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Parent To Parent One mother writes: I have a teenager (age 17) with ADHD. He has recently begun smoking marijuana, he is sneaking and lying. I have looked into getting him treatment but the insurance companies will only pay for counseling when he is "only" smoking marijuana. I am not sure where to turn. He is taking medication for depression as well as Adderall for ADHD. Any ideas?
Get info on the affects of pot.
If you can convince your son to read the info maybe he will see for himself that
it's a dead end street. I teach high school Jrs. and seniors. I speak very
frankly with them about the use of drugs. one thing I point out is... if life
"sucks" then why make it worse with drugs. It's a band-aid over a
gunshot wound and only makes the "suckyness" of a situation
worse. On the other hand, if life is good then why alter it with a fake
sense of acceleration or enhancement. It WILL ultimately ruin any good aspects
of life you're experiencing. I had a friend tell me once he use to do cocaine.
the thing that stopped him was, he looked around at who he was hanging out with
and told himself that if he weren't doing cocaine he wouldn't be caught dead
hanging around these people. It woke him up. I shared this with my students and
have had several tell me it made a difference. Your 17 year old is no child.
however he lives in YOUR home. Tell him you love him but you insist that you
know who, when, and where he is. The "buzz" is not worth the
bite you get from smokin' a blunt. Don't do anything that won't give you a
positive return in your life. Sound cynical? Not really, if you help
someone as a volunteer, do work for someone "just because", get the
drift? In other words, what goes around comes around. Smokin' dope has never and
will never give you a positive return in your life. It will only take and give
back NOTHING. Look around at who he is hanging with. do they have long
term goals? If so, can they back up what they say? He will hear all
the "positive" info about dope from those who do it. Duh! He needs to
ask himself where he sees the "friends" he's hanging with in 10 years.
Does he want to be there? Share this with your son. I
hope he's smart enough not to be led by the nose like a hog to slaughter. Be an
individual not a follower. Take care Dr. Science ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ I have a son 15 who is ADHD and ODD. Our story is very long and I am sure like most of us with children with these diagnosis, our stories are similar. When we suspected that our son was smoking more than cigarettes, which we do not allow, I turned to many different places for help and was able to find help at the local Youth and Family Services. Their services are based on a sliding scale and depending on income fees could be little to none. He went for outpatient therapy three times a week. If you have this service in your area it is worth looking into. It was beneficial for us. I hope this is of some help. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ No experience on this one. I thought providing our add kids with knowledge about drugs as as well giving them meds should cease the need for self medication. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ I also have a teenage son that
has begun to use marijuana. I
understand all his reasons for doing this, he has struggled long and hard
through his school years. He has
always felt left out and he has the normal need of wanting to fit in somewhere.
He thinks that he has found that in his new “friends.”
He is tired of school and tired of almost failing every day, despite
trying. He has one more year of high school and he just wants it to
be over. I know all these things, I
understand but I cannot accept his solution. Although we are not through it
yet, I can share with you the steps we have taken so far.
1)
I sat down with my son and discussed the dangers of drugs, the rules of
our house, what the consequences would be if he continued to use illegal drugs.
We talked not only about the physical dangers of getting high, but the
emotional danger. I showed him information on this to let him know that I was
not making all of this up. We also
talked about drug trafficking, I showed him information on how terrorists
receive money from the sale of illegal drugs.
I showed him pictures of what happened on 9/11 to let him know where his
money was going to. 2)
I made an appointment with the doctor who prescribes his medication for
ADHD and let the doctor know (in front of my son) what was going on.
I told him I thought he should be aware in case there were any drug
interactions. We scheduled a drug
screening to make sure we knew exactly what we were dealing with (only
marijuana, there were no traces of any other drugs).
3) I made an appointment with a mental health facility for a complete psychological evaluation. I wanted to make sure we were treating the correct diagnosis and decided to start again at the beginning to set up a treatment plan. 4) He began counseling on a weekly basis 5)
We began monthly drug screen tests. We only started all this a few
months ago. I wish I could tell you
how all this worked, long term, but I can only tell you that my son has not
had any illegal drugs for 30 days
now. I guess this is the
longest he has gone without for a year, so that is good.
I hope that he lasts and begins to see the benefits of “being
straight.” In the meantime, we
are monitoring more closely all of his friends, his activities and his
whereabouts. He doesn’t even go
to the store any longer without us checking how long he has been gone and what
his eyes look like when he comes back. |