Month: September 2009

A recent study of rats suggests that adolescent drinking leads to poor decision making in adulthood. They needed rats for that? Apparently, alcohol may damage decision making areas of still-growing brains. That makes sense. My still-growing brain made some really damaging decisions when I was drinking and using. Fortunately, I got help. I went to a teen drug and alcohol program that helped me learn how to make decisions for myself. I had to learn to think before I said things, and check out my behavior with others before I acted. I realized, I made a lot of dumb decisions.
The good news, was that I could fix most of it. The first step was to stop drinking and using, and to not do that stuff again. The second part was learning about the patterns in my behaviors and to cease making the same mistakes over and over. That part took a lot more time. I am grateful to know that I stopped the cycle. I left my home in Poway, San Diego to go to adolescent drug treatment so that I didn’t have to let my teen drinking and drug abuse follow me into adulthood. I’m sure I’ll make mistakes in my life- I’m human, but I don’t have to be a slave to drugs and alcohol anymore. As long as I have that going for me, I am at a greater advantage than when I was using. For More info please click here adolescent drug and alcohol treatment.

Columbia University reports that teens who eat dinner with their families less than three times a week are twice as likely to use tobacco or participate in teen marijuana use and are more than one in a half times as likely to drink than teens who eat dinner with their families five or more times per week. Those who have dinner with their families less than three times a week where distractions are present, such as texting and talking on the phone, are more than three times as likely to use marijuana. Those teens who have fewer family dinners are also one and a half times more likely to have friends that use prescription drugs, meth, heroin, cocaine and ecstasy. Also, 12-13 year olds who have infrequent family dinners are more than six times more likely to use marijuana.

In today’s times, it is difficult to imagine getting everyone together for dinner, but the study emphasizes the importance of a specific time set aside for talking and being together. My household was extremely busy growing up. With both parents working and my siblings and me in all kinds of after-school activities, it was a wonder we saw each other at all. Also, with my drug use, getting together with the family was a pretty unpleasant time for everyone. Fortunately, in teen drug rehab, my whole family was able to benefit from treatment. I, of course, was in an intensive inpatient program in Malibu, but my family got to get help too through family counseling in Bakersfield. As we rebuilt our family relationships, we planned on ways to reestablish closeness within our family. We try now to set aside time to be with each other. No cell phones. No facebook. We may not be the Cleavers, but we are slowly rebuilding our family closeness. In drug treatment, I got the help I needed to be a better child, and my family got what they needed so that we can all heal and be the best that we can be. Please click here for more info about adolescent drug and alcohol treatment .

Penn State Freshman Joe Dado died this weekend following a frat party in Philadelphia. He was 18. It appears that a very intoxicated Dado lost his balance in a stairwell on his way home and fell 15 feet to his death. This is a very sad, unnecessary, and unfortunate loss. My thoughts go out to his family and friends. Teen binge drinking is largely looked upon as a rite of passage in this country, but tragedies such as these shine light on the very unfortunate outcomes that can occur. Teen binge drinking is a serious issue, and may lead to more problems down the road. It can be difficult to decipher between “normal” experimentation and problem drinking, but binge drinking may be a red flag indicating bigger underlying problems. The inability to stop drinking once I started was one of the big clues I had a problem. I didn’t drink every day, and could go quite a while without it, but I thought about it all the time. And when I did drink, I always blacked out or came to the next morning with big consequences. Knowing what’s going on in your teen’s life may help parents to keep an eye out for their teen. Teens know they shouldn’t drink and drive, but I know I never considered I might fall to my death when I was drinking. Binge drinking is a serious issue, with potentially deadly consequences. If you think that your teen may have a problem with binge drinking, don’t hesitate to contact us today for adolescent drug and alcohol treatment .

A long Swedish study has concluded that adolescent girls that come from families with parents that attended college and who do well in school themselves are often at greater risk than their peers for developing an adolescent eating disorder. Researchers speculate that the teenage girls may receive more pressure to live up to their families’ high levels of achievement and may have personalities that lend themselves to teen anorexia and bulimia, such as being perfectionists.

High achieving girls are at risk for teen eating disorders because of the immense pressure they tend to put on themselves, and from the perceived pressure they often feel from others. I did very well in school, and even though my family never made me feel pressure to be the best, I decided that they must expect it from me anyway. My warped sense of reality made me feel that the only validation that was worth anything was the validation I saw on paper when I could see my class ranking or GPA. I became increasingly competitive academically and increasingly self destructive in the process. The downside was that as I starved myself into being “perfect”, I lost the ability to focus in school. I was exhausted and unfocused because I never ate anything. The medication I abused helped me lose weight, but it didn’t help me feel better.

The idea of leaving school and going to adolescent treatment seemed like the end of my world. And it kind of was. It helped to end the terrible world I was trapped in and I came out on the other side a stronger person. I had to realign my priorities. No longer could I sacrifice my body and my health for an impossible dream of perfection. I learned to love myself for who I was- not the number on the scale or the grades on the paper. My adolescent eating disorder helped me translate my feelings into a tangible currency- food and weight. As I recovered, I had to learn how to identify feelings rather than translate them into the phrase, “I feel fat.” I quickly learned that fat is not a feeling. Sad is a feeling. Scared is a feeling. Happy is a feeling. Fat isn’t. With the help I received in teen treatment, I was able to find new ways to cope with the pressures of being a student. I learned to set boundaries, and how to take care of myself. Going into treatment was the end of my world. Of that world. whether I live in Santa Monica or San Diego my life today is free from the grip of anorexia. please contact us for adolescent anorexia treatment.

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.

Yesterday was the memorial for my friend who overdosed. I am sick of going to memorials. I am sick of watching people I love get caught up in using again and die. I don’t want to go to any more funerals. I’m not big on quoting recovery literature, but there is a line from the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous that always comes to mind when I think about my friends who are caught up in active addiction: People like you are too heartbreaking.
It is easy to get discouraged. Getting clean and sober in Palo Alto is hard work. When I entered teen drug treatment, I was never promised an easy road, but I was promised a better life. It is hard to work through difficult feelings. It is hard watching people go in and out of recovery. It is hard watching people die. The thing that sticks with me though, is that no one ever gave up on me. When I was in drug treatment and threw tantrums or resisted change as much as possible, no one gave up on me. No one told me I wouldn’t stay clean. The odds were stacked against me, but no one ever told me I couldn’t do it. Instead, the staff at Visions let me know on a daily basis that I could stay clean and have a better life. It took a while to believe them, but I am so glad they never gave up on me. They always believed in me. So even though I feel really discouraged this week, and really sad about my friend dying, I’m not going to give up on recovery. I’m not going to give up on my friends who are struggling right now. No one gave up on me, so I can’t give up on them. This is a difficult journey sometimes, but with the foundation I got in adolescent drug treatment, I can do anything.

It’s my birthday this week! Each (natal) birthday I have clean makes me really grateful for the life I have, and the fact that I managed to survive my teenage years is something to celebrate. When I was using, I had resigned myself to the idea that I probably wouldn’t live very long, and if I did, it was going to be a life full of drugs and misery. A few birthdays ago, my parents figured out that I was using again. I had to show up to my birthday party sick from last nights drug use. Everyone showed up for me and I showed up a disgusting mess. After a few more weeks of promising to stop using on my own and failing, I got a chance to go to
teen drug rehab. It was the best belated birthday gift of my life, even though I didn’t think so at the time. After getting clean, celebrating each year I live is a real gift.
I am especially grateful for my mom and dad, who had to watch my painful descent into addiction in La Jolla, San Diego. If it wasn’t for their help in getting me into treatment, I might not be blowing out candles this year. They stuck with me despite how nasty I was, and how difficult I made things. They loved me when I couldn’t love myself, and had hope for me when I had none. They gave me the space I needed in early recovery and did their own work in family therapy sessions so that we could all have a better relationship after the damage my drug use wreaked on the family.
This year, I am just happy to get to spend my birthday with my family and my friends that love me. I won’t be blacking out, or throwing up on myself, or overdosing this birthday. This birthday, I have a chance to really enjoy the quality relationships I have developed since entering teen recovery.

A new study reports that 20% of teens report having shared their prescription medication like Oxycontin with their friends. The study showed that teens traded everything from opiate painkillers to allergy medication, to antidepressants and anti-anxiety medications. Many teens reported that they received medications in the same way.
Trading meds seemed to be the polite thing to do when I was using. I could easily trade my antidepressants for Xanax or Vicodin. Pills are easily hidden and they are easier to take undetected than drugs you have to smoke or snort. They don’t seem as dangerous to teens, either. I never considered that taking someone else’s Adderall or Darvocet could be as dangerous as snorting a line of speed or shooting heroin.
Getting clean at Visions helped me to realize that addiction can wreck lives regardless of the substance or the age. My pill abuse qualified me for help in the same way someone with a heroin problem needed help. No one at Visions ever made me feel like I was too young or “not enough” of an addict. I felt like I was too young, and that it hadn’t gotten bad enough to need help, but once I got out of my using fog, I could clearly see just how bad my life had become. I may not have crashed cars or ended up in jail, but I had completely lost sight of myself. In teen drug treatment, I got a chance to get to know myself again. I remembered that I wanted to do well in life, that I wanted to finish high school in Houston, Texas and get a degree. I wanted to be a good child and a good sibling. I wanted to be me again. Contact us for Prescription medication treatment.

It is reported that calls to poison-control centers in Orange County regarding teens misusing ADHD medication rose 76% . Around 42% of the adolescents suffered from moderate to severe side effects, and of the calls, four teens died as a result of misusing ADHD medications. Opiates are not the only medications teens are abusing. Adderall, Concerta, and Ritalin are all ADHD medications that act as stimulants. Many teens abuse these medications in order to achieve a “speedy” effect. The pills may make teens feel like they are more focused or confident.
I began abusing ADHD medication when I began to feel too much pressure in school. I thought that the pills would make me study better or help me stay up and finish reports. When I was on the pills, I felt like I was brilliant and everything made sense. Unfortunately, that feeling didn’t translate into my school work, and I certainly didn’t retain information the next day. I often felt tired and irritable following a pill binge. I began snorting them to get the effect faster. As I began to need more and more stimulants, I turned to cocaine and speed because they were stronger and cheaper. After awhile, my original intent of using the drugs to achieve more in school fell aside and my newest priority was to just get high. I went from an A student to ditching class to get high with my friends. My whole life revolved around using.
When my parents found out, we tried several different outpatient counselors but I just kept using. When they were at their wits’ end, and I was confident I would never stop using, they contacted Visions Adolescent Drug Treatment Center.
It seemed really harsh to me to have to get sent away to drug treatment, but it was exactly what I needed. I learned to deal with my feelings and learned how to manage my time effectively. I realized that I’m a really competent person and I don’t need stimulants to feel like I’m worth something. Learn how to stay clean, one day at a time, that’s just what I’m doing.

During a recent airing of Kourtney and Khloe Take Miami, Khloe Kardashian finds an alleged vial of cocaine in a dressing room and later takes it out and pretends to snort it on air. There is a minor freakout and Khloe later pours the coke down the toilet. Apparently, there is a lot of cocaine addiction in Miami. Ugh. It really annoys me when drugs are used as a prop to create a stir, and then the incident is dismissed as a silly little thing. Cocaine is a really big deal and joking about it and treating it like it’s nothing sends a really messed up message to viewers. Seeing she already has a DUI gracing her record, and in the past has been an advocate for drug and alcohol awareness, I wish the show could have put a more constructive spin on the presence of cocaine rather that one fueled purely by the need for more ratings.
Teen drug abuse is an unwavering problem and more awareness of the perils of drug abuse and the promises of recovery might inspire more teens to attempt recovery. Cocaine abuse is a very real problem that should be taken seriously. It’s not a funny little substance you pull from your handbag and make a joke about. It can ruin lives. I can’t imagine having to go through my addiction and early recovery with the press watching my every move, but I think it can be beneficial when a celebrity can acknowledge how bad drugs can be and offer hope to those that might look up to them. If reality shows won’t do it, then I will. Recovery exists. If you are a teen struggling with substance abuse, or your child is struggling, help and sobriety can be your reality, so please contact teen drug and alcohol treatment.