Narcomania is a dreadful, incurable or hard-to-cure disease. Nobody would ever like to face this monstrous form of dependence. Moreover, no parent would like his child to become a drug addict. When the teen drug abuse becomes real, the parents face a lot of difficulties. Yesterday their child had nothing in common with drug dependence, and today it manifests itself right here, in their place. Reservedness, uneasiness, danger, anxiety, fear – in other words, it means the end of the quiet life, that is, what adolescence drug addiction brings in the house. Drug abuse is said to have become a serious problem among the young people, but for the last decades it became also a problem among the children and teenagers.
Of course, teen drug abuse has its own peculiarities. Drug dependence among the teenagers is proved to appear as a desire for looking big. Teen abuse is a way, which helps not to drop behind the peers. It is a desire for some new knowledge and the easy way to get satisfied.
So, why then some kids are suddenly and easily captured by drugs, while the others are not? Why some kids limit themselves to one inhaling of cannabis and stop it, while the others don’t stop, and moreover – they start shooting heroin, and teen drug abuse degenerates soon into a fatal abuse.
The thing is that the initial cause of teen drug abuse doesn’t matter, whether it was as a desire to try a forbidden fruit or a desire for being like the others. The main reason of adolescence drug addiction is rather simple. It is called: Lack of knowledge. Ignorance. False information.
Also the experts think, that the main reasons of growing drug usage among children and teens are the growing number of drug distributors; the availability of narcotics at the retail market; unemployment, low level of living of the most part of population; the absence of working preventive measures in the country, society, in the system of education, at the work place and in the family; the absence of proper parental supervision over the children and teens.
The situation gets even worse, because the young people of elder generation often act as representatives of narcotic subculture, with simplified attitude to drugs. The main postulates here are: the drugs can be “serious” and “not serious”; narcotics make the person free; they help to solve problems in life; the drugs can and must become legal.
A negative contribution to forming these values belongs to youth mass media.
The experts define 4 stages of possible development of drug abuse among teenagers and young people.
The first stage: The teen takes a drug for the first time. This period has a great psychological meaning: the teen’s mind breaks through psychological barriers, taboo, which prohibited drug consumption until now. The idea of safety of drugs may be formed on this stage.
The second stage: It is characterized by the first feeling of euphoria. A young man gets to know a “positive side” of narcotization, the possibility to enjoy “free pleasures” with the help of narcotic drugs.
The 3rd stage: The symptoms of psychological dependence appear on this stage. A lack of intoxicate substance causes such conditions as anxiety, uneasiness, irritability. The teenager starts using narcotic not only for a feeling of euphoria, but mostly for getting rid of unpleasant feelings and negative emotional experience.
The 4th stage: The physical drug dependence is forming. The most typical sign of it is an abstinence syndrome (withdrawal pains), caused by a long absence of narcotics.
The first signs of disease manifest themselves by changes in teen’s behavior. The school results get worse all of a sudden, the child looses the interest in studies and school life. The most time the teen spends outside the house, with his new friends, who are unknown for you. He begins to lie and conceal, where he spends his time. The relations between the teenager and his parents are no more kind and quiet; spite, irritation and aggression appear instead. The kid refuses to do home duties, try to leave home and spend all his time with his new friends. Attempts to not let him going of the house are useless and lead to escapes. The teen may leave home for several days.
There are some changes in the state of mind happen: bouts of inadequate cheerfulness; lack of seriousness; motion activity, which can be suddenly changed by indifference, sleepiness, slow response and may turn into spite, irritability and unsociability. Such fluctuations of mood may take place several times a day.
YOU SHOULD BECOME ALERTED, IF NOTICE THE FOLLOWING:
You may find the following things in the pockets or in the garbage can:
Syringes – empty, or with some liquid; injection needles; dessert or tea spoon for preparing a solution (with a broken handle, as a rule); manganese solution; transparent colorless or yellow liquid with strong “acetic” smell; different medicines (dimedrol, theophedrin, broncholytin, solutan); powders and ampoules; grinded substance of green color with spicy flavor (marijuana); olive-brown resinous substance in the form of blobs or blocks with spicy flavor (hashish); these drugs can be found in cigarettes or mouthpiece cigarettes; burned piece of money (used as mouthpiece by smoking marijuana); brown resinous substance with the scent of raw poppy (opium); pieces of transparent film (mostly rectangular, sized 5x5 cm) covered with brown substance or without it; chemical glassware; experiments in chemistry (especially if the teen hated it before); whole or grinded poppyheads – the substance of light-brown color; organic dissolvents.
Drug-abusers have their own slang. Listen to what your child is speaking about on the phone and at home. The words get a shot, get a fix, grass, hash, junk, pot, extracted hash, poppy straw, bindle, morphia, coca, narcotics, ecstasy, crack, acid, crystal, methamphetamine, cocktail Jeff, effendi make the vocabulary of a drug addict.
If you have found your child takes narcotic drugs or dissolvents, don’t panic and be quiet.
Wait a bit and think it carefully, before taking measures:
What can you do to help your child?
Are you absolutely sure, that your facts are true?
How can you keep trust-based relations with your child and save them?
Is the usage of narcotics repeated or it was just a first “experiment”?
If this happened only for the first time, maybe all you need is just to talk to your child. Be caring, loving, but demonstrate your disapproval.
Argue the child out of using the drugs: it is illegal and may cause a trouble with the law; drug usage may lead to health problems now or in the future.
If you realize the true reasons of taking drugs or solvents by your child, you may try first of all to eliminate these reasons, rather that their consequences.
If the health condition and behavior of the kid prove the fact of real drug usage, try to keep up your spirits, because there are still many things you can do with that.
You may do the following:
Give support to your child – it is necessary for him, in spite of all the circumstances.
Show and tell him (her) – you love him (her)!
Ask the specialists for help – for your child’s and your own sake.
Estimate and plan gradual changes.
