[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jH1zql_fQI]
This is a video not for faint of heart about crystal meth and it’s damaging affects. Speed is a very common drug of choice among teens entering teen drug rehab this year, Along with Marijuana, alcohol, extasy, prescription pills, etc. If you or a loved one needs help please contact us at adolescent drug treatment.
Mocha Lisa was created during The Rocks Aroma Festival, in Sydney, Australia. It took 8 people three hours to complete as well as 3,604 cups of coffee and 564 pints of milk. That’s a whole lot of caffeine.
The 20ft by 13ft replica of Leonardo da Vinci’s La Gioconda was created by adding various amounts of milk to the cups of coffee.
If you or a loved one needs help please contact us at adolescent drug treatment.
Yesterday I went on an adventure on the way back to LA from Phoenix. I’d pulled off the 10 to get gas and saw signs to the Salton Sea. I had never been there before and had no idea what it was so I figured, what the hay? Might as well. I followed the road off into the desert and came upon the sea. I was so surprised to see such a huge body of water pop into sight that I just started laughing out loud by myself in the car. It was amazing. I pulled into the state park and got out of my car. No one was around and I just sat on my hood watching the pelicans float around. It energized my spirit and I felt perfectly free and happy in that moment.
I don’t know what possessed me to wander off my route to see the Salton Sea, but I know for sure that I wouldn’t have done it if I wasn’t clean and sober. When I was using, I was so terrified to do anything new or different. Even in sobriety, I have a lot of anxiety, but to me the best solution is action. I was a little timid about going off into the desert alone on a Sunday, but after I took the action regardless of my feelings, I felt empowered and free. I think I am going to do things like that more often, because sitting in front of that strange body of water in the silent middle of nowhere, I felt alive. If youd like to feel alive again please contact us at adolescent drug treatment.
I was thinking today about how when I was younger, I was obsessed with reading the stories of struggling girls in the back of Seventeen magazine, or through the messed-up-teens-help-books my mom got. I didn’t read them to identify; I read them for inspiration. I remember a particular article about a teenage anorexic that made me feel especially competitive. “That girl got down to 80 pounds? I’m only at 89? I have to get skinnier!” I learned new tricks and techniques, and each article or book I read pushed me closer to my disorders- not to recovery. From those articles, I felt like my self injury, eating disorder and drug use were all somehow validated. I had it in my head that the girls in the articles had gotten bad enough to deserve attention and to deserve help. When I had begun to feel like I could no longer carry on doing what I was doing, I resisted asking for help because I wasn’t as bad as the kids in the articles. I didn’t weigh 80 pounds, I weighed 89. I hadn’t gotten stitches, but I couldn’t stop cutting myself. I wasn’t a teenage runaway on heroin and crack, but my drug problem was getting me into trouble at school. I felt like in order to get help, I needed to be worse off.
Fortunately, the people around me thought that I was deserving of help and recovery. At Visions Adolescent Treatment Center, I was able to receive help for all aspects of my disordered thinking. I worked on the core issues that had blossomed into my self injury, eating disorder, and drug abuse. I met other teens like me, and learned not to compare myself to anyone. The most important thing I think I learned there was that everyone’s story is different, and that it doesn’t matter how bad it got for me. The only thing that matters is a desire to get better. Everyone is deserving of a chance at recovery, and I’m so glad I took mine. Click here for adolescent treatment for girls.
Several recent studies have suggested that it is beneficial for parents to talk to their teens about their own teen drug use in the past. Studies by Hazelden which has a sober college, Brigham Young University that has a sober dorm, and the Partnership for a Drug Free America that supports sober university, all suggest that an open dialogue about drug and alcohol use is beneficial to teens- because if anything, the doors of communication are left open.
For me, a lot of my drug use was motivated by the thrill of secrecy, and the feeling that I was not under my parents’ control. especially while I was away at school. However, my parents had always been fairly open with me about drugs and alcohol. Alcoholism runs in my family, so knowing a parent’s particular struggles actually made it easier for me to go to them when things got really bad. I knew that they might be disappointed that I had chosen to use drugs, but I also knew that they would be understanding of my inability to stop. I feel really grateful for that. I was still in big trouble- don’t get me wrong- but I was offered a chance to get help as well. I feel that honesty amongst parents and teens benefits all parties. It seems like disclosing some “secret” information about past drug use is a good bartering tool for parents: they give a little and hopefully the teen will feel safe giving a little as well. Communication between parents and teens has been historically difficult, but today we all have a chance to break those patterns by opening up the lines of communication. While I’m not attending a sober college I am living in a sober dorm. Please contact us if your teen is struggling with alcohol or drug dependence and needs treatment in the Los Angeles area.
