West Ridge Academy can Help Teens struggling with Substance Abuse

Substance abuse is an issue that many Americans can face. Whether you grew up in a poverty-stricken community or in a lavished community, addiction can happen to just about anyone. Many factors can lead to addiction, family and social environment, a child’s mental health, genetics and a family history of addiction. It truly is a disease of the mind that can plague someone’s entire life unless it is prevented. Now how can it affect your teenager? Scientifically, adolescents tend to develop the pleasure sensors of their brain more rapidly than their ability to make decisions. Teenagers tend to take more risks and dabble into experimentation as a result of not realizing the consequences. Also, socially adolescents tend to feel more pressure to fit in with their friends. Although, taking risks and experimenting with more adult activities is normal for most teens, but can be highly detrimental if your child starts becoming addicted to these drugs or alcohol. In order to prevent your child from wanting to try drugs or drink alcohol, it is important to watch for specific signals, maintain a healthy open relationship with your child, or learn how to stop it before it becomes a bigger issue that may require the assistance of a troubled teen center.

What are signs of a substance abuse issue?

Drugs and alcohol use is a way for teens to escape. With the pressures they face from society, peers and other factors, drugs and alcohol can be an easy outlet for them. There are many different ways to tell if your child is suffering from a substance abuse problem. It may be difficult to know for sure because teens tend to mask the signs of abuse. It’s important to look for these signals, missing painkillers from your medicine cabinet, excessive use of mints or perfumes and colognes, withdrawal from friends and family, personality changes, impaired appetite, a negative impact on their education such as missing class or low grades, and many more. If you start noticing these signals in your child, it’s important to take action.

How to help as a parent?

As a parent, it may be difficult to know exactly what your teenager is doing. With all these hormonal changes, a child may act distant towards their parents. So, how can you help your teen? Maintaining an open relationship with your child is a must. Being able to talk to them in a non-confrontational tone can really help your teen open up. Also, building an open relationship with your child may even prevent them from experimenting with drugs and alcohol in the first place. If the problem becomes severe, we here at West Ridge Academy can help your child with our therapeutic services and counseling. Our staff specialize in drug and alcohol abuse and are educated in helping your teen to overcome this issue. At West Ridge Academy, we have many different approaches to our therapy sessions such as in-home therapy or our highly successful inpatient treatment programs for troubled youth. The outcome of your teenager may be in your hands and as a parent it’s very important for your child that he/she feels safe to come to you with any problems they may be suffering with.

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