Drug And Alcohol Abuse

Drug and alcohol abuse is the increasing problem among teenagers in today's high schools. Most drug use begins in the preteen and teenage years, these years most crucial in the maturation process.During these years adolescents are faced with difficult tasks of discovering their self identity, clarifying their sexual roles, assenting independence, learning to cope with authority and searching forgoals that would give their lives meaning. Drugs are readily, adolescents are curious and venerable, and there is peer pressure to experiment, and there is a temptation to escape from conflicts. Inorder to manage the pressures involved with being a teenager some turn to drugs or alcohol as a crutch. It is very important that an adolescent using alcohol or drugs gets help as soon as possible.Knowing what to look for will assist parents in determining if a teen with behavior problems is indeed using alcohol or drugs. Often parents are confused with a teen’s normal behavior and a sign ofpossible drug abuse but there are quite a few signs that can be recognized.
Signs to look for:
Change in personality.- They become more rebellious than usual and they may refused to do any chores. Theylook depressed all the time or/and pick up fights at shcool or home, they are worn out and apathetic most of the time, or develops a nagging cough, appears to have the sniffles or runny nose, ordevelops nosebleeds frequently.
Change in appearance.- They start using more dark color than before, girls use too much make up, and/or are very disinterested in looking clean or neat.
Child seems veryvague, apathetic, disinterested, out of it.- This could mean they are high while you are talking to them or that they are coming down from some type of drug that they did the day before, whichdepletes the serotonin in a teen's brain and can cause very depressed type of behavior.
Child repeatedly comes home late or not at all.- When kids do this, there is a good chance they have gotten high on...