It Would Never Happen to Us

Teen drug addiction is always some other family’s tragedy, until it hits home.

It was June. Fresh faces sprouted throughout our community newspaper. High school graduates who excelled in academics, sports and community service were honored daily with photos and short articles recognizing their accomplishments. I read the accounts with joy — and a heavy heart. How wonderful to see hope sprinkled among the daily tragedies. Yet I grieved as the ideal portrait I’d painted of my own teen faded into reality.

“Bright, beautiful, full of energy. Can be a delightful teen.” I paused a moment to ponder. “Could have made it, but she stumbled and fell short of the finish line.” It began as a little rebellion. A desire to be hip.

She smoked her first cigarette behind the church. Drank her first beer in junior high. I thought, She must be someone else’s daughter. It couldn’t happen on my manicured cul-de-sac, in our church. But, it did. Continue Reading…

Stage One: Experimentation

• Use is occasional, sporadic, often unplanned — weekends, summer nights, someone’s unsupervised party.
• Use is precipitated by peer pressure, curiosity, thrill seeking, desire to look and feel grown-up.
• Gateway drugs are usually used — cigarettes, alcohol, marijuana, possibly inhalant abuse.
• A drug high is easier to experience because tolerance has not been developed.

Parents may notice:

• Tobacco or alcohol on the breath or intoxicated behavior.
• Little change in normal behavior between episodes of drug use. Continue Reading…