Adolescent and Teenage Interventions
Adolescent and Teenage Interventions
While parenting a teenager isn’t always easy, you have to remember that for your child, making it through adolescence and the teenage years isn’t easy them either. Their hormone’s start to kick into gear, there’s peer pressure to deal with and the constant need to grow up, too fast. It’s a lot to handle at a time in their lives when they’re still developing good decision making and judgment skills.
So what do you do when your pre-teen or teenager starts acting out violently, withdrawals emotionally, starts exhibiting reckless behavior like acting out behaviorally or abusing alcohol or drugs? First, you’ll need to get past your despair over your countless failed attempts to communicate, the fights, and the frustrating open defiance’s by reaching out for help when the child you love seems only a shadow of their once innocent selves.
If you suspect or have already confirmed that your child is using drugs or alcohol, is constantly depressed or is displaying other self-destructive behavior, it’s critical that you take action immediately. An intervention can be as straightforward as a conversation with your teen about your concerns and getting them the help they need to get past it. Sure, it’s a scary time, but you’ll get through it together and there’s plenty of support out there if you feel you need to bring in outside help.
There is intervention help for adolescents and teens that address not only drug and alcohol dependency but eating disorders, gambling addictions and extreme behavioral problems. Most of these problems occur in these age groups because they have trouble making sound decisions about their lives and the actions they take. Drug and alcohol problems alone can interfere with brain function in areas crucial to memory, learning, motivation, behavior, judgment, and self-control. As a result, their abusive addictions end up causing school, family, academic and physical and mental health-related problems.
The premise of adolescent and teen intervention is to help them, along with their families, get through the critical period of transition between adolescence and the teenage years, to help them strengthen their defenses against negative influences, including resisting the peer pressure that probably led them to many of the problems they’re currently dealing with. It’s also important that teens feel supported by their parent (s), meaning that they know that they can always count on you, that you’ll always be there for non-judgmental guidance; angry communication never works, it will only put up a wall.
Among the many dangers of not getting your child into a treatment program that fits their needs or addresses dual diagnosis, trauma, bipolar, etc., is a relapse. An active addiction intensifies underlying disorders so sobriety needs to come first if the abuser is ever going to have the hope of getting better. When an addiction isn’t treated it can also lead to anxiety, depression and even suicide. A positive upside of the intervention is the effect it will have not only on themselves but family and friends, even reducing or eliminating their unhealthy behaviors.
While parenting a troubled adolescent or teen can often be a heartbreaking task, there are steps you can take to help them transition into a healthy, happy and young adult, including intervention.
If you are in need of an adolescent intervention, please contact one of our addiction intervention specialists today at 866-631-0026.