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Dear Dr. Bill,
You have told us that over fifty percent of our country's
children have used an illegal drug by the time they leave
high school. I have three children under the age of ten. How
can I predict if my they are going to use drugs? How can I
prevent it? How can I help them if they do start using? Concerned
Mom-River Edge
Dear Concerned Mom,
You should be concerned. Whether in cities, suburbia
or rural communities, whether in wealthy or poor neighborhoods,
drugs are now readily available to all young people. . Drugs
are an equal opportunity destroyer.
First, have to understand why a child might
start using drugs. Over 50 risk factors have been identified
at the individual, family, peer group, and broader community
levels; things like too much free time, weak family structures,
peer groups, social pressures, and the glorifying of drug
use by some of the media. These factors relate only to the
overall probabilities of whether a child with certain characteristics
might be prone to drug use. They can help keep a parent alert;
no set of risk factors determines whether a certain child
will use drugs; many with several risk factors don't even
try drugs. (So parents really have to deal with each child's
situation and state of mind.)
Research suggests the immediate decision
to use drugs is driven, basically, by one of two types of
reasons. One group uses just to feel good, seeking novelty
or excitement; to have a good time. They are the ones who
say they use drugs because all of their friends are doing
it; they just want to be "cool." These kids are
the most likely to respond to educational programs about the
harmful effects of drugs on their bodies, and are most influenced
by the powerful protective factor of having strong, loving
parents interested and involved in all aspects of their lives.
They are also more likely to be successfully taught to resist
the temptation to try drugs.
But there is another, very different group
of kids who are using for more intractable reasons ..kids
who in some way are suffering and medicating themselves with
drugs to just feel better, or even normal. They are often
stuck in very difficult life situations, e.g., poverty or
abusive families. This group also includes kids suffering
from untreated mental illnesses, like clinical depression,
manic depressive or panic disorders, and schizophrenia. As
many as 10 million youngsters suffer emotional and psychiatric
problems so great that they are unable to function normally
and the majority are at very high risk of becoming addicted
as many are using drugs in the same way that other people
might take prescribed anti-anxiety or anti-depressant medications.
The problem is that illicit drugs is not an effective treatment.
Medical research has shown clearly that these drugs only exacerbate
underlying psychological problems.
Prevention and treatment for this latter
group is quite different from what one would use with novelty
seekers or social users. It is meaningless to warn youngsters
who feel terrible today that using drugs may alter their brains
a month from now. For them, encouragement to seek other sources
of fun or to seek nicer friends is seldom worthwhile either...The
otherwise powerful protective factor of loving, supportive
family involvement is generally ineffective for these kids..
They are are trying to self-medicate and need professional
help with their underlying problems.
If a child reaches the age of 20 without
using alcohol, tobacco or marijuana, the liklihood of developing
a serious drug problem is almost zero. On 10/3/01 I listed
some of the warning signs of use (Now on my web-site: <vanostinstitute.org/drbill>).
There's a ton more info in your local library, bookstore and
on the web-site of The National Institute of Drug Abuse: (<www.nida.nih.gov>).
If one of your kids gets hooked in the future and you haven't
read-up on the subject, then YOU have been part of the problem.
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