Health Network News

The scary thing about teenage drug abuse and teenage alcoholism - is the fact how young kids getting addicted to drugs and alcohol are today. It’s not uncommon to see kids of 12 and 13 in rehab being treated for addiction.

Being a teenager is a confusing and difficult time. You’re generally trying to make sense of things, especially yourself, and your place in the world. Hormones that are all over the show, first real meaningful interactions with the opposite sex, and the general pressures of school life, make it hard.

The teenagers of today are also being exposed to far more, far earlier, because of the media and MTV type culture we now live in. Sex, drugs and alcohol are possibly not regarded as ‘out of bounds’ subjects as they were 15-20 years ago.

With experimenting and trying out stuff which is a natural part of being a teenager anyway, means that kids now are also starting to try things much younger, and because they haven’t yet got the maturity to deal with that, it can get them into trouble.

It is impossible however to pin the increase in teen drug and alcohol addiction to any single factor. There are just so many different variables that may play a role.

Greater exposure at a younger age and so experimenting sooner as I mentioned briefly above, mixed in with a large dose of peer pressure, certainly play a significant role. One tends to do a lot of dumb stuff when you’re young, with alcohol and drug abuse obviously a part of that for many.

I possibly think too that the standard of parenting, is possibly not what it used to be and so also plays a significant role. These days both parents tend to work, hours worked are generally longer, you have more single parent families, divorce rates are higher - all this stuff is going to affect teenagers who then use alcohol and drugs to escape their emotional turmoil.

But I think one of the biggest reasons today for the escalating problem of teenage alcoholism, and especially teenage drug addiction, is the availability of alcohol and drugs. If you look especially at the kinds of drugs readily and easily available on the streets today, heroin and amphetamines being two of the worst, it doesn’t take long for kids to get addicted. And these are drugs that weren’t available as easily 15-20 years ago.

Fighting the battle against teenage drug addiction and alcoholism is getting more difficult by the day. As a parent, providing a supportive and loving home environment is your most important job, and in reality pretty much as you can really do. You then just have to hope and pray it will be enough.

Share This