As a parent, you have just encountered one of your worst nightmares. Despite your best efforts, your teen son has been slowly slipping away from you and disconnecting. His grades have plummeted, he is awake until all hours, and his personality seems to have changed overnight. While you have suspected drugs, you hesitated to believe he was actually involved with them because you thought you had open communication and had regularly talked with him about their dangers. Now, he has admitted his problem to you, or you have found drugs in his room. At this point, you know that he needs serious help, and you don’t think that an outpatient program will do the trick. Instead, you are considering taking drastic measures and placing him in an in-patient program. But will it really make a difference? Read on to see how a residential treatment center for teens can help your drug-abusing son.
Teens experiment and use alcohol and drugs for many reasons, such as:
Peer pressure
Recreation and fun
To enjoy feeling high or
For an escape.
However, what starts out as innocent experimentation can easily turn into a serious addiction. If the teen does not receive treatment, the problem will get worse. And since the addiction is within him, he won’t get better by changing friends, moving or going to a different school. Instead, he will need to attend a residential treatment center for teens in order to confront the problem head on and deal with the problems that got him there. Rehab programs do work, and your son can recover from his addiction. In fact, one study, written up in the Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, shows that young people who go through treatment while they are teens are less likely to continue chronic substance abuse when they are older.
Services Offered by a Teen Drug Rehab
Let’s face it – teens have different needs than adults. Dealing with addiction is no exception, so you will need to find a facility with a track record of helping teens that focuses on their specific problems. In addition, the facility should offer family services so that you can receive counseling along with your teen. Once he returns home, you will want to have a new set of strategies in place so that you have the necessary tools to help him transition back into society. Here are a few more considerations as you are deciding on a program for your teen who needs drug treatment:
Safe and healthy detoxification
The ability to make up on back school work during treatment
An appropriate understanding of accountability and accepting personal responsibility for choices
A clear explanation of the 12-steps and how they apply to him
An integration of physical, emotional, academic and spiritual principles in recovery
Recreational activities such as karate, agriculture, the arts and sports
Personalized attention so that the teen feels that he is heard understood
Experience in the treatment of co-occurring diagnoses and
Aftercare tailored to his specific needs.
Other parents have been in your shoes, and we have helped them through this difficult journey. Do not lose hope or give up when your teen’s future is at stake. Instead, let us help your family and your teen fight his addiction.