Parent Forum: What All Parents Should Know About Teen Drug and Alcohol Use

Parent Forum in Haverford: What All Parents Should Know About Teen Drug and Alcohol Use

Visit Livengrin in Haverford on Saturday, April 28, where leading adolescent substance use, abuse and addictions researcher Kathy Meyers, Ph.D. from the Treatment Research Institute and counselors from Livengrin will present a parent forum to discuss what parents should look for, and how to (possibly) prevent teen drinking and drug use from affecting a teen’s future, career, and health.

The forum will be held 10 AM to noon at Livengrin – 355-A Lancaster Ave in Haverford – across the street from Saxby’s. Refreshments will be provided.

Why should parents attend? When it comes to teenagers using drugs and alcohol, parents can learn a lot from the football field.

The dangers of high-school sports-related concussions have gotten a lot of attention from educators and parents recently, and rightly so. Studies have linked high rates of traumatic brain injuries to cranial bleeding, depression, and increased suicide risk later in life. Even though the injuries may have been brought on by playing professional sports, parents of players as young as high school, along with the players’ teachers and coaches, have stepped up awareness and action to protect children’s futures.
But this wasn’t always the case: prior to now, head injuries were an innocuous part of the game – something to be shaken off and played through. The response to new information about this previously invisible problem has been overwhelming: a 50% jump in reporting of concussions on the field shows how increased awareness can lead to a greater number of cases being treated promptly and appropriately.

Yet despite compelling information from science that teen drinking and drug use can have equally destructive consequences for a teen, public concern has been strangely underwhelming.

Consider this: neurological evidence shows that areas of the adolescent brain, especially those affecting impulsivity and executive functioning, are still in a formative state. As we may remember from our own teenage years, adolescents are more likely to engage in risky behaviors. Now we know why.
Also, we now know that the pleasurable effects of alcohol and drugs are magnified for that of a teen compared to an adult. This makes teens more likely to use in greater amounts at once. Combined with a brain already more likely to make impulsive and risky decisions, the teen is at far greater risk to experience more dangerous consequences than just a bad hangover: accidents, unprotected sex, overdoses, mixing pills without knowing their effects, or alcohol poisoning.

And that’s just in the short-term. Repeated exposure of the teenage brain to drugs and alcohol greatly increases the risk of addiction later in life. Ninety percent of all those who have become dependent on drugs and alcohol started in their teens.

If we can prevent teens from making the wrong decisions with drugs and alcohol now, we greatly reduce the chances that he or she will have problems later in life. Just like taking the proper precautions on the field to prevent sports-related head injuries, there are simple things that a parent can do to mitigate the risks of teenage drinking and drug use. Yes, teens do experiment; but parents should have information on how to (possibly) prevent use and/or abuse and, if use/abuse does occur, what to do and when to do it.

Given what science has shown us, we can no longer afford to brush off teen drinking and drug use as nothing to worry about.

Questions about the April 28 event or something more personal? Visit the Family Training Program website at www.iamconcerned.org or call the program directly at 1-877-iworry2.