Search Results for: blog talking about tough issues drug abuse

Teen Drug and Alcohol Use on the Rise Again

Decades of “just say no” and other campaigns have had teen drug and alcohol use on the decline… until now. The Partnership for a Drug-Free America and the MetLife Foundation sponsored a survey of teens in grades nine (high school freshman) through twelve (high school senior). More than 3,200 teens returned anonymous questionnaires about drug use, alcohol use, and other risky behaviors. Both alcohol and marijuana use are up from 2008. Thirty-nine percent of teens reported drinking alcohol in 2009 — up from thirty-five percent in 2008. That works out to nearly six million teens across America. A quarter of … Continue reading →

Talking to Your Kids about Alcohol Abuse

When I was getting ready to go away to college, my parents sat me down and said something to the effect of “you’re probably going to drink when you’re at college, just do it responsibly.” They didn’t know that I’d already been faced with offers of alcohol and turned them down without hesitation. But then, I wouldn’t consider myself a typical teen with a typical curiosity about drinking. I had already seen up close what serious drinking could do to a person, and was not at all interested in alcohol. I never had more than a sip to taste until … Continue reading →

Adoption Blog Month in Review: August 2007

A major theme for this month in the adoption blog was discussions—especially discussions with your child, but also discussions with others. I began the month sharing my four-year-old daughter Regina’s questions about her droopy eyelid in Talking With Kids About Special Needs, and in Principles for Talking with Kids About Special Needs I discuss how I tried to use the same tenets for talking about her eye that I use when talking about adoption issues. Regina also figures prominently in the next blogs. She told me, “I Don’t Like My Skin”. I stumbled through a response, shared in I Don’t … Continue reading →

Talking About Tough Issues: Drug Abuse

Some of the suggestions for talking about drug abuse and physical abuse and mental illness may also be adapted to talk about neglect, whether the neglect is due to maternal depression, or to birthparents’ seeming lack of knowledge of children’s needs, or their seeming inability to care for another. In early childhood: “Your mother took a kind of medicine that wasn’t given her by a doctor. She thought it would make her feel good, but it was bad medicine. It made her sleepy so she couldn’t take good care of you.” In elementary school: Your mother took bad drugs that … Continue reading →

Talking About Tough Issues: Abandonment

Some adoptive parents are very distressed to learn that their child was abandoned. They believe that this means the birthmother did not love the child. It is certainly difficult to think of a beloved child left alone, but remember that when it is the only option, abandonment does not have the negative connotations it has in this country. In the case of international adoption, often a country does not have a formal system for placing children for adoption. In these countries “abandonment” does not imply that the child was found in a dumpster. “Abandoned” babies in these countries are usually … Continue reading →

Risk Factors for Alcoholism

I worry that I am at risk for alcoholism. When I was a child, I remember my grandfather mixing his “tea” at noon. I’m pretty sure there was no actual tea in his glass, despite that being what he called it. I remember incidents of irrational behavior — like the time he shook my brother for dropping a piece of meat on the floor. It made me afraid of him. It made me afraid to drink. When my friends experimented in high school, I abstained. Even if I tried a sip, I told myself I didn’t like the taste. Once … Continue reading →