Talking to Your Teen About Alcohol

Talking to Your Teen About Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drugs

You know peers and others to try all kinds of drugs from tobacco, alcohol and street drugs will tempt your teen.

They will encourage your teen to inhale, sniff and smoke. Your teen will learn slang words for drugs and may even speak fluently about drugs in front of you without your knowledge.

You need to be prepared to speak honestly about drugs to your teen and the first step is to educate yourself about the current drugs being peddled to the youth of today.

You need to be able to understand the language of drugs. Read on, for informative tips about talking to your teen about drugs.

Tip #1 - Be knowledgeable about the lingo and the drug craze of today. Then, make a plan to engage your teen in one or many conversations about drugs, and what they can do to your teen. Make it personal, make it real. Make sure that you won't be disturbed during the conversation so your teen will not be distracted.

Tip #2 - Try to stay clear of negative feelings and stick with the facts. Avoid feelings of anger or betrayal if your teen as been caught using drugs. Hopefully this conversation is BEFORE your teen has been tempted, but if it after, don't despair, it is never too late to sit down and have this talk with your teen.

Tip #3 - Have resources ready to give to your teen during the conversation. Know what you are going to say and stick with your plan. The school counselor, pastor or doctor can give you information and resources to share with your teen.

Tip #4 - Keep a journal of your discussions and your teen's responses. Have as many conversations as necessary.

Tip #5 - Ask your teen what they need to know about drugs in order to make an informed decision regarding them. Get graphic if you need to with pictures, movies, or take your teen to a drug rehab program so they can get first hand, real life, in their face reality checks about what it really is like for someone who uses drugs.

Drugs And Generic Risks can be serious, or they may be mild and cause something minor like a stomach upset. When the benefits outweigh the risk that the medication has associated with it, we will usually take the medication. Medications have risks that may not be known to us, but all medications that are approved for use by the U.S. Drugs and Medicine

 

Tip #6 - Keep the conversation open, let your teen voice his/her opinion and treat him/her with respect. Make sure that the facts are made known; debunk any myths your teen has about drugs.

Tip #7 - Let your teen know that you are speaking out of love and concern for them. If you found evidence of drug usage in their room such as drug paraphernalia, present the evidence and then be quiet and let them talk.

Listen to them, hear their response. You may be able to glean a pattern or determine if the problem is deeper than you are able to handle if so, seek professional help immediately.

Medications Drugs If there is family history of medication allergies you are more likely to develop a medication allergy. Make sure you tell your pharmacist about your medication allergy. A medication allergy is caused by an over-sensitive immune system. The individual with a medication allergy has an immune system that attacks the medication as if it were a harmful substance. Drugs and Medicine

Tip #8 - Do not accept flimsy excuses for behavior. Consistency and firmness is vital to turning the situation around or for preventing future problems. It is never right to "look the other way", or think that it is someone else's responsibility to talk to your teen about drugs.

Tip #9 - Set firm rules about drug usage. Make it clear that you will not tolerate illegal drug usage by your teen, including tobacco and alcohol. Make sure they know the consequences if they break the rules.

Make the rules clear and put the rules in writing. Stress that the rules are in place because you love them and care about their safety and their health.

Tip #10 - There should be both punishment for misbehavior and rewards for good behavior. Let your teen know that he/she will be held accountable for his/her behavior and actions.

Tip #11 - Discuss when the next talk will be so that the teen knows that this is not a one time deal, that they will be given more chances to express their feelings and to discuss new information that they may encounter.

Discussing drugs with teen is an ongoing process and not a one-time event. Let your teen know that each talk will be for sharing and for evaluating his/her progress.