Publisher: O'Reilly Media / Patient Centered Guides
Released: March 2000
Pages: 296
Is your child involved with drugs? Adolescent drug abuse and chemical dependency can happen to any teenager, whatever their drug education, economic level, neighborhood, school, or church attendance. It can happen whether parents are married or divorced and regardless of how much they know about effective parenting.
Adolescents are aware of potential dangers when they use drugs or binge on alcohol, but they think they are invincible and will escape the dangers. The average age when teens start drinking is 13; for marijuana experimentation it is 14.
Parents are often the last to know about their children's involvement with alcohol or drugs. Chemical abusers do whatever they can to conceal their use. Families can rationalize the behaviors, particularly in adolescence, as being caused by something other than chemicals. Is the defiance part of a normal separation from parents? Due to a breakup with a girlfriend? Just adolescent hormones kicking in?
Adolescent Drug and Alcohol Abuse offers parents clear information, support, and guidance:
Understand the disease model of drug abuse, and that it's not your fault
Overcome family confusion, denial, and excuses to get your child the help he needs
Find allies in the community to help your child feel the appropriate consequences of his actions
Know what to look for in chemical assessment facilities
See what kind of help can be given your child in treatment
Gain serenity and happiness for yourself, apart from the outcome of your child's drug abuse or dependency
Listen to the voices of dozens of parents and recovering teens and learn that you are not alone in how this problem profoundly affects your family
Author Nikki Babbit has counseled thousands of parents and teens about drug and alcohol abuse and dependency. Her message, and the message of the families whose stories fill this book, is one of encouragement and hope for the future.
Title:
Adolescent Drug & Alcohol Abuse: How to Spot It, Stop It, and Get Help for Your Family
Nikki Babbit, PhD, has spent the past 35 years working with adolescents and families, first as a high-school teacher and then as a school psychologist working in schools, psychiatric wards and public health clinics. Nikki has consulted with schools, juvenile justice professionals, and youth agency professionals across the United States on youth and family issues and adolescent drug abuse and dependency issues. In 1989 she traveled to the Soviet Union to help begin AA and Al-Anon, which had been prohibited by the government despite their success in over 120 countries around the world. The following year, she was invited to Moscow to speak about western adolescent treatment at the joint Soviet- American Conference On Alcoholism. Nikki is licensed as a school psychologist and certified as a chemical dependency counselor and supervisor. She also holds a professional counselor license with the Ohio Social Workers Board. She is the author of the booklet Is Your Child Chemically Dependent? (Community Intervention Press, 1988). Nikki has been married to Harold Babbit since 1965. She is the mother of three children, one of whom is recovering, and she was the child and stepchild of alcoholics. She and her husband currently live in Shaker Heights, Ohio outside of Cleveland.
