3 Reasons Teenagers Use Drugs

3 Reasons Teenagers Use Drugs

In today's post we are going to discuss 3 reasons why teens use drugs. Now there's probably a million different reasons teens use drugs, and some teens may use drugs for a variety of reasons but here are three of the most common reasons teens use drugs.

3 Reasons Teens Use Drugs

Self Medicating

This isn't unique to teens, even adults self medicate. People use drugs to deal with depression, because they feel lonely, and for a million other reasons. Teens self medicate for the same reasons. If your kid is using drugs, or if you feel they are struggling with depression or other issues bring them to see a counselor or psychiatrist. 

While it does seem doctors today are over medicating everybody, you should be cautious about putting your teenager on drugs, especially while their minds and bodies are still growing, however if they have a legitimate issue they should be treated. 

Call For Attention / Help

Many times teens act out for attention. If you're a single parent or if you work a lot and are not giving your child the attention they need. If you don't show an interest in their life, if you don't attent their sporting events, etc they may feel neglected or like you don't love them. They may act out because when you get suspended from school or get in trouble in some way, that may be the only way to truly get your attention. Even though it's not positive attention, it is attention.

Because It Makes You Cool

Now in reality, getting in trouble, getting suspended from school, getting involved with drugs, it's not cool it's ruining your life. But as a young, and oftentimes dumb teenager, getting in trouble sometimes makes you the "bad boy" or at the very least gets you noticed or gets you some type of attention. 

Again, the good type of attenion would be getting attention for some academic achievement or for doing well in sports. Though it's not that type of attention, it's still attention for getting arrested, or getting in a fight, or talking back to a teacher.

As a teenager I was never the most popular kid in school, but at the same time I wasn't picked on or anything like that either, I was just your average kid. That said I remember when I first started hanging out with a "bad crowd", when I first started smoking pot, when I first started selling a little bit of weed, I noticed that people knew my name, they knew who I was. Girls started paying attention to me. More guys, all be it not the good ones, but more guys wanted to be my friends as well. Getting in trouble brought me popularity, girls, notoriety, and friends, which as stupid as it sounds as a teenager is pretty attractive. 

Wrap Up

Obviously we can't lump all teens who use drugs into one of these three reasons. There are other reasons teens use drugs as well, however these are three of the more common reasons that teens use drugs. 

What do you think? What are some other reasons teens use drugs? 

Does Music Filled With Sex, Drugs & Violence Affect Your Teens Behavior?

Does Music Filled With Sex, Drugs & Violence Affect Your Teens Behavior?

This is somewhat of a controversial issue. Does sex, violence, and drug use in movies, music, and video games affect teenagers behaviors?

While some people say it has no affect, others state it can have a dramatic affect and streers teens to these behaviors. 

While I agree that a teenager playing Call of Duty on the Playstation is not going to make them run around on a killing spree, I do strongly believe that messages in music and movies can affect a teens behavior.

Does Music Glorifying Drugs, Violence & Sex Affect Your Childs Behavior?

First off let's think about it. When your going for a workout or a run do you put on a certain type of music? You most likely do. Why do you do that? Because it motivates you or it pumps you up. I think this is proof in itself that music affects our behavior. Another example would be when your having a romantic moment with your spouse or boyfriend or girlfriend. Have you ever put on a certain type of music to "set the mood"? Again, that proves that music can affect our mood and attitudes.

With that being said what do you think a teen who listens to music about sex, or drugs or violence is going to do. Is that going to have some affect on their behavior?

Now to some extent I would agree probably the vast majority of teenagers who listen to music aren't going to run out and mimic the behavior. In many instances people don't really even pay attention to the lyrics of a song, they just like the beat of the song. 

That said I can attest to music shaping my behavior as a teen personally. I remember as a teenager I was into rap music. I was also a bit into selling pot as well. What do you think I listened to when I was bagging up marijuana? I listened to rap music glorifying selling drugs. 

While I don't think every teen who listens to violent, sexual, or drug glorifying music will wind up engaging in those behaviors, I do believe some teenagers will affected to some extent or another by those messages. 

Now your the parent, you can decide what your kids and teens should and shouldn't listen to. While I think it would be appropriate not to let your middle school student pickup the new 50 Cent CD, once a teenager is in high school, it's my personal opinion you maybe shouldn't police their music selection. Let's be honest even mainstream music on the radio glorifies sex, drugs and violence so it's a part of pop culture. Aside from forcing your child to go Amish, most music that high schoolers are into is going to have some messages or inuendo your maybe not a fan of but I would suggest you choose your battles. That said keep an eye on the types of music and things your child is into. If all the sudden they are into EDM dance music and raves, you may want to keep an eye out for drug use. While it's entirely possible they just enjoy the music, it could also be a sign of other things. 

Teen Behavior Modification Schools - Just A Place To Warehouse Your Teen

Are Behavior Modification Schools Just A Teen Warehouse?

The teen help industry has gotten a bad rap in recent years, and for good reason. Many of these "schools" or programs prey on desperate parents who aren't thinking they straight. They manipulate them and take thousands of Dollars of their hard earned money. All the while promising qualified therapists, a good education, and a safe place for your teen.

In reality many of these programs are in small towns and third world countries who just use the cheap  and might I add, often unqualified" labor, of the local towns to educate and counsel your child. Some of these programs even abuse and neglect your kids.

Are Behavior Modification Program Just Warehousing Teens? 

As someone who spent 7 months in one such program, I don't mean to paint all teen help centers, programs, and schools with a broard brush, but in terms of the specific program I lived at, it was nothing more than a place to warehouse your teenager. 

I was in a WWASP program. They charged somewhere between $3,000 and $5,000 per month per teen. Though the teachers may have been "qualified" teachers, the education curriculum itself wasn't necessarily always enough to meet the standards of either college or a high school which a teen may return to. I personally knew a number of peers of mine who returned home to either go to college or return to their own high school only to learn that their credits didn't transfer over or were not adaquete. 

I'll touch on education in more detail in a future post, however just to give you an idea of what the schooling is like. Your "family" ie your group of other teens you live with are your classmates. Each student is working at their own pace doing their own work. You are given a textbook which you read and self teach yourself. At the end of a lesson or chapter you take a short 10 or 20 question test of which I believe you had to get somewhere between 70% and 80% to pass. 

Now keep in mind there is only one test, so if you take the test once and fail, you can pretty much just memorize the answers and retake the test. I shoudl also add that you grade your own test oftentimes. 

While there were some good teachers who actually cared, others, when you asked them for help would tell you take the test, fail it, figure out the answers and retake it. 

The entire structure of the education program is reading a textbook yourself and taking a short test. To me this doesn't really demonstrate that you know how to learn, so much as you know how to memorize or even copy/cheat. 

There are no essay tests, there is no classroom discussion, and there really is no supplementary materials so in my humble opinion teenagers in these programs are getting a very subpar education. As if that wasn't bad enough, when the parents of these teenagers are paying thousands of Dollars per month which could potentially probably send these teenagers to a top of the line boarding school or private school, they are instead paying all this money to essentially have these teens do something which they could essentially do at home for free. 

The food served in these programs is basically prison food. Heavy calories starch based food which is not only cheap but causes people to gain weight so they can feed you less and not have teens losing weight and complaining about being malnourished.

As far as counseling, I don't see much counseling being done in these programs and honestly counseling consists of a 30 minute or possibly one hour group session which is really nothing more than a gripe session with a counselor listening to complaints from each family of 12 to 15 teens complaining about bad food, they need to see a doctor, etc. At the specific program I was at, I don't believe there was even a licensed or properly trained counselor on staff.

Now I don't mean to sound as if nobody cares. Though maybe not officially licensed or trained there are a few good apples, a few good "counselors" who actually seem to care about kids and want the best for them, but it's far from being the overwhelming majority, and if I was a parent thinking my child was being cared for by properly licensed and trained professionals I would be unhappy with the reality of the situation.

My point here, and again,  I don't mean to paint all programs with a broad brush, but nothing about the WWASP program I was in really seemed to really care or put any real emphasis on education or counseling. If this weren't so sad, it would almost be funny, because the entire sales pitch to parents is their kid isn't going to graduate high school if they continue on their current path, and their kid is damaged and needs counseling and care. Just give us a few thousand Dollars a month and we'll provide that, and then that very same program who really in fact is out for nothing more than money skimps on two of the very things they claim to parents is so important.

Ultimatley, my experience in a teen behavior modification program wasn't really getting any help or improving myself. Essentially what it feels like is warehousing your teen. Unlike some wilderness programs which are 30, 60, maybe even 90 day programs, most WWASP programs are long term program, sometimes with teens being there for as much as 4 or 5 years. That's great for the WWASP bank account but not so great for teens and/or parents.

I can actually see some value in a short term wilderness camp. Shock to the teens system, get them away from their normal environment, get them to appreciate some of the small things they have at home and basically just to take a step back and do some self assessment and learn some new skills. When the program however lasts for years, taking a teen away from their family, friends, school, etc, at that point its nothing more than warehousing the kid.

Now if you feel you have a terrible kid who's behind helping and you want them to make it to their 18th birthday without killing themself or someone else, and you think this is the only option, then by all means warehouse your child for a couple years and hopefully by the time they turn 18 maybe you luck out and they mature a bit or calm down a bit. But for those parents who's teens are just a bit rebellious or just need a little wakup call, I don't think sending your child off for years to a program is good for you, your child, or your family.

Keeping Your Teen Off Drugs - 2 EASY Tips

Keeping Your Teen Off Drugs - 2 EASY Tips

As a parent you obviously want to keep your teen off drugs. It seems these days kids younger and younger are starting to experiment with drugs so it's important you get on top of these things early. 

In the past, it seems most kids didn't get involved in drugs, alcohol, and sex until High School. These days were seeing it more and more often in middle school and sometimes even as young as 5th grade or elementary school.

In today's post we have two simple tips to keep your kids off drugs. Now I don't mean to say easy as in this isn't going to require effort because it is. One of the biggest problems I see today is non-parenting. Non-parenting being just letting your kids do whatever they want without much accountability. Sure it's easier, your kids won't talk back to you if you're not putting any limitations on them, but that is not a good strategy as a parent.

When I say these methods are easy, I mean it's not a complicated thing to implement. I would recommend implementing these two steps when your child is in middle school, don't wait for them to get into high school where it's going to be harder to implement this stuff.

So what are these two simple steps to keep your teen off drugs...

Teen Drug Use

Family Dinners

Now I understand it can be difficult to get the whole family together for dinner. Sometimes one or both parents work late, fixing a dinner isn't easy, and with kids being involved in sports and activities sometimes it can be tough to make time for a family to sit down to dinner together.

A family dinner every night, or at the very least on a regular greatly lessens the chances your teen will use drugs. This is backed up by studies and stats. Not only does having a dinner make your family closer and more connected which in itself is a way to keep kids off drugs, but furthermore, it's not fun going to a family dinner stoned.

As a former teen who would smoke weed after school, I can attest that there is nothing worse than getting stoned with your friends only to lose track of time and realize you have to rush home and sit down for dinner with your family. It's probably one of the most awkward and uncomfortable experiences a teen can have.

As a teen who's stoned sitting down to dinner with mom and dad your trying to act normal. Hoping nobody notices your high and acting wierd. Hoping nobody notices you smell like pot. Trying not to make eye contact with your parents. As a teen this is enough of a deterant in itself to keep a teenager off drugs. 

Essentially what this boils down to is accountability. Think about your workplace. If you had no accountability for deadlines, sales numbers, or standards, what would happen? Chances are you, or at least some people in the office would slack off a bit. It's not because they have a poor work ethic, it's just human nature without accountability your not at your best. Even holding yourself accountable. Successful people and high performance people regularly do self assessment and hold themselves accountable.

We can carry this same logic over to parenting. If your child can just run the streets and has no accountability they are going to do what they want, and it's easier for them to find their way into situations they maybe shouldn't be a part of. On the otherhand, if your child knows everyday at 5:30PM they are responsible to be home for dinner with the family it's not quite as tempting to go smoke a blunt after school when they know in just an hour or two after that are going to have to be home sitting at the dinner table with their parents and siblings. 

As a teenager, my family had a nightly family dinner, and I was responsible for being home for dinner every night. Though I still did get into trouble and while I still did occasionally smoke a little weed after school, it definately kept me in check to some extent and it allowed my parents to catch wind when I was up to something.

Curfews & Seeing Your Child When They Get Home At The End Of The Night

Another important element of keeping your child off drugs is having a curfew as well as making them check in with you when they get home at the end of the night. This again goes to accountability. If your child is able to come home after a night of drinking and go straight to their bedroom there is really no accountability. 

On the other hand, if your child is expected when they get home to come check in with you, let you know they are home and give you a hug or kiss goodnight. Well now if they smell like booze or smoke, or pot, it's going to be pretty easy for you to tell. 

I remember back as a teenager going to bowling alleys on purpose to hangout so when you got home you had an excuse as to why you smelled like smoke. Now days however with bowling alleys being smoke free that trick is done. I also remember guys dousing themselves with cologne and girls dousing themselves with fruity bath and body sprays to try to cover up the smell of pot or smoke on them. 

When your child gets home and has to check in with you, it gives you a chance to smell them, to look into their eyes, to see how they are walking and talking, etc. 

Again, this is a way for you to put some accountability on your teen, and despite this if your teen is still going to smoke, or drink, or use drugs, at least you'll catch onto it early and can take some action to curb this behavior, as opposed to you not being involved and holding your teen accountable to the point where this can go on for years and grow to be an addition before you finally take action. 

Wrap Up

Though this post is titled "Keeping Your Teen Off drugs - 2 Easy Tips", I do realize that having a family dinner and actually parenting your teen isn't easy. Sure it's easier to practice non parenting and let your child go about their business doing what they want. That said that's not what's best for your teen and your job as a parent is to hold your teen accountable and make sure they grow up healthy and happy. 

Hopefully you enjoyed this post and will put these things into practice. If you're already practicing these things and fine them beneficial please leave a comment below and let us know how it's going for you.