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

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

The Solutions

1) Recognize the Vulnerabilities

Commonly Recognized Risk Factors:

Abuse by adults or bullies
Poor parental guidance/approval
Lack of opportunities due to poverty
Genetic factors

Partial List of Uncommonly Recognized Visible Vulnerabilities
(from our free e-guide):

Recognizable low self esteem (can wear many disguises)
Chronic illnesses, diseases, disabilities
Incorrectly diagnosed and treated learning disabilities
Poor social and problem solving skills
Modeling of legal drugs and alcohol to relax, cope, and celebrate

Two "INVISIBLE" Vulnerabilities:

1. Hidden Self Esteem Challenges

It is human nature for children to blame themselves for a loss or traumatic event and then feel bad about who they are.

When bad enough, they stuff these feelings, hiding them from themselves AND from us, and go on as if nothing has happened!

Unresolved emotional pain often resurfaces during adolescence, causing a powerful need for self-medication with mood-altering drugs and alcohol.

2. Hidden Decision-making Challenges

When an otherwise healthy, bright child cannot dependably make or follow through on sensible decisions, their brain may be chemically out of balance or structurally injured (as was Ryan's).

Unless they are seriously mentally ill, their difficulties are easy to confuse with personal problems (existing or not) and with "normal" adolescent behavior.

IN A NUTSHELL

Any condition of the Heart, Mind, Body, or Spirit, Having Potential to Undermine Self Esteem and/or Decision Making is a Vulnerability.

And the more vulnerabilities the greater the risk for future addiction.

GOOD NEWS: There is a LOT you can do to prevent and treat ALL of these vulnerabilities if you know what they are, how to recognize them, and how to provide for healing! BUT FIRST:

2) Recognize the NEGATIVE INFLUENCES that can prevent you from succeeding:

Human nature: (most of this we do unconsciously)

If we can’t see it, it's not there
We don’t WANT to see so we turn a blind eye
We believe that our family is invincible
We’re so absorbed with life we don't inform ourselves until crisis is screaming at us!

Social:

Misconceptions about why kids get into drugs and alcohol: bad, stupid
Misconceptions about their parents: unloving, abusive, unintelligent, poor, broken family
Fear of shaming and rejection influences us to deny the realities under our own noses