Thought provoking article about teen substance abuse treatment

SuZir

Well-Known Member
http://content.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2003160-2,00.html

Article talks, with actually mentioning many scientific studies, about risks of group therapy for (especially young) substance abusers. It seems that kids, especially those who are in earlier states of substance abuse can in fact turn out worse if they get standard group therapy based substance abuse treatment or are sent to rehab than if nothing is done. And more favourable outcomes come from individual and family therapy and a teen staying home and being kept away from other recovering substance abusers.

Reason for this, that kids who have used more or have had worse behaviours are considered cooler and being higher in hierarchy by other kids and kids with less use and less serious behaviours emulate those behaviours. And that 'war stories' kids hear in group therapy make them interested to try also substances they haven't used before.

The article implies, that if group therapy or support groups are used, one should be careful to place only kids with similar type and severity of issues to one group.
 

BusynMember

Well-Known Member
The problem here is most of the adult children here do what they want and go when they want, where they want and in the case of drug abuse, we very rarely know the extent of the drug use. Maybe this would be valid for a younger child, and we can GUESS at the extent they are involved, but adults are adults. Most don't go anywhere until they are ready to stop, or think they are (it often takes many tries), but they don't ask us where to go. The only "Free" option for drug abuse is AA or Narc-Anon around here. Most adults, if they even humble themselves to go to therapy at all, go to private drug counselors. Many, if not most of those counselors are addicts in remission for a very long time. The adult kids respect those who have been there/done that more than just somebody who learned from a book.

At any rate, since there is no way for parents to know how involved with drugs our adult kids are, we can't say "This place may be more helpful for you than that place" and know if it's true. Now I have no first hand experience here. Remember, my daughter shunned all therapy and quit on her own. From what I've seen and heard, the best way for anybody to quit a substance is to really want to quit and to be motivated and willing to go through pain to get there.

After high school, at least around here, there is no "cool" kids who don't go to college or work and hang on the street doing drugs. They are considered the losers, even amongst themselves. Many end up in jail/prison.

JMO
 

SuZir

Well-Known Member
MWM: Yes, article deals with treatment of teens. Adults of course decide themselves, what type of treatment they get involved with and often self choose to go to the options that they identify with. At least if they are not coerced by legal system, employer or some other authority (in my country if an employee has substance abuse problem, employer is law obliged to offer treatment before they can fire a person in most cases. So if people want to keep their job, they have to abide.)

But I'm sure I'm not an only parent here, who has been looking for and chosen treatment for their minor teen child for addiction issues.
 

BusynMember

Well-Known Member
No, but in the U.S. we can't force teens into treatment. If they go, it's because they want to go so we have to pick where they go. Now often it IS the justice system that decides where they go. I don't like the rules, but it's not my call.

And even with teens, as I have had one who I thought was only smoking pot, we don't know what they are really doing once they have gone that far off the rails. They plain don't tell us. I don't think anything Therapeutic could have made my daughter better or worse. She hung around with such dangerous people, that she was surrounded by the worst case scenarios. Of course, at the time, we didn't know how bad her "friends" were, and that's the whole problem. We may have stuck her into a group for kids who were only smoking pot when, in fact, she was doing speed, meth, downers and psychedelics, but we didn't know it. There would have been nothing to stop her from talking about it to the other teens, who may also have been doing more than smoking pot. And, yes, in high school Princess became very popular AFTER she started using drugs.

But that sure stopped fast after she graduated and half her "friends" were already in jail or on parole and, although she did go to Cosmetology School, most of her "friends" were just hanging around, doing drugs, and not working and the other kids looked down on them.
 
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