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Teenage Drug Abuse: 10 Signs That Your Kid Is Using Drugs
Teenage drug abuse (and teenage alcoholism) is a very serious problem. Many families remain in denial about teenage substance abuse including both teenage alcoholism and teenage drug abuse). Often, by the time the parents bring in their troubled youth for a psychiatric evaluation with me, the drug problem is out of control. Here is a recent case from my practice:
R.H. is 17 years old. He has Attention Deficit Disorder and has always had some difficulty in school. His parents report he is impulsive and argumentative. They assume this behavior goes along with his being a teenager. He stays out late with his friends on a regular basis. His parents, looking back on the last year, suspect their son is using drugs, but they are not sure. When they question him about his whereabouts, he is very evasive. They think he is hanging out with the wrong crowd.
Teenage Substance Abuse: The Teen Will Lie and The Parents Deny
Parents beware. When your troubled youth is having a problem with teenage binge drinking or teenage drug abuse and you confront them, your teen will more often than not deny their use. Parents often do not know what to do, so many parents ignore the problem until the drug or alcohol use starts to affect the family life on a daily basis.
Here is a case of teenage alcoholism and teenage drug abuse from my psychiatric practice:
Teenage Drug Addiction – Know the Warning Signs and Symptoms
Today more young people are becoming addicted to drugs and alcohol than ever before. There is no reason to believe it can’t happen to your child, or that they are too smart to become addicted. The truth is, adolescents from all walks of life are exposed and at risk.
You have taught your children to say no to drugs. They have completed the school programs, and they occasionally wear the t-shirt that says they think doing drugs is dumb. The reality is that parents who believe their children are exempt from drug addiction are often the ones whose children actually suffer from undetected drug addiction.
Lies, Innuendo and Oneupmanship in Shakespeare’s Poetry – “Sonnet 130″ and the Fair Youth Series
Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 130″ is unique in its unglamorous portrayal of the so-called “Dark Lady” to whom it is addressed. In it, the narrator offers us a startlingly generous list of differences between the Dark Lady and your stereotypical beauty: she has ugly lips, a bad complexion, frizzy hair, colorless cheeks, smelly breath, an unmelodic voice, and a funky gait.
Giggles aside, what makes this description more compelling than Shakespeare’s other sonnets – particularly those in the “Fair Youth” series – is the fact that the narrator mentions the Dark Lady’s breath, voice, and gait. Big whoop, you say? In the world within the poem, this woman breathes, speaks, walks, and lives as her own autonomous entity, which is much more than can be said for the youth to which most of Shakespeare’s other sonnets are dedicated. Check out “Sonnet 18,” for example, which insists that the youth only lives thanks to the awesomeness of the poem itself: “So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, / So long lives this and this gives life to thee.” Ouch.
