Adolescence is the time when your child goes through their teenage years. It is the time when a child tries to explore all the new things they encounter and make irrational and impulsive decisions.
You can even say that it can be a time of living it now, without the consideration of the consequences it might follow.
As a result, many teens give drugs a shot!
You will be surprised to know that the average age of a teen when they try drugs for the first time is 13-14 years – in the seventh or eighth grade (even before entering high school).
This is a harrowing reality of modern teenagers!
The teenagers are not at fault here. They are just going through a phase where they try to experiment with everything to have a better understanding of life.
As adults, it is our responsibility to hold their hands and pull them back from moving forward with these bad habits.
To stop them from walking down the addiction road, you first need to understand what led the teenagers to try and experiment with drugs.
In this article, we will try to answer the same and see what makes these teenagers try drugs at an early age.
Parents: What Do You Do?
It is a well-established fact that teenagers and young adults are more vulnerable to addiction. This is because of their lack of experience. Whenever a teenager comes across something new, their curious bells start ringing.
This curiosity is what makes them try and experiment with the drugs. While some teenagers can control the use and keep it to only experimentation, unfortunately, some become addicted to drugs.
When your teenage child does fall victim to addiction, you must immediately seek help from a professional. The addiction treatment starts with a high quality San Antonio detox to remove all the harmful substances from the body.
Once detoxification is complete, the treatment can be followed with therapies and counseling.
Why Do Teen Use Drugs?
Regretability, many teens consider experimenting with drugs to be an important part of their growing up. Some teens start experimenting with drugs just because their peers and friends recommended it.
The activity, which started with curiosity, soon became an addiction.
Here are a few reasons why teenagers experiment with drugs.
1. Boredom
One of the common reasons why teenagers start experimenting with drugs is because they simply have nothing to do. They feel bored sitting alone in the room without anything to do.
Although there can be other productive leisure activities that can add value to life, then why addiction.
Well, you must certainly have heard – An empty mind is a devil’s workshop!
If it’s a devil’s workshop, how come people can think about good things to do in their leisure time, especially a teenager.
2. To Feel Good
Many teenagers use drugs to feel HIGH. Teenagers are also up to something and looking for things that can intensify their experience. This is where the addiction cycle starts to kick in.
Adolescents start using drugs to reach a HIGH state to experience enhanced feelings of pleasure and satisfaction. When drugs are used, your brain creates ten times more dopamine, creating a Euphoria effect.
3. Competition
Meeting parents’ high expectations can be one reason why teenagers try drugs. Whether in school or in the field, young adults want to perform consistently and prove they are the best to their peers and parents.
This pressure of always being the best sometimes pushed the teens to use drugs to enhance their performance.
4. Need Attention
Teens often experience a lack of purpose or talent. As a result, they feel that they are not good enough to belong to society. This feeling drives them towards substance use.
When someone loses the hope of becoming the best, they try to become the worst in the hope of getting attention from their peers.
5. Lack Of Education
Some teenagers grow up thinking that taking drugs is a normal thing. After all, that’s how entertainment media projects—showing people taking drugs and drinking alcohol on open scenes.
Then there is a notion that whenever you have a headache or have problems sleeping, there is a drug to help you out. This happens because of the lack of education.
Teenagers are still children who need guidance. They need someone to tell them that taking drugs is wrong.
6. Low Self-ESteem
When teenagers go through their adolescence phase, they experience low self-esteem. This can be due to their physical appearance or lack of friends.
To overcome this situation and make new friends, most teenagers take the route of drugs. Taking drugs allows the teens to run away from the reality and overbearing expectations of society.
7. Peer Pressure
Peer pressure is one of the reasons why most teens try and experiment with drugs. Peer pressure happens mostly when you are close to becoming an adult. This is the time when teenagers think that ‘everybody’s doing it, so why shouldn’t they.
- After the party,
- After prom.
- With friends.
- With a significant other.
– These are the times when people think it is OK to have some if it helps them enter their group.
Getting Your Teen Help Now!
Teen drug addiction can set the tone for lifetime addiction and dependency. Fortunately, addiction is not an incurable disease. With the right treatment and rehabilitation, any addiction can be treated.
Keep track of your teen children and see what they are up to.
No! Not like a parent but like a friend.
This will help you know what is happening in their life and what they are going through. Stop the substance use before it progresses into something more severe.
Contact a treatment provider today, you can find great detox rehabs in Massachusetts if you live in New England area.
