It is every parent’s nightmare to find out that your teenager may be afflicted with some form of addiction to drugs or alcohol. But if this happens to you, it’s important to stay calm so that you can have the presence of mind to support your child through this process. While it is important to find some outside help by getting some counseling for your teenager, here are a few suggestions you can use to implement on your own:
1. Get yourself educated on addiction and drugs
Understand the science behind addiction and abuse, research the drugs in your area and their availability, which of the drugs are being abused by your teen, the signs of the habit you should for, each of the drug’s street names, and its effects. The better you understand abuse, drugs, addiction, and withdrawal, the easier you will be able to assist your teen in overcoming it.
2. Get to know your child’s friends
If a person is abusing alcohol or drugs, the person’s friends are likely doing so as well. Most of the time, when teens start to use drugs, friends who aren’t doing such would not be hanged out with again, and they get drawn to those friends who do.
Talk with the kids who come to visit your house. It’s straightforward for you to bring up an excuse to go inside the room where they are. Collect dishes or laundry, make snacks, and search for your cell phone that is missing, and so on.
Should their friends come not to try and find the reason? If you realize that they are making use of drugs, don’t let them back into your house. Though you can’t have control over things that go on when it’s outside of your home, explain to your teen the reason why you don’t believe they should keep hanging with that person or friends.
3. Build a better relationship with your teen
Teens need the attention and love of their parents. Create some time to talk and sit with them every day. Make sure you listen, most especially. Listen very well for them to be able to open up. Enabling your teens to tell you everything will help build a relationship of trust, which would greatly benefit both of you.
Keep reminding them that they are loved very much. Let them understand that if you give way for substance abuse to take their lives over, you won’t forgive yourself. Let them know that it might be upsetting to say all these; it’s because you love and care about them deeply. That’s why you are doing this.
4. Do not resort to threats or yelling
If you get too angry to discuss with your teen, walk away calmly and quietly. It has been known that threatening, yelling, lecturing, and screaming doesn’t work with teenagers, so you will need to learn how to be stern yet calm.
There are several ways to achieve the results that you desire without yelling. For example, assuming they need a ride to get to their friend’s house, you can say, “I will give you a ride thereafter you have taken out the trash.” Or better still, “you can have your friends over when your room gets cleaned up first.” These kinds of statements yield better results instead of threatening or yelling.
5. Don’t go it alone
Please search for a therapist for your teen on substance abuse who has got experience when it comes to teen addiction. If it doesn’t work out with the first one, search again. It might take you some time before you get the one you want. The counselor who is right for your teen would make a huge difference in overcoming the addiction.
Keep in mind that your children need you to get strong and assist them in the right direction.
