When an individual uses two or more substances at the same time, the practice is called polydrug use. Polydrug use is particularly common among adolescents experimenting with alcohol and drugs. How Common Is Polydrug Use in Teens? One study of teens in California, conducted by the RAND research institute in Los Angeles, found that 29% of their sample of high school seniors engaged in polydrug usage in the past year.
Your teen is addicted to heroin or other opioids. You’ve been getting lots of advice. Mental health professionals have told you about Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), 12-Step programs (e.g. Nar-Anon), and adolescent drug rehab centers. You’ve also heard about detoxification (often referred to as detox), and Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT). For teens addicted to heroin or other opioids, traditional detox—cutting off all the substances from their system
Your school has a fire alarm. Fire extinguisher on each floor. Earthquake drills, if you live in California. Active-shooter drills, because it’s the 21st century. AED unit, in case of heart complications. EpiPen, for allergies. But does your school have Narcan, in case of a drug overdose? What is Narcan? First, what is Narcan? When someone overdoses on opioids, whether it’s heroin, fentanyl, or prescription painkillers, they can stop breathing.
Parents often call us when their adolescent is having substance abuse issues. Sometimes, when they mention that their teen has used heroin, they’ll follow up with a statement like, “But they say they’ve only tried it a couple of times at a party…” Unfortunately, we’re here to break your bubble: Heroin is not a social drug. If you’re imagining a bunch of teens getting high together and letting loose at
Two years ago, popular celebrity Lena Dunham shared her personal experience with benzodiazepines, otherwise known as benzos. Although her doctor prescribed benzos to manage her anxiety, Dunham found that she was becoming dependent on them. So much so, in fact, that she was taking the medication about every day for three years. They are only supposed to be prescribed for weeks, at most. Benzodiazepines are minor tranquilizers with sedative effects.
In our first post about PTSD Awareness Month – June is PTSD Awareness Month – we offered a basic definition of PTSD, listed the potential causes and common symptoms, then provided statistics about the prevalence of PTSD in adults and adolescents in the U.S. Here’s a quick recap of all that information. PTSD defined: PTSD is a mental health disorder triggered by witnessing or experiencing a traumatic event. Traumatic events
Daniel just had his wisdom teeth removed. His cheeks were as swollen as a chipmunk, and he could barely open his mouth because of the pain. As soon as he started taking the Vicodin that the dentist prescribed, things got better. It was a blessed relief that the pain went away. He felt like he was floating on clouds. A week later, the pain was completely gone, but he had
If you’re a parent of a teen, it can be confusing when you hear your teen talk to others, or try to read their texts. If you’re not familiar with teen slang, some of their exchanges may seem unfamiliar or downright odd. Adolescents today will also use words and phrases that mean totally different things than what you may think they mean. Many times, teen-speak can denote sexual- and drug-related
This article follows up on the information presented in our post National Drug and Alcohol Facts Week: The Latest Data on Adolescent Drug Use. In that article, we offered a string of useful statistics about teens and drug use. We asked you to think about how to use this latest round of data from the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) to help your teen. We’re doing the same with
In Part One of “Does My Teen Need Drug Rehab?” we discussed the basic levels of care you might find if you decide to seek treatment for your teen. We also reviewed the new vocabulary around addiction treatment. The accepted term for what used to be called drug rehab is now treatment for substance use disorders. There are many reasons for the change in terminology, and none of them are
