Teenagers, this post is addressed to you.  Some of you aren’t aware if one of your friends has had too much to drink or has overdosed on drugs, but others of you can tell.  For those of you who can tell, you may fear calling an ambulance or dropping a friend at the emergency room if they’ve overdosed or had too much to drink.  Please, don’t make that mistake!  Don’t worry about you getting into trouble.  There aren’t many consequences that outweigh what can go wrong if your friend is in physical distress from substances.  Being grounded or even getting in trouble with the police will pass in time, but if your friend dies or has permanent physiological damage from an overdose of drugs or alcohol, you will struggle to get past your guilt if you could have gotten them help.

Helping teens grow and families improve connection,

Lauren Goodman, MS, MFT