Addiction Treatment

Adolescent Treatment Center

Drug addiction does not discriminate. It can affect anyone no matter of age, class, race or religion. Drugs do, however, pose one of the biggest dangers to adolescents. Young people are very impressionable and vulnerable to peer pressure. Their brains have not fully developed to help them with impulse control and delay of satisfaction. These are key factors when it comes to using drugs. Adolescent addiction treatment is available to help address the specific needs and concerns of young people. Many young people in today’s society have a lot of pressures placed upon them. They have to go to school eight hours a day. Some of them have part time jobs. They may have extra curricular activities like sports or drama. On top of all this they have social and peer pressures to deal with. Young people are still finding their identities as people and their status in social circles can be very important to them. This is a lot of stress for anyone to deal with, let alone for a young person still figuring out their place in life.

When young people do have a chance to let loose and forget about their problems for a little while at parties or on their free time with their friends, they may go overboard. Without adult supervision, they may be more prone to listen to older kids or people they look up to. Many times drug abuse just starts as a young person being dared to try it at a party or social function. They may already be drunk and decide to do something they normally wouldn’t. Once they have tried it once, they will be more likely to try it again, seeing as they lived through the first time. They may also see older kids smoking pot and still making good grades and staying out of trouble, so they start to believe that drugs are not that dangerous. They are unable to see the long term effects of using illegal intoxicating substances.

When young people look at their lives they see them as they will live forever. Four years of high school seems like an eternity. They are not able to see the long term results of their actions as well as adults. This is the same attitude they have when it comes to quitting drugs. Why stop now when I have the rest of my life to do it? They do not realize that the longer they stay on the path that they are on the harder it will be to quit and the worse off they will be. It is important to get them into an adolescent addiction treatment center before they do damage that can’t be undone.