Substance abuse is the most concerning part of today’s teens and young adults. It can be challenging and overwhelming to overcome this. The teenage years are the most crucial time as this is their overall growth time, physically and mentally. This peak time can cause the brain to choose many options, and many teenagers and young adults choose substance abuse. Therefore, the use of substance abuse can impact the brain severely, causing mixed emotions and impacting decision-making. Also, some common reasons may cause teenagers to choose substance abuse, including alcohol, drugs, opioids, and marijuana. For this, it is essential to get appropriate treatment options to support teens and young adults to overcome substance abuse. Here’s where addiction counselling comes in: counseling plays an important role in overcoming substance abuse and starting a healthy life again.
This makes parents stressed and worried about how to keep their teens away from abuse. It becomes difficult for parents to deal with their teens alone. As with substance abuse, teens experiment with different drugs and other substances, placing their health and safety at risk. Counseling is important to help teens and young adults. Let’s understand how addiction counselling can help overcome teens and young adults with substance abuse.
Signs of Addiction
Knowing the signs of addiction can help family and friends to understand and take immediate action for support and help. One of the most common signs of addiction is a persistent need for drugs, alcohol, or substances. Here are some of the common signs to help discover substance abuse in your teens.
- Quick changes in mood or weight
- Isolation
- Depression or eating disorder
- Drugs or alcohol use to help relax the mind
- Searching for drugs or alcohol
- Stealing money or selling things to buy drugs or alcohol
- Always feel sick or tired
- Loss of appetite
- Shivering hands and legs
- Sleeping disorders, no sleep or sleeping all the time
- Sudden anger or anxiety problem
- Doing worse at school
- Loss of interest in performing activities or being socially active
- Problems in their relationships with family and friends.
These are the most common problems that substance abuse teens may have, but there can be many other related problems that can be life-threatening. So, talk to a therapist or counselor in Edmonton if you see any of these signs. It is better to prevent it earlier than to think about it later.
How Parents Can Help Teens Avoid Substance Abuse?
If you are the parent of a teen who has substance use habits, then here are some tips to help your teen avoid substance use.
Keep an Eye on Your Teen’s Activities: To help your teens with substance abuse, you must check their daily activities at school and home. This will help you know their unusual behaviors and habits.
Talk to Your Teens: If you notice any unusual behavior in their activities, the best way is to talk to them about what they are going through, and they can share it with you. Help them; they may not ask you for help, but deep down, they need help from their elders and parents.
Make Them Feel Comfortable: To help them through this tough time, you need to make them feel comfortable and cared for so that they can share their feelings and thoughts with you easily without feeling afraid of getting judged.
Help them Feel They Are Important: Some children feel avoided or neglected by their parents or socially. This sometimes leads to social distancing and can provoke the child to take substances. So, discuss things with your child and always give them your priority over things that are not important. Take them to school or pick them up sometimes, if possible. Take them for outings, dinner, or lunch. Just spend time with them. This will surely help your teens feel important and loved.
Help them Develop Social Skills: To bring positive changes in your teen’s life, help them socialize and develop new things so that they enjoy going out, meeting new people, and making friends. Social skills that are positive help them to develop emotions in their teens.
Show Some Love and Acceptance: Don’t judge them. Show them some concern and love the way they like. Talk to them as their best friend and listen to them without being aggressive or angry with them.
It’s a fact that parents who show love and acceptance to their children become the most successful parents even when setting boundaries and rules, as this helps teens to be responsible and think twice about doing anything and stay within boundaries.
Have Daily Conversations: Let them know that you are interested in their lives by communicating with them daily about their daily activities. This helps develop their confidence and prevent any substance abuse.
Support Them: They may not ask, but give them help. Ask them about their concerns and what is bothering them to help them act and deal with it positively. It can be difficult for parents to help their teens consult alcohol addiction counselling.
What Therapies Are Used in Substance Abuse Counselling
If nothing works, then drug addiction counselling works. Sometimes, parents may be unable to understand their children’s thoughts and feelings. Children with substance abuse go through much, and parents may not be able to overcome them fully. So, a counselor with much knowledge and experience in dealing with these situations can easily help cope with teens with substance abuse. Counsellors know many strategies that can address the underlying cause of the addiction and provide them with support and assistance. Here are some of the strategies:
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
Cognitive behavioral therapy can be said to be one of the best and most effective therapies that work well with teens with substance use disorder. CBT’s major goal is to recognize and modify detrimental cognitive and behavioral processes that lead to substance use. They make teenagers find ways of resisting cravings, relapse triggers, and stress in a way that they do not relapse.
Previous studies have also demonstrated massive decreases in substance use after CBT treatment among teens. CBT can be done one-on-one or in a group; this is helpful since different techniques may be used with different clients. Besides, the patients can encourage one another. CBT has focused on third-wave modified cognitive-behavioral therapies that accept and integrate concepts such as acceptance and mindfulness, as well as tailor the therapeutic approach according to the categories aiming for the highest effectiveness.
This focuses on the use of Motivational Interviewing (MI)
Motivational interviewing is the other intermediate technique that can be used to prevent adolescent substance use. With the help of the MI, counselors increase people’s intrinsic motivation and help them change their thoughts by identifying the gap between what they are and their goals. This approach helps people see the difference and commit to changing themselves. The therapist assists the teenager in establishing more appropriate targets for change.
Family-Based Therapy (FBT)
Families should be engaged in the treatment process as far as the cases of teen substance abuse are concerned. Family therapy involves targeted interventions at the family level because the hope of recovery is established on positive changes at the family level. Teenagers live with their families and depend on their support, and therefore, the program acknowledges the families’ authority to bring about the desired change.
Some evidence proposes a relationship that enhancing family participation in treatment causes a favorable impact on the client in the reduction of substance use in young patients. It is clear that when therapists implement and employ these evidenced-based practices, teens and young adults can regain control of their lives and free them from substance use.
Tailored treatment can even be a better choice for teens to overcome substance use more rapidly, ensuring a holistic approach to their recovery journey.
How Counselling Help With Substance Abuse
Counselling can help in many ways to help teens and young adults stop substance abuse. Many teens with substance abuse also get into porn addiction, which can be more dangerous to their health. Porn addiction counselling and addiction counselling are needed to help with substance and porn abuse.
Therapists offer ongoing support, which is especially needed for teens to overcome their situations. The therapists will help the teen throughout their recovery process. They keep a regular check on the teens and assist with relapse prevention. Teens can quickly change their minds if attention is not given. Guidance and encouragement can help them make a lot of changes while overcoming addiction.
Counsellors also help with building coping skills in teens with their focused strategies to overcome their substance abuse. Using their expertise and experience, they know how to handle teens with every substance abuse, including drugs, alcohol, and gambling addiction counselling. With the help of the counseling sessions, they build confidence and self-esteem in teens to readily and confidently leave their addiction habits and value their potential and skills. Motivating them is vital in supporting them throughout recovery for a healthier life.
Counseling sessions are safe and confidential places, so teens feel safe and share their thoughts and feelings openly. Counsellors allow them to be comfortable and nourish them with love and care so that they can speak up to understand the root cause of their problems. To work better on their problems. This is how counselors can be supportive and helpful in helping teens create a safer tomorrow and avoid substance abuse.
Conclusion:
Each teen is unique, so counselors create a personalized treatment plan for each teen. Counselors work closely with each teen to ensure they are completely free of substance use. Talk to addiction counseling in Edmonton for a customized treatment plan if your teen is going through substance abuse.
