People have a hard time believing marijuana is addictive. Indeed, for many people it is not. It is similar to alcohol in that most people who use it do not become dependent. Most can use it in a social, recreational situation. However, like alcohol, there are some who cannot control their use.
Someone who is addicted to marijuana always says that other people do not understand it. They say it has health benefits, and that it is not an addictive drug. They say of course they could stop if they wanted to. They ignore the irritation of their loved ones, and they ignore the signs that it is a problem. Their productivity is lowered, and their emotional range is blunted. They tend to use it several times per day. It is often the center of their social group.
Heavy marijuana users tend to need it to fall asleep. Their anxiety becomes so high that it is hard to quiet their minds before falling asleep. What is ironic about this is that the majority of people who abuse marijuana claim it isn’t addictive. However, if your teenager needs it in order to get to sleep, their body is dependent on it.
According to drugabuse.gov, 1 in 6 teens who use cannabis end up addicted to it during their lifetime. For those who use it daily, the number skyrockets to 1 in 4. Nearly 1 in 5 teenagers who enter a drug rehab facility go to treatment because they can’t quit using marijuana.
As a therapist who works with teens that have drug problems, I find that the teens who abuse marijuana are initially resistant to the idea they are addicted. This is much more true than the teens who abuse other drugs. I have yet to sit down with an opiate, meth, cocaine, or anxiolytic (such as Xanax) addict who thinks there is absolutely no problem with their drug use. Yes, some of these drug users are in denial about how intense their addiction might be, but they all agree that it would be better to be sober. This is not true with adolescents abusing marijuana. Most of them maintain a moderate level of functioning, so they argue that they’re completely fine. It takes a lot of work to break through a marijuana addict’s denial wall because addiction to marijuana is more subtle.
If this describes your teenager, my heart goes out to you. You might even feel torn about whether marijuana is addictive yourself. One thing that may help you understand is according to http://adai.uw.edu/marijuana/factsheets/potency.pdf, marijuana is 2 to 7 times more potent than in the 1970s. Also, teens tend to smoke the flower buds of the cannabis plant, which is stronger than the leaves previous generations tended to smoke. Many now use “dabs,” which is concentrated THC inhaled through a vape pen. According to justthinktwice.gov, dabs are approximately four times as strong as the highest grade marijuana; they are absolutely addictive. Previous generations also were more likely to begin use in their 20s, but now that is starting 5-10 years sooner.
If this blog is hitting home a little too closely, your teen has possibly begun to have a marijuana dependence. They will argue with you that they feel fine, but it is still a problem behavior. If you want your teen to be engaged, present and productive, then encourage them to quit. If they cannot or will not quit, get them help.
Helping teens grow and families improve connection,
In the state of New Jersey it has been found that mandating arrested drug offenders to treatment programs instead of jail-time has greatly reduced the repeat offense rate. When a drug-offender simply does jail time the rearrest rate is 54% with a 43% re-conviction rate. When mandated to treatment, the rearrest rate is 16% with an 8% re-conviction rate.
One thing that is rumored to happen in jail or prison is that an addict learns even more about how to be an addict. There are a lot of drug users and dealers in prison/jail, and they educate one another in further delinquent behavior. It is also rumored that there is a pretty significant amount of illegal drugs dealt within the prison system, sometimes making an addiction worse.
Whether you believe our justice system should or should not offer treatment centers as an alternative to jail/prison time, this article is a good example that treatment for addiction can be very helpful. It also demonstrates that who you spend your time around is who you become.
While there’s a good chance your teenager isn’t serving jail time for a drug-related arrest, this article still applies to you. The two important things to get from this is that 1) prisoners who spend time in the main prison population often commit drug-related crimes again and 2) prisoners who spend time around recovering addicts tend to get better.
If your child is acting out and participating in drug use, the most important thing you can do is change their peer group. This is extremely challenging as a parent. How many times have you told Junior, “I don’t like you being around those kids. What about hanging out with so and so instead?” Then you’re rewarded with a dirty look and an accusation that you “hate all my friends.” This is when you need to start thinking outside the box.
If your kid isn’t working, help them find a job. Teens who work develop friendships with their co-workers. A job also takes up time that could otherwise be used to smoke a joint.
Your child might be farther into their drug use than just getting a job to change their peer group. In that case, you’ll have to be more forceful and drastic. Sending your teen to a relative’s house for about 3 months can be extremely helpful. Do you notice that while your teen talks back towards you, they don’t talk back to your sister? They aren’t familiar enough with your sister to do that. It might just work to have them stay with her for a little while. This is only effective if your relative lives far enough away that your teen cannot see the same friends.
If the case is more severe, you’ll have to strongly consider either rehab or teen boot camp. Both of these methods are effective and helpful. I’ve found that teens who go to boot camp tend to come back a little bit stronger than rehab. However, in no way am I claiming to have completed a study on the matter. Each rehab and each boot camp are different. What works well with one type of teen may not be the ideal fit for another type of teen.
The bottom line is, teenagers begin to act like the people they are around. Getting your struggling teen around successful teens tends to improve the decisions your teenager makes. Just like the prisoners in this article, everyone needs someone who will show them an alternative, positive way out. For teens the most important thing is that they think it is their idea. This is your chance to be a creative parent and covertly help your teenager come up with a good idea for how they can start making changes.
Helping teens grow and families improve connection,
Binge watching on a regular basis can be an addiction.
Entertainment streaming addiction is so prevalent among
teens (and people across the United States for that matter) that it’s almost
hard to recognize. Most people are watching
hours of Youtube videos, Netflix, or Hulu each day. Because a great number of
people are doing it, it starts to seem acceptable. However, I challenge you to think about how
any “addiction” is defined. This will
help you decide if your adolescent might have streaming addiction.
Addiction means needing more and more of something to feel
satisfied, while feeling some form of withdrawal when it is taken away. Has your teenager spent increasing amounts of
time watching videos of some sort? If
you took all devices from them so they could not stream anything, would they be
irritable? Would it go beyond
irritability? Would they become
despondent?
Many people thinl addiction is only possible if drugs or
alcohol are involved. They assume you
need to go through physical withdrawals for something to qualify as
“addiction.” While the withdrawals from
substances add danger to the withdrawal process, my experience tells me people
get addicted to all kinds of things ranging from gambling to pornography to
entertainment streaming.
The other element of addiction is whether it is leading to
atrophy in other areas of life. Is your
teenager spending an inordinate amount of time sitting or lying down in order
to watch a screen? Is your teen
struggling to get enough sleep because of hours lost to binge watching? Has your teenager socialized less and less
frequently with friends, preferring the company of a series they are
watching? Is your teenager’s favorite
activity with you to watch a certain TV series together? If you answered yes to these questions, then
their life is out of balance because of entertainment streaming overload.
I encourage you to begin limiting your adolescent’s time in
front of a screen. According to Common
Sense Media, teenagers are in front of a screen an average of nine hours per
day. Think about that! Nine hours per day! I PROMISE you they don’t have nine hours of
homework per day, which means a lot of that screen time is unproductive. Try putting a monitor on their devices just
to make them aware of it at first. Most
people don’t want to be someone who does nothing but watch shows, they just
don’t realize how much they’re doing it.
If they are made aware of how much screen time they accumulate each day,
that might be enough for them to pare back.
If this doesn’t impact their screen use, then you will have
to consider cutting the cord. A lot of
parents are hesitant to end a Netflix subscription because they also enjoy streaming. But, being a parent has always meant doing
things you don’t feel like doing. When
your kids were little you probably didn’t want to watch The Little Mermaid for the 100th time, yet you did it
because it made them smile. You may not
want to give up Netflix in the house, but you can do it because it’s best for
your kids’ growth and development.
Once your teenager is through the initial withdrawal period
they will suddenly reappear around the house.
You will see your teen in the family room more often. They will reengage with other
activities. It’s hard to imagine
anything past their initial anger at first.
After a week or two though they usually start to enjoy things again.
Helping teens grow and families improve connection,
Gaming creates psychological addiction in teenagers.
Credit: Idea Go/freedigitalphotos.net
There’s a growing concern that teenagers, and especially
male teens, are becoming increasingly dependent on online video games. Many teenagers play for hours every day. Parents have called with concerns that their
sons (and sometimes daughters) are disconnecting from life. Let’s look at a case my supervisor encountered
a few years back.
She had a 15-year-old male come into therapy for depression
and anxiety. During the intake she discovered
he was not going to bed until 2:00 or 3:00am most nights. When she explored the reason for this he
said, “I can’t get my homework done.”
Given that he finished sports at 4:00pm each afternoon, she found this
to be unusual. When she dug a little deeper,
she realized he was consistently violating the 1 hour of video games per day
rule his parents had set for him. She
found out he was actually playing 5-6 hours of video games per day, and 12-15
hours on weekend days. No matter what
his parents did he found a way around it.
They eventually shut down the internet.
He crawled under his covers in his bed and become utterly
despondent. He wouldn’t get out of bed
to eat, shower, or go to school. He held
out so long that his parents gave back in, “but just for 1 hour per day.” That worked well for about 2 weeks until he
started pushing the boundary again. This
cycle continued. Finally, his parents destroyed
all his devices. He became suicidal,
which terrified them to the point they gave him new devices. They allowed him to home-school thinking this
would help him complete everything so he could get to bed on time. It didn’t work. This boy had a severe online gaming
addiction.
I’m not sure your teenager is at such an extreme place, but
if that is sounding a little familiar then read on. Video gaming addiction is especially common
in role-playing games (RPGs). In these
games your child makes up a character and lives in a fantasy world. Imagine the allure for an adolescent who isn’t
especially popular in real life. The brain’s
reaction to feeling powerful, well-liked, and purposeful is intense. There is another side to the story though.
If your son or daughter is spending hours and hours in front
of a screen living in a false world, what skills are being developed? Is your teenager learning how to cope with
the nuances of real life? Is your
teenager learning to socialize, date, do physical activity, or have enough
self-control to go to bed at a good hour?
Yes, your teen is physically safe from harm because they are sitting at
home, but there is another, more subtle harm being done.
Video gaming addiction is an actual thing, and very hard on
a family. Your teenager must learn to
live without games but still use a computer.
Your teenager will experience REAL withdrawals when you pull the
plug. There isn’t a happy medium for a
child who has this addiction. Cutting
back is a short-term solution. It’s like
someone who has quit smoking cigarettes saying they plan to only have one when
they drink. That will work for a time,
but soon enough they will be smoking again.
I know this is heart-breaking for you and your family. I know you feel some level of guilt for buying
the games in the first place. No matter
what got you here, just accept the problem as it is and begin to walk forward. Acknowledging there is a problem is the first
step. The second step is equally as
important; you must reach out for help.
Helping teens grow and families improve connection,
Most everyone has tried video games. For some it has become an addiction that prevents them from living their life in a truly productive manner. If you teenager cannot live without online games, please watch this short video. Here Cameron talks about how he approaches online gaming addiction with adolescents.
Social media is part of our teens’ everyday lives. Using it to connect with friends and see what other people are doing can be fun. There is a point where use and compulsion to check a social media feed become detrimental. For some teens this can even grow into an all-out addiction.
Helping teens grow and families improve connection,
Hello, I’m Lauren! If you notice your teen struggling, you might be feeling helpless, hopeless, frustrated or concerned as a parent. Try to remember, there is hope. I want to help your adolescent feel better. My hope is for them to enjoy their life again. I want them to feel confident they can handle whatever situations arise.
