Month: September 2010

Categories
Addiction Alcoholism Mental Health

Teen Drinking Amongst Girls on the Rise

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Newsweek just reported new data released from a Partnership for a Drug Free America, suggesting girls are not only drinking more than boys, but they’re drinking for more “serious reasons.”  While boys are reported to drink so they can relax socially, it appears girls are drinking to deal with issues at home and/or at school. Additionally, the media is marketing to young girls, making alcohol even more enticing.  According to Newsweek:

“For years, boys were the focus of underage-drinking  interventions, but for the past decade, researchers have seen a close in the gender gap, and the media have jumped on the news. Researchers speculate that more products devoted to making  drinking easier and tastier—the sugar-laden beverages known as alco-pops—are a factor. ‘There’s a whole new raft of products that have come out in the last 10 to 12 years that were oriented to young females,’ says David Jerigan, executive director of the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth. ‘Alcohol now gets sold to girls as a functional food: it gets sold with calorie information, a drink of fitness, a drink with health benefits.’”

According to Leslie Walsh, MD, Director of Adolescent Medicine at Seattle Children’s Hospital, girls tend to be “more attuned to their feelings,” and more inclined to internalize issues rather than reach out.  Research on the adolescent brain also shows girls developing an earlier sensitivity to emotional stress than their male counterparts. Makes sense, then, that they would reach for something like alcohol, which purportedly subdues stressors and makes that stress easier to manage. It’s hard for adolescents today: The economy has tanked, many are watching their parents struggle from lost or reduced income, leaving them wondering what their future may hold. At the same time, they’re bombarded with images selling everything from thinness to beauty to the latest technology, while also learning to navigate school, social pressures, and their roles in society. Of course their worlds become stressful and confusing–picking up a drink will only make the stress worse in the long run.
So, what are some of the healthy ways you manage yourstress? We would love to hear from you!

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Categories
Addiction Adolescence Prevention

The Pharmaceutical Barter System

When was the last time you checked YOUR medicine cabinet for expired and/or unnecessary medications? You know, the ones from that surgery you had 4 years ago? Most parents are concerned that their kids will experiment with street drugs and alcohol, but the reality is, many are dipping into their parents medicine cabinets looking for a cheap (free) and easy way to propel themselves into delirium. In actuality, prescription drugs are more accessible and are often mistaken for being safer because the drug has been legitimized by an MD.

According to the Partnership for a Drug Free America:

  • 1 in 5 teens has abused a prescription pain medication
  • 1 in 5 report abusing prescription stimulants and tranquilizers
  • 1 in 10 has abused cough medicine

One of the more disturbing trends among teens are “pharm parties“:  kids raiding their parents’ medicine cabinets for prescription drugs and bartering their finds amongst themselves to get high. While the term itself is up for debate and often criticized for being a media fallacy, the behavior is real and easily confirmed from a treatment standpoint. There’s nary a counselor who has worked with adolescents that will claim falsehood in relation to pharmaceutical bartering amongst the teen set. Two driving factors of adolescent prescription drug abuse are:

  • a misperception that prescription medication isn’t harmful
  • the ease of access to these drugs at home, a friends house, and even the Internet.

So, here’s some sage words of advice for worried friends and families alike:

  • be mindful of what you have and how much you have
  • keep track of your refills
  • if your teen has been prescribed a drug, make sure YOU monitor it, not them
  • educate your friends and relatives about the danger of prescription drugs
  • discard drugs that are either expired or which are no longer needed
  • when disposing of medications, mix them with undesirable items like coffee grounds or kitty litter
  • do not flush medication down the toilet
Categories
Mental Health

Mindfulness Is Good for Teens, Too

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          With so many distractions coming from various directions, teens are prime candidates for learning lessons in mindfulness. This generation and the one following close behind are prepped to multi-task from birth. As teens are expected to juggle and negotiate everything from school to social media to the latest technology, it’s not surprising they are also seeking a means of “escape” or a way to do more in less time, i.e., drugs and alcohol. So, why not provide them with the tools to manage the business of their lives mindfully? The fact is, doing too much at once has a higher probability of lowering one’s efficiency while also raising one’s stress level–and let’s not forget, it also portends one being less likely to pay attention to what’s important. How present can one actually be if they’re having a conversation with you while typing an email or texting someone else? Or better yet, how much academia is a teenager actually going to digest if texting, social media, and their iPhone take precedence?
          These days, with the buzz about “Eat, Pray, Love,” the accessibility of the Dalai Lama, and the edginess and cool factor of groups like Against the Stream or Insight LA, the path of mindfulness and meditation has become less of a stigmatized lifestyle choice and more of an accepted means of moving through one’s day. It is better to be present and engaged than disconnected and preoccupied with which one of the 14 tasks you should tackle first. It’s hard enough just being a teen–add the pressures of the current trends and haves and have nots, and we have the potential for someone seeking an “out” in one way or another.
         More and more academicians and psychiatrists are stating that mindfulness is a healthier means of meeting the world. Introducing teens in recovery to mindfulness and meditation provides and invaluable tool in their recovery process. Because it puts one in a space of quiet, one soon finds there’s nowhere to go but the present, and though sometimes that can be challenging, there’s really no other place to be.

Categories
Recovery

School: Reintegrating Now That You’re Sober

        So, what do happens now that school has started? You have new rules to follow, sobriety, a different outlook on life, and now you find yourself back in the thick of things. How will you be perceived at school? Will people hate you, judge you, still want to talk to you? Will your teachers “know” that you are in recovery? Will they even care if they do know? And what about your classmates? Will you be an outcast or will you make new friends? These may be some of the thoughts going through your mind in this season of change, particularly since school and peer pressure may have been the playing field for many of the poor choices, risky behaviors, and questionable friends surrounding you in your days of using. It makes sense reentering that environment might stir things up, but you’re a different person now.
       When I was in junior high school and part of the “stoner” crowd, there were two guys in particular that were popular and always the center of whatever was going on. One day, they weren’t there anymore and when they returned, a few months later, they were both sober, bright eyed, healthy, and well, significantly different from the last time any of us had seen them. They were notably active in their recovery without being preachy–in a nutshell, they were passionate about being sober, and confident they were on the right path. They weren’t shy about their problems or where they’d been; they didn’t avoid their friends, instead, they became catalysts for change. I was always impressed with how these young men took something often deemed stigmatizing and made it safe and acceptable to talk about. As a result, I’ve carried that ideology with me into my own sobriety.
       For some, this year will be about finishing high school, for others, it’ll be the great jump into college: Either way, doing it all sober means you get to be present–what a tremendous blessing that is! Try to remember, sobriety doesn’t mean you’re weird, rather, it offers you the ability to change and is ultimately transformative. So, get involved, be of service, participate in your recovery with the fervor you had when you were drinking and using. Find meetings geared toward young people–trust me they’re out there! And if you live in an area where young peoples AA is lacking, start a group!

     Feel free to comment and share your experience, strength, and hope with us. We look forward to it!

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