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Drinking: A Kids Rite of Passage?

February 17, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Parents in Suburban Washington D.C., were outraged by a series of reports on the out-of-control nature of under aged drinking, one parent stated that "drinking is a rite of passage for teens". The reporter had to be pulled off of the story because of threats against her  and her children. 

32 years ago I was speaking about the same subject, to a group of parents in a rural town in Minnesota, when a Dad rose out of his chair and pointed his finger at me and yelled, "You keep our heritage out of this." Some things haven't changed.

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Filed Under: binge drinking, loving to get high, parent denial, parenting, youth at risk Tagged With: , , , ,

Red Flags for Falling in Love

February 7, 2012 By Leave a Comment

"Falling in Love With Getting High" is similar to dating and falling in love with a boy or girl. giverespect.org is a website for parents and teens about "respect" and the "Red Flags" of concerns regarding going steady and being way to serious at a young age.

It's interesting to see the parallels with the change in behavior that comes with teens who love getting high and are in essence, "dating a drug" and keeping it a secret from you as the parent.

Red flags

Here are some of the signs that parents should look out for in their teenagers' relationships:

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Filed Under: addiction, loving to get high syndrome, parenting, Values Tagged With: , , , ,

Doodles of Pot,

January 25, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Has your son or daughter drawn pot leaves or bottles of beer on his or her notebook? It is actually a sign of "preoccupation" and "infatuation", in the same way that it was when you wrote the initials of you and your boy/girlfriend inside the heart on your notebook when you were a kid. Remember? or was I the only one that did that? 

Kids who end up addicted start out by loving to get high. So, as a parent we need to look for some clues, that are not so obvious, doodles of pot may be that very sign.

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Filed Under: addiction, loving to get high, parenting, pot, youth at risk Tagged With: , , ,

Pain or Pleasure?

January 5, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Why do teens get high? Pain or Pleasure?

We have all too often assumed that getting high has to do with masking the painful memories from childhood or dealing with the many problems of growing up.

I would like us to consider another possibility; kids these days are growing up privileged, spoiled and accustomed to the pleasures of the good life. Their biggest emotional pain is not getting what they want. The pleasures of getting high and drunk are just added to the list of hedonistic pleasures.

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Filed Under: addiction, loving to get high, parenting Tagged With: , ,

Why Do We Celebrate?

December 28, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Happy New Years!

It's the time of the year when we look back and count our blessings, look forward to a new year and dream about all of our possibilities and  stop today and make some resolutions about what we need to change. And above all it's a time to Celebrate life. Or is it? Why do we celebrate?

Is it possible that we've lost our ability to Celebrate life?

Have we gotten so accustomed to "celebrating everything and at the same time nothing" by eating, drinking, smoking, spending, that none of it means anything anymore?

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Filed Under: loving to get high, parenting, support, Uncategorized, youth at risk Tagged With: , ,