of guns, drugs, piles of cash and possible gang signs. Anthony is challenging his expulsion and four of the five teenagers sued the school district asking for reinstatement. The students claim that there were no written records of the hearings.
The second hearing was open to the public and over one hundred people showed up. The crowd also included high school teachers. The room was filled and overflowed into the lobby and surrounding offices. Anthony Allen was expelled for possessing illegal drugs, or look-alikes, in connection with a school activity and engaging in gang activity. The weapon charges were dropped due the fact that the picture of Anthony holding the gun was taken in a private residence.
School authorities are concerned that these teenagers could be connected with a gang called M.M.B. On October 13th a limousine driver who picked them up from their high school Homecoming claimed that three cars followed them to a restaurant. Older boys who appeared to be members of this gang surrounded the limo in a threatening manner. The driver told the boys to get back into the car and proceeded to take them to a different restaurant. But the same cars continued to follow them.
The school voted to uphold Anthony’s expulsion after an approximately six hour hearing. One teacher said that there is a zero tolerance policy for gang related behavior. Although Anthony’s mother does not agree with this decision to expel him, she stated that he will be attending college in the fall.

Kids Overdosing on Cold Medicine to Get High

Kids Overdosing on Cold Medicine to Get High

Phone 866-889-3665

Parents concerned about whether their children are abusing drugs might also want to keep their medicine cabinets under lock and key.

Across the country, children and teens are intentionally overdosing on cold medicine or “robotripping” in order to get a hallucinogenic high. Robotripping,is the slang term for intentionally overdosing on over-the-counter cold medication such as the cough medicine
Robitussin. Although cough syrup abuse is nothing new — it dates to more than 30 years ago — it seems to be undergoing a revival lately, with cases of teens overdosing on the medicine popping up across the country.

Robitussin, NyQuil, Benadryl and Coricidin are among the favorites. Tom, a 16-year-old boy whose last name is being withheld, told Good Morning America that some school friends told him about robotripping and he got high off a bottle of Robitussin. He then began experimenting with other over-the-counter medicines, taking eight to 16 Coricidin tablets at a time, he said.

“I started out with Robitussin, I drank an eight-ounce bottle,” Tom said. “The Robitussin was more like a high off of marijuana, and with Coricidin you can't sit still, you keep talking,” he said.

Ian, 17, said he used Coricidin, Nyquil and Benadryl to get high.

“It kind of got all concentrated into your head, and you really got kind of hyper and are all over the place and acting real stupid,” Ian said.

DXM Is Trouble Ingredient

The culprit ingredient is dextromethorphan, a common additive in cough suppressants that can cause hallucinations when used in large amounts, according to Dr. Drew Pinsky, an addiction expert.

“There's Web sites out there that tell these kids how to do this, how to get the pills, how to take enough pills,” Pinsky said.

Users can suffer psychosis, brain damage, and seizures. Overdoses can be fatal. Fourteen people died last year from intentional overdoses of cold medicines, and several hundred were hospitalized, Pinsky said.

“These are legal drugs, so only the worst cases of overdose make it into the records,” Pinsky said.

More than 80 over-the-counter cold medicines contain DXM, or dextromethorphan, a chemical that serves as a powerful cough suppressant when taken properly, but produces psychedelic effects when taken in large doses. DXM abuse is hard to track because it is legal and most abusers are under 18.

Ian and Tom say they're off Coricidin and Robitussin now, after getting help.

“I never got caught with it, but I got caught in school for being drunk and high, and they sent me to a drug counseling program and that covered everything,” Ian said. “I've been clean off of that stuff for about two months now,” he said.

Tom, who says he used Coricidin and Robitussin from late last year until October of this year, said he had managed to keep up a normal appearance in front of his teachers and parents, even when he was hallucinating, but away from home or school, he sometimes became uncontrollable. He would sleepwalk, talk in his sleep and have blackouts.

Tom says he's clean today and in an outpatient rehabilitation program while attending narcotic anonymous meetings.

Pee Wee Drug Dealers

There is also concern about the age at which children are abusing drugs, which seems to be getting younger.

In Port St. Lucie, Fla. last week, two 9-year-old children were found with 15 small bags of marijuana, reportedly while riding the school bus to their elementary school. One boy was passing the baggies to the other. The two boys are both in the third grade.
Police are investigating whether the boys intended to sell the drugs.

Phone 866-889-3665
Visions Adolescent Treatment Center

Stoned on Cold Medicine: Teens Are Abusing Over-the Counter Cold Pills to Get High

Stoned on Cold Medicine:
Teens Are Abusing Over-the Counter Cold Pills to Get High

Phone 866-889-3665

By John Stossel, ABCNEWS.com

Parents have their hands full trying to keep kids away from alcohol, smoking and drugs. Now there's yet another substance that teens are using to get high - legally. They're taking big doses of ordinary cold medicine.

A group of kids who spoke to ABCNEWS said they were using Coricidin HBP Cough and Cold Pills to get stoned. The ingredient that gives kids a high is dextromethorphan, or DXM. It suppresses coughs safely, but in large amounts it produces a chemical imbalance in the brain that allows the kids to get high.

Dextromethorphan is in more than 100 cold medicines, not just Coricidin, but one type of Coricidin has the particular cocktail of ingredients that the kids prefer. This week, the American Association of Poison Control reported teen abuse of these types of over-the-counter cold medications has doubled in the last four years.

'It Tastes Just Like Candy'

Molly, 17, described how taking a large dose of the pills made her feel, "You turn your head and everything went in slow motion. It was like you were in The Matrix or something."

The abuse of Coricidin is so appealing, kids say, because it's easy to get, it's legal, and parents and teachers usually don't have any idea they're taking it. "

As far as drugs go, you don't need to know a dealer, you know. If you can find a Walgreen's or a grocery store, you're set," said Jeff Helgeson, a 20-year-old from Minneapolis. Helgeson says he's been getting high on Coricidin for four years.

Some kids call the habit "skittling," because the pills look like the popular candy Skittles. "It's just like pot, except it's better and it tastes just like candy and your parents won't know if you get high cause your eyes won't be red," said Ashley, 16.

Jason, a 15-year-old from Seattle, said he liked the feeling so much he took the pills every day for five months. Another teen, Kevin, said he took Coricidin for a year and a half.

Parents, Teachers Often Unaware of Abuse

When parents see that their kids have cold pills, they don't think twice. It's just cold medicine, after all; it seems innocent enough.

School principal Judi Hanson says she's finding that Coricidin is becoming kids' drug of choice. It's easier to conceal. There's no smell, there's no dealing with a dealer. It makes it hard to detect.

But Jason's father, Pat, noticed his son seemed stoned when he came home with friends and he confronted him. Jason finally admitted to abusing the medicine. Like many parents, Pat didn't know kids could get high on cold pills.

Often the kids don't even buy the Coricidin - they steal it. Helgeson said he stole it. "I'd wear my coat in there or stuff it in my underwear."

The shoplifting has led some stores to move that type of Coricidin behind the counter. James Holm, a pharmacist at a Hopkins, Minn., store, said they had no choice."

These kids just seem to find it, zero in on it, and believe me, if you have it on the shelf, it's going to be gone," he said. "They'll steal it right out from underneath your nose. … They just grab it and go."

As the kids talked about getting stoned, there was a lot of laughter, even when they talked about accidents and injuries they suffered while taking the pills. Helgeson laughed as he talked about breaking his elbow and ankle while snowboarding and skateboarding when he was high on Coricidin.

Sometimes they laughed about not getting caught. Helgeson said he drag-raced a police car, and thought it was funny the officers couldn't tell he was high when they pulled him over. "They gave me a Breathalyzer. I hadn't been drinking. I didn't have any drugs on me. So they didn't know," he said.

Helgeson was the oldest among the group of young people who talked with ABCNEWS about their experiences. As the younger kids continued to laugh about their experiences, we noticed that Helgeson seemed sort of separate from them. Helgeson says it's still fun when he takes Coricidin, but he says it's wrecked his life. His mom has to drive him places because he'll lose his license if he gets another ticket. He dropped out of school and now lives at home, spending most of his time playing his guitar or just sitting."

Living in the household with Jeff the past few years has been like living with somebody who's sick and they never get well," said his mom, Merrilly Helgeson.

Jeff Helgeson has a twin brother, John, a junior at the University of Wisconsin, whose life is good. His mom says Jeff "always has a reminder right in front of him of where he would be right now if he were not doing Coricidin."

And Jeff doesn't seem happy with himself. "My brain has gone and I'm just wasted. It took all my friends away from me. I threw my life away." Yet he keeps using.

Abuse on the Rise

Failing grades or a trip to the hospital is sometimes what it takes to alert kids and their parents to the danger. Doctors say they're seeing more and more kids in emergency rooms who've taken too much Coricidin.

Over the last three years, there's been approximately a 300 percent increase in calls to poison control centers about dextramethorphan, said Dr. Edward Boyer, an emergency room physician in Massachusetts.

Boyer says the kids who come in to the emergency room are agitated, difficult to control, sweating and unresponsive when you try to speak to them.

Molly and Ashley had a recent close call.

They told Ashley's mom they were going to bed. Instead they took Coricidin, sneaked out of their house, and went to a party where they took more Coricidin."

My fingers were so numb that I couldn't open the package. So me and Molly were literally trying to rip the package open with our teeth," Ashley said.

They went to a boy's house where Ashley may have had sex, but she doesn't know.

"He took me in a bedroom and I guess he tried to have sex with me. … He was on top of me. But I fell asleep."

Later, a hospital test revealed she and the boy had not had sex. She and Molly did get home and later went to sleep. But by morning, they were still very high. The Coricidin high can last a day. Ashley's mom called the poison control center and was told to get the girls to the hospital.

Sometimes Deadly Consequences

At least five people have died after taking Coricidin, but even death doesn't seem to scare the kids. Jason had heard about a boy who died, but said he knows that the boy took the type of Coricidin that contains acetaminophen. And he knows not to take that type. "It tends to cause you to die," he said.

He's right, because acetaminophen can cause liver damage or death when taken in large doses.

Boyer said, "If you talk to kids, they know they should take the stuff that doesn't have acetaminophen in it." It's hard to believe the kids know which type of medicine is going to hurt them less.

But Boyer says he believes they do, and he says they can get a lot of information from an online drug encyclopedia called Erowid. While Erowid warns that high doses of acetaminophen can be fatal, the Web site appears to have been written by drug users. They describe first-time experiences, and suggest dosages - and in the case of Coricidin, warn of its dangers. In fact, you can get more information from these than you get from the government's drug-abuse Web site, Boyer said. "If I need information on a drug of abuse, I go to this Web site," he said.

Easy Access Makes Drug a Greater Threat

Some parents say Coricidin, because it's so accessible, is worse than other drugs. They want it taken off store shelves. But the company that makes Coricidin, Schering-Plough HealthCare Products, said removing it from the shelves would deny cold sufferers access to a helpful medication.

"We want to minimize abuse by warning people and changing the package so it's harder to shoplift, but Coricidin HBP is a valuable cold medicine, the safest and most effective product for patients with high blood pressure," the company said in a statement.

It also said putting it behind the counter would deprive those who need it. Wal-Mart's policy is to sell it only to customers 18 or older, and the chain limits the number of boxes people can buy to three.

Still, kids who want to abuse the medicine can still find it in stores or buy it over the Internet. Ultimately, making the decision not to abuse the medicine will be up to the kids.

Ashley said it's difficult to stop taking it once you get started. "It's addictive," she said. "here's some ingredient in those pills that makes you want to take it again no matter what."

That's not correct. Dextromethorphan is not physically addictive. Ashley and Molly have now stopped taking it. People do quit. Jason has been clean since June, and Kevin for almost a year. But Jeff Helgeson still uses."

I know that the right answer is for me to never do it again. Or drugs in general," he said. "But once you've been down that road, it's really difficult to get on a different path and stay on that path."

Poison Control Information

1-800-222-1222 is the 24-hour emergency number to call to find a poison control center your area. Poison control centers have additional information concerning abuse and misuse of cold medicines containing dextromethorphan.

Phone 866-889-3665
Visions Adolescent Treatment Center