Month: August 2009

The internet can be used for good or for evil. Many support groups and message boards can be found online that can help teens find open ears to talk about their struggles. Other message boards and websites exist that can help teens learn everything from how to cook up heroin to tips to maintaining an teen eating disorder. When I was really into my adolescent eating disorder, I found a group online to support me. The only problem was that they were supporting me in keeping my eating disorder rather than recovering from it. Pro-Ana and Pro-Mia sites promote anorexia and bulimia as lifestyle choices, not dangerous disorders. It is the ultimate symbol of denial and sickness, in my opinion. When I was in the fog of my own adolescent eating disorder though, I relied on those sites to cosign and validate my own disordered thinking. Pro-ana sites have everything from tips to losing weight and faking eating to “thinspiration”– photos of skinny girls and celebrities. Losing weight and becoming sicker is a badge of honor rather than a red flag.
As my eating disorder made my life unmanageable, I needed those sites to make me feel like I was okay. It helped me justify my behavior. What I know now is that I was looking for identification. When I went to the adolescent eating disorder treatment center, I found identification there too, only this time it was for good and not destructive. Suddenly I was surrounded by people who wanted to help me get better, not sicker. I went and browsed a pro-ana site earlier and felt a sort of sickening allure. It seemed easy to fall back into the darkness of my E.D. but ignorance is bliss- I can no longer live in denial. I know that anorexia and bulimia, AKA Ana and Mia, aren’t my friends. Ana and Mia want me to be miserable and sick. Today, thanks to the initial help I got at Visions in Malibu, I no longer need them for friends. I have real friends- friends that are actually people that care about my well being.

Heroin use is on the rise among teens, largely due to widespread prescription opiate abuse. Many teen addicts graduate from abusing opiate pills like Oxycontin, to using heroin, which may be cheaper and easier to obtain. A survey by the US Department of Health and Human Services indicated that by 2007, when choosing to use an illicit drug for the first time, 57,000 more teens chose prescription pills over marijuana. This is especially alarming because it changes the status of marijuana as “the gateway drug,” by instead moving teens faster down the path by beginning with opiate abuse rather than ending with it.
Opiate addiction causes a certain physical desperation in addition to emotional and mental attachment to the drug. There is also less of a stigma attached to heroin as it is popular to snort and smoke the drug rather than inject it. Many teens don’t feel like taking pills is a big deal, and smoking and snorting drugs doesn’t seem nearly as dangerous as shooting up, but it is. When I was abusing opiates, I would do anything to avoid withdrawals. If I had to steal pills from my friend’s medicine cabinet or steal money from my mom, I did it. Part of my fear of getting clean was facing the detox process. I couldn’t stop using because I couldn’t stand being “sick”. Treatment helped guide me through the process, and like anything, it had an end. Eventually I felt better and I know today that I never, ever have to go through that process again. Most people were surprised when they found out I was on heroin. Many people that knew me knew I had some kind of problem, but most people don’t assume a teenager from a good home and a good community is a heroin addict. In Seattle my parents certainly didn’t want to believe it, but once the truth came out, they helped me find help at an adolescent drug treatment center. I never thought that I would love being clean, but I do. It feels so good to be free when I wake up, and not sick and trying to figure out how I will get my fix for the day. I owe my freedom to Visions, for introducing me to the tools I need to live a life free of drugs.

Adam Goldstein, aka DJ AM was found dead in his New York City apartment of a suspected drug overdose. Drug paraphernalia was found near his body. Celebrity disc jockey Goldstein, who narrowly escaped death in a plane crash nearly a year ago, had at one point attempted suicide to escape addiction, but entered treatment and maintained sobriety for ten years. Prescription drugs were found throughout his apartment and a crack pipe was reportedly found near his body.
Goldstein was a good friend to many people and many recovering addicts are coming forward to recognize how much he helped them in their sobriety. It is truly sad to know that addiction resurfaced and took a person that helped so many people. In his last Twitter post, Goldstein quoted a Grandmaster Flash song: “New York, New York. Big city of dreams, but everything in New York ain’t always what it seems.”

Michael Beasley, star forward of the Miami Heat may have Tweeted his way right into a Houston drug treatment program this weekend following a series of increasingly disturbing tweets on Twitter, a couple of page deletions, and a TwitPic which may or may not show a couple baggies of drugs in the background of the photo. Beasley’s increasingly bizarre posts including things like, “Not feelin’ this at all,” and “Y [sic] do I feel like the whole world is against me?” precluded his admission to the recovery center. He managed to publicize his own breakdown which may have led to pressure from others to get help.
Social networking sites are popular- especially with teens. For whatever reason, it seems like many adolescents are more comfortable letting the entire cyber universe know what’s going on with them than talking to their parents or loved ones. A suspicious posting on a blog, Twitter, Facebook, or Myspace can be a cry for help that parents may not hear. My Myspace site was covered in suggestive drug slang and hints at self injury when I was using. After my behavior changed, my parents decided to check out what I was up to online. I was so mad at the time, and felt like my privacy was being invaded, but now I know it was for my own sake. After seeing the kinds of things I was putting out into cyberspace, my parents sat me down for a long talk, which led us to the decision to try adolescent drug treatment. It’s a difficult thing, to ask for help, and the process was definitely a struggle for everyone at times, but it was so worth it. I hope that Michael Beasley finds the help he is looking for, and that anyone who needs help finds it. If you feel that your teen may be struggling with drug or alcohol dependency, help is here.

Mexico decriminalized small-quantity drug possession this week and required that people who have been arrested three times for drug offenses be mandated into treatment. The country is also providing free addiction treatment to anyone who wants it. I admire Mexico for focusing on the bigger problems like the drug cartels and working to treat and help addicts rather than punish them.
Teen drug Treatment gave me a chance to change my life and address my addiction problem. I knew that using wasn’t working out well for me but I didn’t know how to stay stopped when I tried to stop using. I hope that with all of the attention that has been given to our country’s drug problem lately that more people will learn about the benefits of drug treatment programs. I had only heard about rehab on television- I had no idea that such a place existed for teens like me.
I didn’t know that I would get to have good food and actually have a good time while I learned how to live without using drugs. I thought I had been given a pretty grim life sentence of abstinence from drugs when in fact I was shown that living without drugs can actually be really enjoyable. I got to meet other people who had changed their lives and were having a blast in recovery. I am so glad that my parents helped me find a good adolescent treatment program, and that I gave it a chance. Old Mexico or new Mexico I don’t know where my life in would be today without it, but it certainly wouldn’t be this good.

Oh, Canada. What are you doing? A Canadian study including Victoria, BC, in which heroin addicts were given either morphine or HEROIN to treat their heroin addiction found that those in the heroin group were more likely to stay in “treatment.” What? Of course more teen heroin addicts that were given heroin stayed in treatment. They were being given free heroin! The study concluded that the heroin group was less likely to engage in illicit activities when they were supplied with heroin. Yeah, okay. Only a couple of people overdosed during the study.
I can’t imagine having this program in my life rather than the one I have now. I wouldn’t have changed anything! I would still be a junkie! I might not have gotten arrested or stole from my parents but uh- not having enough free, legal heroin wasn’t my problem. There weren’t enough drugs in the world to feed my problem.
I know what works for me, and that’s what I learned in Teen opiate rehab. I can’t successfully use drugs or alcohol. Complete abstinence has given me an entirely new kind of freedom. Of course it was difficult to give up drugs, but the personal changes that resulted from that decision have helped me become a better person. I don’t believe that the answer to my heroin problem was more heroin. The answer to my problem was to seek real help, make some serious changes, and change my life.

The LA Times reports that it has been proven that alcoholics have more difficulty interpreting facial cues indicating emotion that non-alcoholics. It has yet to be determined whether this social deficiency is a result of heavy drinking or one of the root causes of heavy drinking. Either way, it may be one of the reasons alcoholics have such a hard time perceiving the emotions of those around them.
Regardless of the causes, alcoholism can destroy families. Relationship troubles are frequently one of the first indicators that a teen has a problem. Secrecy, lying, and intense self-centeredness are all early indicators of a teen drinking problem. Teen alcohol rehab helps to repair the broken relationships that alcohol destroys. Family sessions with clinical staff aim to rebuild and strengthen familial bonds and closeness. Individual and group therapy sessions with struggling teens helps to strengthen their own interpersonal communication skills. Alcohol can destroy teens and families, but early intervention and treatment can help repair the damage done, and set troubled teens on the path to a better, more satisfying life. If you have questions regarding adolescent alcohol treatment for your teen, please contact us today.

Lately the question as to why I stay clean has come up a few times. Either non-recovering peers ask me or I have been faced with encouraging newer recovering addicts and alcoholics at my home group in Los Angeles to give this a chance. Recovery can be a pain in the neck. It’s a hard road to follow sometimes, especially being young. By now, my peers are having weekend parties, drinking at the beach, or having a drink after work. Sometimes I feel left out from what seems “normal,” but then I remember that I can’t drink like “normal” people. That drinking and using as a teen landed me in a lot of trouble and pain not to mention adolescent drug treatment. Now that I am clean and have stayed clean, I can help other teens that are in the same painful place that I used to be in.
Going to rehab in Los Angeles gave me the opportunity to reshape my life. It was aggravating at times- it was hard to let go of my old attitudes and behaviors and replace them with new things. The recovery process felt so foreign but as time has gone on, it feels like the right thing to do and I endure without question. Being around other recovering teens made recovery feel less bizarre and more like something we could all do together. As I stay in recovery now, long after drug treatment and random drug tests, I know I stay to help new teens that feel like I felt. I stay because in recovery, I have a choice in how I live my life as opposed to being a slave to the horrors of addiction. Beginning the recovery process can be the scariest step, but a lifetime of freedom lies beyond that, so contact us.

The Closer, starring Emmy-nominated Kyra Sedgwick as Brenda, has introduced a new character this season- a troubled teen niece. Charlie (the niece)is the troubled teen who has been flown out to Los Angeles to stay with her Aunt Brenda because her parents are at their wits’ end. She has been acting out and has already gotten into trouble with drug use. Last week’s episode had Charlie receiving drugs in the mail from her friend back home. Brenda’s husband, Fritz, freaks out because a) he is an FBI agent and b) he is sober in the program of Alcoholics Anonymous and having drugs in his home is not something he will tolerate.
I am curious to see how the show will handle Charlie’s issues. As of right now, none of the characters on the show feel like they can help Charlie, which is how many parents of teen drug addicts feel. She is irritable and secretive and clearly struggling with drug abuse. Of course I’m thinking, “I know that game…send her to Visions!” It will be interesting to see if they address the issue of addiction head-on. I think it would be a great venue to promote the idea of teenage recovery and treatment. There are plenty of shows that depict troubled teens, but none that show treatment and recovery for teens. I would love to see Charlie get a chance at recovery, so that the average American might see that teen recovery is entirely plausible. If your teen is struggling with adolescent substance abuse and you feel at your wits’ end, there is help available. No one has to deal with teen addiction alone.

This is a slide show of graphic evidence of the amazingly devastating affects of crystal meth even over a short period of time. Imagine what it does to the young adolescent brain?

My teen needs drug treatment