How can we tell if teenager is consuming drugs?

Warning signs

Pay attention on warning signs that show if young person is experimenting with drugs.

Please refer to following things as guidelines only, since many of those signs can be result of other changes related to development in teenage years.

It is necessary to pay attention on how frequent are those signs and if few of them are appearing at same time, and up to what extent behavior and actions of young person are changed.

* lower marks in school

* less activity in out-of-school activities (e.g. quiting of sport activities without explanation)

* red eyes

* excessive wish for sleep, lethargy, slowness, insensitivity, neglect

* change friends without explanation

* unusual behavior

* sudden mood changes

* minimized contacts with family

* disappearance of valuable things and money

* changes in eating habits

Will your children listen to you?

When children are thinking about taking drugs, they consider very important question “what will my parents think about it?”, “how will that infect them?” This means that it is very important to tell them that under any conditions you do not want them to take illegal substances. That you have fear and are concerned about it. That this would make you miserable and would cause a lot of suffering.

As it was stated before, regular interest for happenings in their life, for their friends, school, and sport activities, they will be more prepared to ask you for advice and will feel support that will raise their self-confidence, and they will be more able to resist pressures to consume drugs.

When you are talking with your children about drugs, be open, be sincere, and do not presume that they already know what your attitude is. They expect you to talk about drugs with them, so you should be very open when stating your opinion. Do not leave anything for misguided interpretation. As well, it is very important to talk about dangers related to drug consumption, and that your rules apply both for home, school and all other places.

Researches on parents and their children related to conversations about drugs have shown that young people appreciate when parents guide them in some important issues and they tend to ask them for opinion.

But they expect parents to be informed, sincere and open.