The following is titled the "The A to Z of Adolescent Drug Use & Addictions." It's basicaly an alphebet book but with BAD things instead of tangible objects and pretty pictures. Its pretty ridiculous. Half way through I thought, OK, what they hell are they going to put for 'X', xenophhobia? And yes, lo' and behold, for x they actually write, xenophobia.
http://www.intervene4ateen.com/document ... %20Use.pdf"The A to Z of Adolescent Drug Use & Addictions
ANXIETY: Anxiety is universal and adolescents who use drugs regularly. Many drugs cause
physical changes (increased pulse rate, sweating, rapid heartbeat) that contribute to
anxiety, and all addictive drugs can cause feelings of apprehension, dread, fear, and
paranoia, especially during withdrawal. Other symptoms of anxiety include irritability,
emotional instability, mood swings, mental confusion, and panic attacks.
Nutritional deficiencies may be contributing to the adolescent’s anxiety. Alcohol is notorious
for causing blood-sugar ups and downs that contribute to symptoms such as irritability,
mood swings, nervousness, and constant worrying. Adolescents who use stimulant drugs
such as amphetamines, methamphetamines, or cocaine tend to eat poorly due to these
drugs’ ability to suppress appetite; when they do eat, they often feast on fat-laden and
sugar-rich foods.
BLOODSHOT EYES: Alcohol, marijuana, and inhalants cause tine blood vessels in the eyes
to swell and burst, leading to red, bloodshot eyes. Stimulant drugs interrupt normal sleep
patterns, another cause of bloodshot eyes. Regular drug users often attempt to disguise
their red eyes by wearing sunglasses, or they use eye drops to “get the red out.”
CRAVING: Kids call it “feening” or “fiening”, and like all the symptoms in this A-to-Z list,
craving gets worse as drug use intensifies. In the beginning, craving is related to the
benefits associated with using – the adolescent desires the pleasure, euphoria, relaxation,
and/or stimulation associated with using drugs as well as the good times associated with
drinking and partying with friends.
If an adolescent is addicted to drugs, craving becomes a true physiological need or
imperative – the adolescent literally physically needs the drug because his or her brain cells
have adapted to its presence and cannot function normally without it.
DENIAL: Adolescents deny that they have a drug problem for several reasons. First, “the
problem” seems so minor, so easy to control, and so universal. “Sure, yeah, I drink a lot,
but everybody drinks-what else is there to do in this town?”
Many adolescents deny they have a problem in order to protect their right to keep using.
Denial may also be a natural, even logical reaction to labels such as “druggie”, “drug
addict,” and “chemically dependent”. Most people think of drug addicts as homeless,
helpless drunks clutching their brown paper bags or heroin addicts nodding off in the corner
of a seedy hotel room. Adolescents match the face staring back at them in the mirror with
the stereotypical image of the drug addict and conclude, “Not me.”
EMOTIONAL HIGHS & LOWS: Emotions change rapidly and often take uncharacteristic
forms Adolescents who are normally shy and sensitive may become loudmouthed and
belligerent. Friendly, outgoing kids become hostile and paranoid. Intense emotions ups and
downs involving depression, anxiety, fear, paranoia, and agitations are often associated
with the withdrawal syndrome. Feelings of inferiority and incompetence (“I’m a failure”, “I’m
not normal”) are also common. When the adolescent is forced to stop using for days or
weeks at a time due to illness, family vacations, treatment, or incarceration, emotional
highs and lows may increase and cravings for drugs may intensify.
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FEAR: As drug use continues, feelings of anxiety and fear gradually metamorphose to
suspiciousness, dread, panic, and an overall sense of despair. Paranoia and hostility are
particularly acute in adolescents addicted to methamphetamines or cocaine.
GASTROINTESTINAL (GI) COMPLAINTS: The gastrointestinal system – basically all the
organs involved in processing food and eliminating wastes – is hit hard by drug use.
Symptoms of GI distress may include indigestion, constipation, diarrhea, abdominal
cramping, nausea, vomiting, and loss of appetite.
HARDHEADEDNESS: Adolescents who regularly use drugs are notoriously hardheaded –
stubborn, willful, headstrong, and obstinate. Every conversation, it seems, ends in a fight.
This is fairly typical adolescent behavior but with a twist, for even the simplest questions –
“Are you ready for school?”; “Did you do your homework?”; “Have you returned your
grandfather’s phone call?” - can lead to full-scale battles.
While we’re taking about hard heads, we need to mention the risk of head injuries. Ad high
percentage of adolescents who use drugs regularly will experience a head injury – from
motor vehicle accidents to skateboarding while high on acid or “ ‘schrooms,” falling down
the stairs when drunk, and violent fights fueled by drug-induced paranoia. Headaches, often
fierce and long lasting are also common in kids who use drugs frequently or in large
amounts.
INSOMNIA: Drugs interfere with normal sleeping patterns and can cause insomnia,
restlessness, interrupted sleep, and vivid nightmares. In an attempt to fix the problem and
catch up on sleep, adolescents may use calming or sedating drugs. Those addicted to
alcohol, inhalants, marijuana, or prescription painkillers or sedatives often use before
bedtime, believing that the drugs help them sleep. They are much more likely, however, to
experience a restless night due to withdrawal symptoms that occur as the drug is
metabolized and eliminated from the bloodstream.
JOYLESSNESS: As drug use continues and escalates, feelings of gloom and doom begin to
cloud every aspect of life. Relationships with family members, friends, teachers, and
coaches are strained or broken, contributing to feelings of despair. Formerly cheerful and
energetic behavior gives way to episodes of weeping, guilt, shame, grief, and depression,
which become more frequent and more severe as drug use escalates.
KEEPING TO ONESELF: Adolescent drug users begin to spend a great deal of time alone,
locked in their rooms, engrossed in their computers or e-mail accounts, or listening to music
(often with headphones, to ensure complete isolation). As drug use escalates, the
adolescent may become increasingly tight-lipped and secretive. Phone calls and e-mails are
jealously guarded. Doors are locked, even bolted. Attempts by parents to find out where the
adolescent is going or whom he or she is hanging out with are met with outright lies and
deception or angry commands to “mind your own business”. (For an accurate, harrowing
portrayal of this aspect of adolescent drug-using behavior, watch the movie Life As a
House.)
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LEGAL PROBLEMS: Kids in trouble with drugs are much more likely to be suspended or
kicked out of school, run away from home, lie, steal, assault others, take a car without
parental permission, and/or drive without a license. Because adolescent drug users typically
hang out with other adolescent drug users, they are much more likely to get caught
drinking at parties, stashing drugs and/or drug-related paraphernalia in their pockets or
backpacks’, driving under the influence, getting a “dirty UA” (a urine test that indicates
recent drug use), or smoking weed in their cars or backyard alleys-or, as some adolescents
claim, in the school parking lot or baseball dugouts. The list of possible offenses goes on
and on.
MONEY PROBLEMS: Both legal drugs (alcohol and tobacco products) and illegal drugs are
expensive. Take the drug nicotine, for example. Cigarettes cost about five dollars per pack.
An adolescent who smokes ten cigarettes a day will spend about seventeen dollars a week,
seventy-five dollars a months, or nine hundred dollars a year on cigarettes.
Alcohol isn’t cheap either, and most adolescents who drink, drink a lot. Not many
adolescents-addicted or not limit their partying to one or two bottles of beer.
Marijuana is expensive. A daily marijuana user may spend ten, twenty, fifty or several
hundred dollars a week on high-quality (chronic) weed.
Methamphetamines are relatively cheap, but they are also highly addictive, and many meth
addicts use other drugs to alleviate the nasty side effects. If you’re on a meth binge, you
won’t hold down a job, which is one more way to put a hole in your pocket.
Cocaine and heroine are relatively expensive, although the cost has been going down in
recent years.
Prescription painkillers such as OxyContin and Vicodin can range between five and one
hundred dollars on the street. Ritalin tablets cost between two and twenty dollars when sold
illegally.
Adolescents who regularly use drugs go through cash fast. If they become addicted, they
may have to use more of the drug to feel the same effects and/or to delay the pain and
misery of withdrawal.
Where do kids get money for drugs? They sell their possessions (CD’s, DVD’s, laptops, video
games, jewelry, and clothes); they steal money from parents, friends, or relatives; or they
start dealing.
NERVOUSNESS: When adolescents use regularly, they are often apprehensive, tense,
restless, and jittery. Stimulant drugs such as cocaine, amphetamines, and
methamphetamines are most likely to cause physical agitation when the user is high, and all
addictive drugs can create jittery nerves during the withdrawal period. Even non-addicted
users will experience shaky hands, tense muscles, and feelings of anxiety and mental
confusion after a heavy night of partying.
OBLIVION: Adolescents in trouble with drugs are typically preoccupied, forgetful, and
absorbed in their own thoughts. They are literally in their own little world. Careless with
their own safety, thoughtless and inconsiderate of others, they seem not to care at all about
what others do or think. “The only thing that really matters is drugs – getting them, using
them, getting more of them,” one former user explains. “Everything else fades into
oblivion.”
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PROMISES BROKEN: “I promise I’ll cut back.” “I promise I’ll stay out of trouble.” “I
promise I’ll study harder.” Adolescents may sincerely make promises that they are then
unable to keep because the addiction subverts their best intentions. That clash between
wanting to do the right thing and being unable to follow through on a heartfelt promise
often fills the adolescent with shame, guilt, and despair.
QUIRKY BEHAVIORS: While adolescents have always been well known for their bizarre
behaviors, hairstyles, and clothing styles – remember headbands, face paints, and wild
outfits of the 1960’s? – Adolescent drug users tend to go to extremes. Strange or bizarre
body movements or gestures including jittery hands and feet, constant lip licking, and
scratching or picking at the skin are common. Sudden and dramatic changes in clothing or
hairstyles also may be a sign of trouble.
RESENTMENTS: Drug use seems to breed resentment. Old friendships are abandoned in
fury or exasperation. The slightest criticism is met with defensiveness and hostility. Grudges
are held for weeks or months. Feelings of annoyance, antagonism, and bitterness seem
ever-present.
And blame is big – if it’s not the teacher, coach, parents, cops, or probation officers who are
causing the problem, it’s “the system”, the community, or the world itself. Blaming others
takes the spotlight off the adolescent’s drug use, and kids can convince themselves that the
real problem exists outside them. “I hate the world,” says an 18 year old who regularly used
marijuana, Ecstasy, and hallucinogens. “And I hate all the hypocritical, dishonest, miserable
people in it, which is just about everyone.”
SHAME: As relationships with family members and friends are strained or ruptured,
adolescents’ resentments are compounded by intense guilt and shame. While they may try
to hide their inner feelings, kids in trouble with drugs often feel inadequate, abnormal,
worthless, powerless, and out of control. They may believe they are no good and conclude
that they are truly bad kids or lost causes, as they have so often been called. When they get
high, they can mask these feelings for a short time, but inevitably shame returns, along
with feelings of self-contempt and self-hatred. Mired in self-loathing, many adolescent drug
users consider or attempt suicide.
Yet experiences of shame can be positive, even redemptive, forcing adolescents to face the
conflict between the person they are and the person they want to become. Not every
adolescent addicted to drugs will admit to feeling shame, and some never feel remorse or
regret about their behavior and its effect on people they love. This lack of conscience may
be a sign of deeper emotional problems.
TEMPER TANTRUMS: Temper tantrums are not uncommon among adolescents, but when
drugs are involved, sudden violent outbursts are often unprovoked and may occur on a
regular basis. The adolescent seems to be angry and annoyed all the time and is often
difficult to reason with, restrain, or pacify.
UNDERSCHIEVEMENT: This is one of the classic symptoms of drug addiction – kids who
once had great energy and potential suddenly couldn’t care less about school, grades, old
friends, family relationships, or the future.
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Adolescent drug users often stop studying, and their grades drop precipitously. They seem
to be unconcerned wit the future and are quick to renounce longtime goals such as going to
college or finding a steady summer job. They sit passively and watch TV, listen to music, or
play video games, and they refuse to become involved in hobbies, sports, or outside
activities. All these behaviors may be symptomatic of drug use and addiction.
VIOLENT EPISODES: Certain drugs – alcohol, cocaine, methamphetamines, and PCP, for
example – are more likely to make users aggressive and potentially violent. Research shows
that alcohol is the drug most likely to cause violent behavior in users. Combining drugs can
also lead to paranoid, hostile, aggressive, and violent behaviors. Physical and emotional
instability increase during the withdrawal period, often leading to violence against others or
self-abuse.
WEIGHT CHANGES: Rapid weight loss or sudden weight gain may be a sign of regular
drug use. Adolescents who regularly use stimulant drugs such as cocaine and meth tend to
lose weight fast. Kids who regularly use marijuana tend to gain weight, for marijuana is
relaxing and kids like to kick back even as they beat a path to the refrigerator to satisfy the
munchies. Lack of interest in food, obsession with high-sugar or high-fat foods, and rapid
weight loss or weight gain may be warning signs of drug use and possible addiction.
XENOPHOBIA: Xenophobia is a fear or hatred of anything foreign or strange. Many
adolescents tend to be distrustful of adults in general, but regular drug use often
exacerbates suspicion and paranoia, pulling the adolescent inward, away from others, and
creating a sense of alienation and animosity toward strangers or anything out of the
ordinary.
YEARNING: A craving for peace and serenity and a longing to be normal are common in
adolescents who use drugs. This yearning can be filled in the short term by drugs and/or
material possessions, but inevitably feelings of emptiness – a void at the very center of their
being – returns. “At the innermost core of all loneliness is a deep and powerful yearning for
union with one’s lost self,” writes Irish author Brendan Francis. No substance on this earth
works as quickly and efficiently as drugs do to separate the body from the soul and the
individual from the rest of society.
ZONED: All addictive drugs alter brain chemistry to one extent or another, pulling users
into a different reality. Adolescents high on drugs or in withdrawal from drugs may appear
zones out, spacey, distracted, and off in some other world.
Now that you have read through the A-to-Z list, go back and underline or highlight those
descriptions that apply to your child. Looking as those highlighted sections, ask yourself: “Is
this normal adolescence, or is something else going on?”
C.S. Lewis once wrote, “It is not until we know our own face that we can turn towards the
light.” Understanding the ways in which alcohol and other drugs can create a one-size-fitsall
mask that covers the adolescent’s body, mind, heart, and soul marks an important first
step in the journey to find appropriate, effective help for your child.
Excerpts from Teens under the Influence, by Katherine Ketcham & Nicholas A. Pace, M.D.
