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Substance Abuse

Family & Home Life

Why Do Teens Get High?

Adolescence: Novelty Seeking, Identity Formation, Social Networks  Parents know teens experiment with drinking and drugs during adolescence. The most common drugs teens try during high school are alcohol, marijuana, and tobacco – in that order – although marijuana and tobacco are almost tied, percentage-wise, for the second most commonly used drug among teens during their high school years. Not all teens experiment with intoxicants, of course. But by the end

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Anxiety & Mood Disorders

Parents – How to Handle Anxiety About Sending Your Teen Out-of-State for Treatment

When you learn your teen has a mental health or alcohol/substance use disorder, it can come as a shock. You feel all kinds of emotions. Sadness, worry, fear, and pain are not unusual things to feel in your situation. It’s not unusual to be all over the place, to be honest. You name it, and you’ll probably feel it. It can be a confusing time. You may even be angry

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Anxiety & Mood Disorders

Anger Management for Teens

How to Help Teens Handle Powerful Emotions We all get angry sometimes. Some of us get angry often, while some of us have a sunny disposition by default. We don’t angry very often and don’t get bothered by much. Those of us who do get angry a lot learn how to manage that anger. If we don’t, we have family problems, relationship problems, problems at work, and, in some cases,

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When Should a Parent Consider Adolescent Dual Diagnosis Treatment Centers?

Treatment for Teens With a Substance Use and Mental Health Disorder When a parent finds out their teen has a substance use disorder (SUD) or an alcohol use disorder (AUD), the first thing they want to do is to help their child heal. In most cases, they seek evidence-based treatment for addiction. They ask friends, search online, and take the advice of their teen’s therapist or counselor and find the

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Anxiety & Mood Disorders

When Does an Adolescent Need a Psychiatric Hospital vs. A Lower Level of Care?

How Can Parents Tell What Level of Care Their Teen Needs? Mental health disorders, like any other type of illness humans experience, come in all types. This is true across the lifespan: children, adolescents, adults, and seniors can all develop mental health disorders. Although the disorders share similar characteristics when they appear in the different phases of life, mental health professionals use slightly different criteria for diagnosing a disorder in

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Anxiety & Mood Disorders

California Offers the Best Residential Treatment Centers for Teens

Teen Treatment Centers in The Golden State If your teen has a serious mental health condition, they may need residential treatment. Teens with emotional, behavioral, or alcohol/substance use disorders (AUD/SUD) typically begin treatment with less immersive levels of care, such as outpatient treatment, intensive outpatient programs (IOP), or partial hospitalization programs (PHP). However, if your teen participated in a program at one of these levels of care but didn’t make

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What Parents Need to Know About Wax, Dabbing, and Vaping Marijuana

This is Not the Marijuana Hippies Smoked at Woodstock After alcohol and tobacco, marijuana is the most commonly used and abused drug among teenagers in the United States. Teen marijuana use became widespread in the 70s, dipped in the 80s, and steadily increased through the 90s, the 2000s, and 2010s. When marijuana vaping products became available several years ago, they became popular among high school students. Rates of use for

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Are Psychiatric Treatment Centers the Best Option for Your Troubled Teen?

How Do You Know if Your Troubled Teen Needs Psychiatric Treatment? The teenage years can be challenging for teens and parents alike. Adolescence is a time of radical transformation in virtually every area of a teenager’s life. Without going into extensive detail in each of these categories, we’ll review the major changes that occur for everyone during the teen years. Adolescence: Five Big Changes 1. Physical The presence of new

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As Parents Return to Work, Teens May Not Handle It Well. Here’s Why.

As COVID cases continue to drop nationwide, life is slowly returning to normal. Schools that closed are gradually opening for in-person classes. Sporting events, concerts, and parties are resuming. And parents are gearing up to go back to their regular work schedules if they haven’t already. To most people, this is all good news. Not every employed parent enjoyed working from home during the pandemic. Evidence shows that many cut

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Anxiety & Mood Disorders

The Best Options for Mental Health Treatment in Los Angeles

Mental Health Treatment Helps Teens Become The Best Version of Themselves The past year has been eventful, to say the least. The events started early. The early spring brought the pandemic. The summer brought months of protests around racial and social justice. The fall brought the national elections, followed by upheaval around various election-related events – too numerous, divisive, and contentious to name here. We mention all this to validate

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