With more and more kids experimenting with prescription drugs every day, there is the potential for a nationwide epidemic of abuse, addiction and overdoses on these potentially dangerous medications. The following tips are designed to help parents engage in helpful, productive conversations with their teenagers about prescription drugs before they become a problem.
Do your homework. Parents who enter into a conversation about prescription drugs with their teen need to have an armload of information on their side. Simply stating “drugs are bad” isn’t going to get the job done. Spend some time online reading up on the topic before you have that talk. Some of the best sources online can be found at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Association and the White House’s official anti-drug site.- Explain the dangers. Many kids honestly do not understand the potential dangers of prescription drugs. They think that because it came from a doctor that it is inherently less harmful than street drugs. Explain the dangerous similarities between street drugs and prescription drugs.
- Get to them early. Don’t wait for senior year in high school to discuss prescription drug abuse with your kids. Statistics show that by then there is a strong change they will have already experimented with a variety of drugs, perhaps even as early as middle school.
- Be honest. Don’t make up stories about what happens to kids who use drugs. Be honest. The real story is going to be frightening enough.
- Tell them how drugs will affect their future. If the child is in his late teens, then he or she is thinking about life after high school. Frame your discussion in terms of how prescription drug addiction can lead to health problems or jail time.
- Talk about society as a whole. Many teenagers are going through an idealistic phase during high school. Tell them how prescription drug addiction negatively impacts society as a whole and they are likely to respond well.
- Talk about their friends. For some teenagers the peer group is everything. Point out how dangerous it would be to get in a car with a friend who is under the influence of prescription medication.
- Talk about the side effects. Graphic descriptions of some of the unwanted side effects of prescription medication (such as vomiting, diarrhea or overdose) can be a deterrent to drug use.
- Discuss the Internet and Prescription Drugs with your child. Tell them to NEVER use the Internet to buy drugs. In addition to being illegal, the medications could be tampered with or expired.
- Don’t wait. Too many parents wait until it is too late to talk to their kids about prescription drug addiction. Be proactive. Don’t think that it can’t happen to your child.
Tags: Teen Drug Use, Tips