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Drug and alcohol addiction and abuse. Recognition. Prevention. Treatment

20/20 Parenting. Recognizing and mitigating early vulnerabilities and risk factors.

Prevention Solutions - Pre-Teen

Kelly Nault, MA, Counseling Psychology

Kelly is an award winning author of When You Are About To Go Off the Deep End, Don't Take Your Kids With You. She is also the Founder of Ultimate Parent providing parenting resources and products that offer time-tested, child-proofed and fun tools that inspire children and teens to want to be well-behaved. Kelly advocates supporting Moms to reach their highest fulfillment in life in order to raise the next generation to be responsible, caring and happy.

Visit at: http://www.parentinghelpbook.com/cmd.php


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Preventing Difficult Behavior in Adolescents

A Parenting Question Re: Teen Taking Drugs

“Kelly, I am a concerned aunt who has heard you on the radio and like your practical and straightforward approach. I have a BIG question. Recently, my 12 year old niece has become friends with a group (some who think it is fun to hang out on the streets) who are negatively impacting her life. Once an honor roll student, her grades have plummeted and she is now on the verge of expulsion. Often she does not come home on weekends and is doing drugs. She hasn’t taken crystal meth, but it seems that she is on that path. I am scared for her and for my brother who has picked her up now six times from the emergency room after various overdoses. Her punishments don’t seem to be working and yet, how else can we get her to listen? My question is what can I do and what can parents do to prevent this from happening to their kids? Thanks.” – Aunt Who Is Concerned About the Difficult Behavior in Adolescents

There are simple, powerful ways to help your child be protected from the negative effects of drugs and alcohol. You can make a critical difference in your teenager's life by:

1. Building Your Child’s Self-esteem –

All children want to belong and please their parents. And yet, if their sole self-esteem comes from being a “pleaser” who is fed by outside validation alone (rather than feeling good about themselves) they can be easily seduced by their peers to experiment with drugs.

Help prevent your child from seeking external validation later on by focusing on your child’s passions at an early age, helping them learn from the consequences of their own actions, and by using encouragement that feeds their internal validation (all discussed in detail in my book When You’re About To Go Off The Deep End, Don’t Take Your Kids With You.

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