How to recognize teen drug use

As parents, we say that we want to know everything about our children but we are often uncomfortable or choose to ignore certain attitudes and behaviors in hopes of preserving peace in the family. We rationalize to ourselves that it is just a phase our teenagers are going through and will grow out of. By doing this we often overlook the warning signs that identify teen drug use.

How to Recognize the Signs of Teen Drug Use

1. Observe the appearance and personal hygiene of your teen. Consider whether it has changed. Drug abusers often stop caring about their appearance and personal hygiene.
2. Monitor school grades of your teen. Drug abusers lose the ability to focus and their grades begin to drop.
3. Question unexplained weight loss in your teen. Drug abusers often experience weight loss. Determine if your child has been ill or recently began a new physical activity or diet. If not, weight loss is certainly a cause for concern.
4. Discover who your teen is friends with. Drug abusers often change friends because their old friends don't understand or approve of their drug use.
5. Examine the spending habits of your teen. Ask yourself if your teen suddenly needs extra money for lunch, school activities and such. Drug abusers can never get enough and need more and more money to support their habit.
6. Scrutinize any sneaky, deceptive behavior of your teen, like lying about where she is going and who she is with. Drug abusers know that drug use in unacceptable, especially to parents so they try to hide any and all evidence.

Tips & Warnings:

• If any of these warning signs seem to apply to your teen it is time for you, as a parent, to take a closer look.
• If several of these warning signs apply to your teen, intervention is necessary immediately.
• Teen drug use often begins months, or even years, before parents actually become aware of it.
• The consequences of teen drug use can be devastating, possibly even fatal.