Month: March 2010

A drug user, especially one that has been trying to get clean and sober and is currently relapsing is quick to manipulate friends or loved ones into being “okay” with their drug use. They try to convince them “this time it will be different”. In many cases these “friends” may have some experience using drugs and/or alcohol themselves and compare their own use to that of their friend or loved one. Sometimes these “friends” are completely ignorant to drug addiction and its depths, darkness and destruction. To many, addiction is another persons, family’s reality or simply a reality show they might stumble across on A & E like Intervention or Celebrity Rehab. They think to themselves how horrible and sad, yet some one in their immediate life is struggling in exactly the same way. A drug user is resourceful, manipulative, deceiving and will do whatever it takes to get high. It is not that they are on a mission to hurt anyone even though they do so in the process. They are most likely just trying to self medicate some underlying cause like depression, anxiety, low self esteem, etc. Such is the vicious cycle. For someone to find recovery they must learn how to cope with life on life’s terms, with all its joys as well as disappointments.

Click here for more information about Relapse Prevention.

What happens to you when you daughter approaches you and asks, “Mom….I need to buy a pregnancy test”. After I lifted myself from the floor, I asked that all important question. “Are you pregnant?”. Of course my daughter gets angry at me and said, “It’s for a friend!!!”. I told her since she had a boyfriend that was a reasonable question. She is a straight A student and is not on drugs….but in the back of my mind there is always a fear that she might do something that will impact her for the rest of her life.

I talked to her and found out it was for a friend. I knew that this friend is sexually active. My questions to all parents are…”There is all this information about birth control and sexually transmitted diseases available to our children…why are they having sex?….not taking care of themselves?…..Have you REALLY talked to your child about it?” These are questions that have been going on since I was a teenager and I am sure when our parents were teenagers.

Please talk to your child….they have a bright future ahead….let’s try to avoid them being parents at an early age or contracting a sexually transmitted disease that they will live for the rest of their lives.

Visions Adolescent Drug Treatment Center

Many teens begin using drugs because of undiagnosed mental disorders, such as depression, anxiety, and ADHD. Adolescent drug use is often an attempt to self medicate the symptoms and can actually be an indicator of bigger underlying issues. Understanding the entire spectrum of a teen’s issues is key in assisting them with teen recovery.
Dual diagnosis rehab is a great start to help teens both diagnose, treat, and understand the issues behind teen drug abuse. In addition to confronting addiction to drugs and alcohol, dual diagnosis treatment explores a teen’s entire well-being: physically, mentally, and emotionally. Teens are given new, positive coping mechanisms such as individual therapy, counseling, group therapy, journaling, and equine therapy, and are encouraged to explore life without the use of drugs. Counselors help get teens focused on the right path by creating custom treatment plans to fit each teen’s individual needs.

That’s right, “straight A” college bound girls admitting to Visions Adolescent Treatment Center getting drunk and fast by inserting an alcohol-drenched tampon and waiting for the buzz.

We apologize for having to report this but what will they think of next?

The idea is you can get drunk much faster and with less evidence because the alcohol goes directly into the bloodstream. This means there is no scent of liquor on their breath.

This is very dangerous! It is an overdose waiting to happen!

“I do this because when my parents ask me ‘HAVE YOU BEEN DRINKING!!!?’ I can honestly say, “No!”

Please contact us to find out is my teen doing drugs?

Only 10% of teens who need help for alcohol and drug problems actually enter adolescent treatment programs due in part to a lack of adolescent-only services and the poor quality of the teen treatment services that are available. Less that one-third of substance abuse programs in the U.S. offer specialized programs for teens.

A new study shows that 1.4 million teens need help for addictions each year, but only about one-tenth receive it.

Because of the lack of adolescent programs, the opportunity to intervene early in teen substance abuse is lost, the authors said. Many families seeking help for their children are unable to find treatment in their communities.

The study also found most of the available programs treat teens only on an outpatient basis and that facilities that offer teens residential or inpatient treatment rank higher in quality.

The study was funded by the Substance Abuse Policy Research Program (SAPRP) of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and appears in the March 2009 issue of the Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment.

Please call us for teen residential drug treatment.

Many parents look at their teens and wonder, “What in the world we’re they thinking?” Neurologist Frances Jensen, mother of two teenage boys, asked herself this and decided to get answers. Her conclusion? They often aren’t thinking, and the developmental process of the human brain might be to blame. The frontal lobes, where the brain decides, “Is this a good idea and what are the consequences?” aren’t fully connected to the rest of the brain in the teenage years. It’s not that teens are incapable of thinking through situations, but that the process is much slower than in adults. This may also contribute to teens’ sometimes amazing lack of consideration, poor impulse control, and susceptibility to addiction.
Young brains are much more reactive in order to learn, says Jensen, and therefore the teenage brain develops habits more quickly than adults, including drug and alcohol habits. She describes addiction in the brain as a type of learning. Smoking pot will create a much longer lasting cognitive decline in the teenage brain than in adults. Teen drug and alcohol treatment deals with every aspect of being a teenager, from problems in school to social anxiety, to peer pressure. In essence, teens are given the opportunity to “relearn” healthy behaviors. Fortunately, with such physically teachable minds, this may be an advantage to teens getting clean that adult addicts don’t have.

Please call us for teen or Young adult drug treatment