Is Your Teen Taking Drugs? Follow This 4 Step Action Plan

Guest post by Rosy Cooper of Future Expectations Today

In a survey conducted by the World Health Organization (WHO) revealed that the US has a higher number of teen substance-abuse cases in comparison to many other countries. These results can be frightening for the parents of teens, especially those whose age is between 10 to 19 years.

When you discover that your teen is struggling from drug addiction or abuse, you may have a difficult time with your own emotions, anger and feelings. This is the biggest mistake most parents make. Regardless of how critical your teen’s case seems, recovery is feasible with the help of the right support and treatment.

Here is a 5-step action guide to follow to help your teen overcome the drug abuse or addiction:

1. Emotional Nurturing

This is one of the most effective factors in drug abuse treatment for adolescents. Take a step forward and reach out to the root cause of the problem and always let your teen know you’re with them until they start loving themselves again.

Remember, it’s not a piece of cake to recover from serious substance abuse. The path is long and challenging. Your teen requires space, time, motivation, commitment and support throughout their recovery.

2. Explore Different Treatment Options

Now it’s time to look for the treatment options available in your country.

One of the most important things to consider when you search for treatment is there is no single treatment for all drug addicts. For example, an adult facility wouldn’t work for your teen. Look for an exclusive teen rehabilitation center that best suits your child’s needs and conditions.

Often, drug addict suffer from psychological disorders, which means you need to find a dual-diagnosis treatment center where your teen can get both mental health and drug addiction treatment.

3. Don’t Hesitate in Asking For Support

You need support too! You may share your problems with friends, relatives and other reliable people in your life. Because addiction is a family problem, treatment facilities will also provide family groups, as well as offer support groups. Having supportive resources will provide you with the support you need while also supporting your teen’s recovery process.

4. Keep Them Engaged

The best teen drug rehabs, camps or schools follow this concept as a helpful tool for recovering addicts. They organize various fun activities like hiking, mountain climbing, cycling, picnicking, et cetera, to keep struggling teens engaged and to teach social skills while also showing them they can have fun without drugs and alcohol.

These rehab centers or camps may also take troubled teens to various places, so they can experience a diversity of culture and nature. Many studies show that a positive environment, friendliness and healthy activities (both physical and intellectual) play a crucial role in the recovery of adolescents.

The road to recovery is challenging, but the right road map can certainly help your teen on the battlefield of his or her life.

Author Bio: Rosy works for a trust based teen rehabilitation center. She often writes about prevention methods, signs and various treatment methods of teen drug addicts in many health magazines and online blogs. You can follow her on Twitter and Facebook.

Teen Rehab: A Space for Healing

Making the decision to send your child to teen rehab is emotionally complex. It takes great courage to pick up the phone and ask for help when your family is in crisis. Harder yet is the process of following through and accepting the help you are given. A suffering teen, who is spiraling quickly down the rabbit hole of addiction and mental health isn’t exactly a pillar of willingness; parents are sure to be confronted with resentment and resistance. The truth is, a teen who is in trouble more than likely won’t look at going to a teen rehab as a viable option, let alone a necessity. For some, however, it is a life-saving necessity.

As we enter into our second decade of service, we want you to know you have a safe refuge to turn to. At Visions, we have built a treatment facility ready to provide you with the tools to heal from the wounds of addiction and mental illness, while providing you with the skills to love without crossing the boundaries into co-dependence. We have two residential houses: one that caters to mental health issues and one to addiction. We also have an outpatient facility, a day school, and a young adult program, and gender specific sober living facilities. The varying levels of care we provide are broad. Teen rehab need no longer be considered a frightening place to send your adolescent, but rather a refuge for your teen to heal and rediscover a space of emotional and physical safety.

Curious about whether or not your child needs teen rehab? Check for these warning signs:

Is your child away from home for long periods of time and unable to communicate where they’ve been or what they’ve been doing?
When they do come home, do they beeline for their room, making no eye contact or conversation?
Is there a profound change in behavior: is your child especially angry or easily agitated or are they showing signs of depressions or apathy?
Are their grades suddenly dropping?
Has their social circle suddenly changed?
Have they radically altered their appearance in some way?
Are their moods markedly changing?
Has there been an abrupt change in weight?

Some parents are fortunate enough to have a child who attempts transparency and who tells them they have been using. Keep this in mind: if your child does tell you they’ve tried drugs or are doing drugs, you more than likely need to multiply the amount by 3, if not more. Teen rehab isn’t just about your teen; it provides a space for the family to heal as a unit. A teen using drugs and alcohol, cutting, or starving themself is voicelessly begging for help. As parents, we have to step outside of that place of blame and anger to help our teen step on a path to recovery. Teen rehab can facilitate that process.