As a parent, it is very difficult to admit that your child may be on drugs. But, the reality is that sometimes parents are presented with difficult situations and must keep their cool in dealing with the situation. Research shows that parents have a good deal of influence on their child and if they are positive, the child is more likely to stay away from drugs and alcohol. Conversely, parents who do not spend a lot of time with their child, and impact them negatively help create an environment where their kids may resort to using drugs to numb any pain they are feeling.
If your instinct is telling you that your child is on drugs, don’t waste any more time and start dealing with the issue as soon as possible. Here is a list of tips which you can follow to help save your child from drug abuse.
Communicate more and more with your child
Drug abuse in teens takes a lot of patience to handle and the road forward is not easy, so prepare yourself. The first step is to communicate with your child as a friend. Ask them about their friends and life. Make them comfortable so that they can rely on you and confide in you about their problems. Most importantly, don’t vilify or shame them, you will only make the matter worse.
Get involved in their lives
Teens mainly move forward with drugs for two reasons- either their friends are taking it and they give into peer pressure or there is a situation in their life they are finding difficult to handle. Know who your child is in contact with and encourage them to be a good influence to your teen. Be open, but at the same time, take steps to protect them.
Teach them the effects of drug abuse
Being an overprotective parent helps no one! You cannot and should not try to hide the realities of life from your teen. Show them what drugs can do to them. Get yourself educated and sit down with them and share the information together. This may be met with a lot of denial but stay persistent. After all, you love your child and would move mountains to see them happy, instead of being on drugs.
Don’t take anything to heart
Watching your teen suffer from drugs hurts a lot. But it is important to stay calm and rational or otherwise your child may lie to you about their use to relieve themselves of the guilt they are experiencing based upon your high emotions. Stay as positive as possible and be solution based. Learn to listen to your teen and seek the help of a professional if you don’t know where to turn.
Getting professional help
The common norm among parents these situations is to keep their child’s drug use a secret and avoid embarrassment. This though, does more harm than good to your teen. Parents should follow the above mentioned tips to create a safe environment for their child, but the chances are that your child needs professional care and would benefit from rehab. Many quality drug rehabs offer free consultations to get started. In the case of drug abuse among teens, parents can help make the child’s living easy and comfortable, but to truly recover, they must learn about their disease, what caused it, and how to deal with it. Consult with a professional so they can get the therapy they so desperately need. Life is hard enough at a young age and compounding it with a drug or alcohol problem is not fun.
If you are a parent who is having a tough time dealing with drug abuse in their teens, follow these few tips and get in touch with a drug rehab for treatment as soon as possible.