Addiction Treatment | Health Articles | Know How to Steer Your Kids Away from Substance Abuse during their Teenage Years

Substance abuse among youth has become a serious concern for parents these days. The major challenge for them in these situations will be to distract and prevent their kids from getting addicted to illegal drugs or alcohol. Are you one among them worrying about your teen's health? It is obvious and mandatory for you as a parent to educate the teenager on the dangers of drug abuse. Read further to know how to keep your teens away from substance abuse.

Teens vulnerable to depression and substance abuse
Many teenagers get into the harmful habit of consuming illegal drugs or alcohol by seeing their peers or elders. They are very vulnerable to drug abuse in their teen years due to peer pressure. However, some of them are addicted to the drugs because of some psychological problems like depression. Different situations, particularly transition from school to college makes them worried. In order to avoid the stress and depression that arise during teen years, they start using drugs. Whatever the reason might be, you should help them stay away from getting habituated to substance abuse.

Check for substance abuse symptoms
Substance abuse results in many health effects, both short-term and long-term. It is therefore necessary that you keep track of your teens to ensure their safety and good health. In order to check if your teen is abusing illegal drugs, you need to identify certain substance abuse symptoms.

Some physical effects like redness of eyes, puffy face, runny nose, nausea, poor physical coordination, changes in appetite, irregular heartbeat, and tremors are seen among substance abusers. Identifying the needle marks on your teen's body can also indicate illegal drug abuse pattern.

You may also observe some behavioral or psychological effects like depression, mood swings, anger, lack of motivation and nervousness. Substance abused teens mostly skip their school or college regularly. Also check if they are wandering around with new groups of friends who are drug users. They also steal money or other items to buy drugs. They are also not interested in family activities.

Confirm drug abuse using reliable drug testing kits
If you doubt that your teens are using drugs, then conduct a reliable drug test to confirm it. You can get the test done in a laboratory, but it is a time and money consuming. If you want to check in privacy, you can use various types of home drug test kits like urine, saliva, or hair drug test kits at the comforts of your home. Multi-panel drug test kits which can detect different types of drugs are also available in the market. These drug testing kits are generally inexpensive and accurate. Conducting regular drug tests can help you in keeping your teen away from drug abuse.

Timely intervention is key
Stopping any bad habit upfront at an earlier stage is much better. The moment you find that your kid is abusing drugs, take the right time and speak to him or her. Intervening at the right time is very important. This can avoid further damage to their physical and mental health. Provide proper counseling and guide them in a right way.

Don't often protect from bad consequences
It often happens that substance abusing teens get into many conflicts or accidents. Sometimes, they may also be filed for criminal cases. Don’t protect them from such bad consequences regularly. If you go on helping them, they get used to it. Once you stop helping them, they realize the difficulties associated with it.

Talk to them personally
Simply shouting at the teens no way stops their habit of substance abuse. It is good to talk to them personally and find the reason for their drug usage. Educate them about the dangerous side effects of substance abuse even if they do or do not get addicted to the drugs. Talk to them in a controlled manner and explain how substance abuse affects their personal as well as professional life.

Help them inculcate healthy habits
Good healthy habits can turn your kid’s life to a positive direction. So make your teenager to inculcate healthy habits. Suggest them how to stay away from unhealthy habits like substance abuse. Try to involve them in exercising, sports, and other relaxation techniques to avoid stress or depression. Though they feel difficult initially, they change their bad habits within certain time.

As parents, it is painful to see our children being disturbed and destroyed because of the substance abuse. Steering them away from the use of illegal drug habits is therefore important. Follow the above mentioned tips to prevent your teenager from drug addiction.

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