It’s never too late to help your child!
You may be the greatest parent in the world, or your teenager may be the best child you could have ever wished for!
However, there is still no guarantee that your teenager won’t experiment with the wrongly hyped drugs. Today, many kids are tempted to abuse medical prescriptions due to peer pressure, media, depression, anxiety, and other similar problems.
Seek Help From The Professionals
The topic of drug abuse is not to be taken lightly, nor can the case be treated at home. You can start by taking your child to a doctor who screens patients for drug substance abuse. You can also contact a drug addiction specialist who often looks into the matter directly.
The doctors or drug addiction specialist will perform the necessary screenings that will include questions related to the drug abuse, the influencers, drivers, behaviors, etc.
Further screening will include tests, such as urine or blood test to derive the extent of drug spread in the body.
Recognizing that your child has a drug abuse problem is the first step that you have already taken in helping your teenager. This takes tremendous amount of strength and courage as a parent. Your support and love, combined with the doctors/specialists medication will help your teenager to a smooth recover.
Before jumping on your teen or panicking about the fact: Calm down and prepare yourself! Read below to find out how you can help your drug addicted teenager:
Where to start?
First things first, talk to your teen!
You have to collect all the courage to talk to your child. This is a very crucial step, emotionally and physically. Pick a place of conversation where you can discuss the ‘how, when and where’, and make sure that the environment is right for such a conversation. Therefore, pick a place that is most comfortable for your teenager, for example; his or her room.
Bringing up the topic of drug abuse in the right tone and manner is also essential. This is because it can make a difference in future relationship between the parent and the child. Some discussion topics that you could consider are:
Reasons not to use drugs
Discuss some reasonable facts with your teenage that highlights the negative impact drug abuse can have on his/her life. Do not start with a lecture, or a tone that turns off your child. Have a friendly tone and try to take your teen in full confidence.
Peer pressure: Discuss how the teen can resist it
Discuss with your teens some ways that can help him practically to say no to drugs.
Give your own example:
Put yourself in your teenager’s shoe. Think about how you would respond to drug at this age? Give examples as to how you resisted to abuse drug during your teenage years. Share your experience honestly, even if you used drugs, tell them how much you regret the action at present.
