Addiction among our youth is a growing concern. Learn about the different stages of addiction, in adolescents.
Addiction has powerfully negative effects on adolescents, their families and the realization of their hopes and dreams. The sad fact is that that every addict started life as a human being with great potential. The addiction, like an overwhelming cancer can consume these hopes and dreams. There are different stages of addiction. Each stage would require a different type of treatment modality. They are the early stage, the middle stage and the late or advanced stage of addiction. In adolescents, the stages of addiction can progress more quickly than as an adult, although this is not always true. It can take a few months or a few years to reach the later stages of addiction.
Early stages of addiction
Begins smoking cigarettes
Experimentation with drugs
Begins smoking pot and drinking
Hangs out with the drugging and drinking crowd
May steal medications from parents
Urgent requests for money, cons and manipulates to get requests met
Preoccupation with finding drugs and orients activities around them
School problems begin, maybe truancies or begging parents to make excuses for them
May not come home when requested, staying out all night
Few consequences from their use
Ability to control use
Tolerance to using
Substance use becomes a way of communicating to others
Attention span decreases
Lower tolerance to frustration
Middle stages of Addiction
Beginning to try and limit their use
Blaming others for thing that are going wrong
Using different types of drugs to gain control over use
Withdrawing from family and friends
Stealing
Academic decline and truancy
Mood swings
Lying
Increase in time spent in using substances
Changes in personal appearance
Arguments within the family
Legal difficulties
Loss of control
Late stages of Addiction
Suspension or being expelled from school
Increase in anxiety
Lowered self esteem
Increase in legal issues
Blackouts
Passing out
Signs of withdrawal symptoms
Unable to control substance use
Isolating
Anger outbursts
Denial of using
Weekend binges or daily use
Paranoia
Begins to steal, deal or prostitute to support their habit
Weight gain or weight loss
Stops trying to hide their use
Addiction is chronic, progressive and sometimes fatal. There are many forms of treatment for adolescent addiction. No one single treatment is effective for all individuals. Treatment must touch on all facets of the adolescent’s life. Social, family, school, legal and medical are just some areas that need to be a focus on, in treatment. If the adolescent is using heroin, medication management may be successful, such as buprenorphine or methadone.
If an adolescent is using drugs, the best form of treatment always includes the family. Family participation and counseling is vital in providing proper treatment to the adolescent. Without family participation, the chances of the adolescent getting into recovery are low.
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