Could Your Child Benefit from a Teen Drug Rehab Program?

No matter how much we learn about the troubling prevalence of teen drug abuse in the United States, the misguided belief that this problem only impacts “bad kids” from other families remains unfortunately common among parents throughout the nation.

 

The truth, of course, is that teen drug abuse and teen drug addiction of “equal opportunity offenders,” with neither geography nor race/ethnicity nor socioeconomic status providing any level of immunity.

 

Visit almost any teen drug rehab program, and there’s a good chance that you’ll find a group of young people who don’t look all that different from your son or daughter. 

 

In other words, though you may not want to admit it, teen drug abuse threatens every family – even yours.

Once you have acknowledged that your family is not immune from the threat of teen drug abuse, the next important step is to educate yourself about the symptoms and risk factors that could indicate that your child has a problem.

 

According to the Adolescent Substance Abuse Knowledge Base, the following are signs of teen drug abuse:

 

* Dramatic decline in academic performance

* Missing school (either by claiming to be sick or by skipping)

* Significant mood swings (including unexplainable and/or seemingly unprovoked outbursts of anger, rage or sadness)

* Withdrawal from hobbies and activities that the teen previously enjoyed

* Sudden change in friends (and refusal to introduce new friends to you)

* Pattern of secrecy or continued attempts to hide behaviors

* Loss of interest and motivation

* Hypersomnia (sleeping excessively) or insomnia (inability to get to sleep)

* Significant changes in energy level (either toward manic levels of energy or extreme lethargy)

* Anxiety and/or depression

 

Though many of these symptoms and behaviors appear a lot like “normal teen phases,” the presence of several of these could be an indication that your teen is abusing alcohol or other drugs. And, depending upon the nature and severity of your teen’s involvement with drugs, the best option may be enrollment in a teen drug rehab program.

The first benefit of enrolling in a teen drug rehab program (especially in a residential teen drug rehab program) is that the child is removed from his or her regular daily routine and placed under the supervision of trained professionals.

 

For many teens, the simple act of leaving home, being away from friends, and eliminating the distractions, pressures and stresses of daily life has a profound impact.

 

Depending upon the type of teen drug program that you choose for your child, the following features may play integral roles in getting your child back on the path toward a healthy and drug-free future:

 

* Structured environment and close supervision

* Psychological, behavioral and academic assessments

* Individual, group, and family therapy 

* Individualized education plans

* Education in 12 Step philosophies and similar recovery models

* Identification and treatment of co-occurring disorders (such as depression, behavior disorders and learning differences) that may have led to or been exacerbated by the drug abuse

* Strong family program (to help you and your family make the changes that are necessary to improve family relationships and to support your teen’s recovery)

* Alumni/aftercare services (to help your child maintain recovery following treatment)

The most important factor in selecting a teen drug rehab program for your child is to determine which program is best suited to meet the specific needs of your child. 

 

For example, a child who needs a high-impact, short-term experience may be best served by enrolling in a therapeutic wilderness program. 

 

A teen who needs significant academic and/or behavioral support in addition to drug recovery services may need to spend a semester, a full school year, or even longer in a therapeutic boarding school

 

Teens whose drug abuse has progressed to a life-threatening illness may need to be hospitalized (or placed in a partial hospitalization program) in order to detox before moving on to inpatient or outpatient drug rehab.

 

When investigating teen drug rehab programs for your child, remember that your job is to find the program that best meets the needs of your family. Important factors include length of stay, level of academic support, type of treatment, presence of family program, strength of aftercare program, location, and cost of treatment.

 

Just as you would do when choosing a doctor or a new school for your child, be thorough in your search, ask for references, and make sure that the program you ultimately select is the one that best fits the needs of your entire family.