In our last blog, we tried answering why youth use alcohol and/or other drugs. One of the questions we get from communities and parents is, “how do you keep kids from getting into trouble that they will later regret including the use of using drugs/ alcohol?” This long sought after answer that many have searched and researched has no simple response, but there are things parents and communities can do to help reduce the risk that youth will take part in these behaviors. After all, we all want what’s best for our kids and ultimately their and our future.

For over 50 years, The Search Institute http://www.search-institute.org/ has been researching “What kids need to succeed”.  Within their research, they have identified what they call “40+ Developmental Assets”. The assets are factors that should be present in a child’s life from 3 to 18 years of age that can help guide them toward healthier lifestyles while achieving their potential and reducing the chance that they’ll take part in high risk behaviors including the use of drugs and alcohol. The idea is, the more assets they have present in their lives the more youth can succeed. The 40+ Developmental Assets http://www.search-institute.org/developmental-assets/lists are broken down into 2 main categories, external & internal assets, with sub-categories and suggestions from engaging youth in creative activities to considering the importance of positive family communication and healthy adult relationships. Check out the link above for the age appropriate assets that pertain to your youth and see how many are present in their lives.

Aside from the assets, what else is out there for parents to help their kids stay away drugs and risky behavior?

Locally, there are many things available, from camps at the local YMCA/YWCA http://www.ywcaofasheville.org, to UNCA’s Bug Camp http://facstaff.unca.edu/tforrest/BugCamp.htm . There also exist several free things to do in Asheville http://www.theqfamilyadventures.com/13-things-to-do-in-asheville-with-kids like the new Splasheville fountain in downtown.  As caretakers, we can do things with our kids, like free parenting classes such as the Strengthening Families Program offered by ARP http://www.arpnc.org/prevention , which offer skills, incentives, and a time to bond. Volunteer programs such as those offered by the United Way http://unitedwayabc.org/give_help/index.php can involve the entire family and help strengthen our youth’s bonds to their community, two protective factors that prevent drug use, according to the Communities that Care model. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Risk_Factors_for_Adolescent_Problem_Behavior.png .

The bottom line is that the quality of relationships with adults is the largest influence on whether or not youth use drugs and engage in risky behavior. The relationship youth develop to themselves, us, their community and the world is something that we can help them build and develop in a healthy way. I know it’s hard to juggle work, our personal lives, being parents, and so on…but ultimately our children are learning to live through us and how we manage our well-being. So send us creative ideas and share with each other on how else we can help raise a healthy generation of youth.

Giselle Bango, MS, MFTA

Prevention Specialist

Addiction, Prevention & Recovery

http://arpnc.org

Teens live their lives as if they were indestructible and telling them that drug use can hurt them and expecting them to agree is like someone saying that driving while talking on the cell phone can be a danger.  “Sure it can be a problem, but we’re careful and nothing bad is going to happen to us, right?”  Does it stop us from doing it?  Even though many examples exist that show the dangers of drug use, such as A&E’s Intervention program http://www.aetv.com/intervention/index.jsp, and most kids will say they know someone who has had some negative consequences, it’s important to ask why kids use and how to stop them.

Self reported studies on youth drug and alcohol use, such as the Monitoring the Future, http://monitoringthefuture.org/ and the Youth Risk Behavior Surveys (YRBS) http://www.nchealthyschools.org/data/yrbs/, have revealed that youth use drugs and alcohol for many reasons. The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) http://archives.drugabuse.gov/Published_Articles/Sally.html states 2 main categories why kids use:

1) To fit in

2) To feel “normal”/better

A few more reported are:

• boredom
• easy access
• perceived availability
• difficulty at home
• and influence from those they look up to

http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/communities_that_care/5461 Interested in getting local data? Then search your local school district’s website or ask a school official about what student surveys have been done at your kid’s school. The ARP Prevention department has worked with various schools in the 8 Western NC counties to get surveys completed and they shed insight into local vs. national trends.

Since one of the important factors that influence whether youth will use drugs and/or alcohol is wanting to fit in with their peers, let’s focus on how one type of advertising plays a role in attracting them to using.  No, not the obvious ones like TV or billboards, but rather the peer group who uses, talks about it and seems to go on living their lives without any obvious consequences.  Teens follow other teens and all teens ‘advertise’ something by their life, words, and examples.  When a peer talks about using (and drinking is using), having fun, “hooking up” while they were drunk, and getting home to sleep without consequences, they are advertising a product and showing the benefits of it. When a mom or dad use alcohol, smoke cigarettes, or use any other mood-altering chemicals, and make it to the end of the day, they too are advertising those products.  Forget magazine ads and commercials; teens today get enough persuasion from daily contacts.  Youth seldom see or hear the negative costs of the advertised daily use that we are talking about, which unfortunately is the one that impacts them the most.

The flip side is that the majority of kids aren’t using (the same research sited above shows that the majority of kids today don’t smoke, drink, or use). The issue is they just don’t advertise their lack of use.  They don’t say stuff like, “Dude, I SO didn’t get wasted last night.” Or, “Man, we TOTALLY didn’t get drunk this weekend.”  

While we really didn’t solve anything this time around we gave some food for thought, information on why youth may use, and things you can follow up on to get more informed locally. We hope to help with the “hows” in the next blog.  For now, what are YOU advertising daily to your kids, friends, neighbors, coworkers, and family members?

Bob Cummings

Prevention Specialist

ARP, Addiction, Recovery & Prevention

http://arpnc.org

Most of us have seen the television commercials, heard the radio spots, and seen the magazine ads about tobacco and alcohol. But why is it that these ads target youth instead of adults? Is this just the big corporations trying to get our attention and make us feel young if we drink or smoke? Hardly, this is all planned. The advertisements that these companies are putting out are targeting our youth because they are allowed.

An article came out a few years ago from the National Crime Prevention Council, saying that even though some restrictions have been put on tobacco and alcohol companies that they will still find a way to influence our youth with colors and pictures just to name a few. http://ncpc.typepad.com/prevention_works_blog/2006/10/alcohol_and_tob.html .

Another question I’d like to ask our local readers is whether Asheville is portraying the right image for youth as the: Number 1 Beer City in America? I know that a lot of people love beer, and that we as a community are proud of this recent title. To play up the image, we’re seeing even more alcohol at events around Asheville and Buncombe County such as more beer festivals. But is this sending the right message to youth?

 The 2005 National Survey on Drug Use and Health reports that every day in the US:

• 4,000 teens between the ages of 12-17 try their first cigarette
• 30.1% of youth 16 and 17 years old use alcohol http://oas.samhsa.gov/nsduh/2k5nsduh/2k5results.pdf

As a community we need to ask ourselves what kind of image we are putting out there for our youth today. I survey the room at some of these functions that we put on as a community and notice that if this were a commercial or an ad for alcohol it would sell well, because we are saying that it’s okay to drink after work, to have just a few drinks, and then drive home. The danger in this is that many people don’t know what ‘just a few drinks’ can do to them in creating a habit and impairing judgment. As a culture, we are selling the idea that you can not relax after a long day of work without alcohol; and when you drink why not smoke as well? It’s another way to relax because you deserve it! Are our lives really this stressed and hard that we “need to drink and smoke” after work to relax? What about some healthier alternatives: getting off of work and exercising, dinner with friends or just spending time with your family to relax? How about taking advantage of the outdoors or the creative artful side of Asheville? Why do we credit the alcohol and tobacco industries with helping us relax? As a culture we are becoming more stressed therefore people are turning to drugs and alcohol to cope. And our youth are seeing that model and learning that’s the way to handle stress.

I ask you to write in and tell us how you relax without alcohol, tobacco or any other substance; tell us how you manage to enjoy your time substance free!

Lindsay Carver, BS

Prevention Coordinator

ARP, Addiction, Recovery & Prevention

http://arpnc.org

I’m sure many of you have heard or seen the impressive PSAs (public service announcements) for Above the Influence, which is a national campaign aimed at helping youth stand up to the daily pressures they face. It’s a timeless thought that things have changed and they are not the way they were when we were growing up. If you haven’t seen the attention grabbing ads, check them out at http://www.abovetheinfluence.com/default.aspx?path=nav or on YouTube. You can also get helpful information at the Above the Influence website for youth and those who influence youth, which we all do, to consider on healthy decision making regarding substance use.

So what about you? Are you living above the influence? With New Year’s right around the corner, this is a perfect time to ask yourself whether you can or are willing to try and live above the influence of what many others seem to be doing on New Year’s. Sadly, an MSN article recently ran an article about the link between alcohol and the spike of deaths that occur at this time of year http://specials.msn.com/A-List/Lifestyle/Christmas-Day-fatal-for-some.aspx?cp-documentid=26855438. As adults, how about we ask ourselves what part we have in influencing whether others make healthy decisions about their use of alcohol and other drugs? We can’t ignore the influence we have on youth and their decisions about alcohol and drug use. Kids are going to be noticing what we’re doing to celebrate the holidays and it’s likely they’ll decide that whatever we’re doing is OK for them.

Has anyone read or heard the recent story about the mother in Western North Carolina who had her 2 children ingest cocaine, marijuana and other narcotics? While this is an extreme case, it is not rare. In fact, 25% of 12-18 year olds say their parents allow them to drink on special occasions and 30% report that their first drink was with a family member (examiner.com, 2010) and this is a report on only alcohol. It’s important to consider how we impact what our kids think is fun and how they learn to “party”.. Interestingly, usa.gov http://www.usa.gov/Citizen/Topics/New_Years_Resolutions.shtml reports that drinking less alcohol is one of the top resolutions that people make for New Year’s along with getting a better education, job, getting fit and losing weight. We’re curious, how do you plan to Live Above the Influence in 2011?

Giselle Bango, MS, MFTA
http://arpnc.org/

Prevention Coordinator
ARP Addiction Recovery & Prevention

Do you remember during A Christmas Story, that classic movie about Ralphie, the cute bespectacled little boy who wants an “official Red Ryder, carbine action, two-hundred shot range model air rifle!” If you haven’t seen it, you probably live on Mars or you turn your TV off the whole of November and December every year. During the tire changing scene, Ralphie drops all the lug nuts and they fall down the sewer hole, then he says…in the presence of his dad… a dirty word . They go home, he tells on his buddy by saying to his mom that the OTHER kid taught him the WORD. While Ralphie sits there thinking about the different flavors of soap, his shocked mother calls the other kid’s mom and says, “You’ll never guess what YOUR son taught MY little Ralphie to say.”
Isn’t that the way so many of us parents are?

Since we as parents feel that our children are extensions of ourselves, it is often hard to keep a realistic view of what they are doing or not doing, especially when it comes to alcohol, tobacco, and drug use. The neighbor’s kids may be doing dope, smoking, and getting involved in all sorts of risky behaviors, but MY child knows better. Notwithstanding that the neighbors are saying the very same thing about you and your kids, how do you know that your children are as safe and risk free as you are telling yourself?

RESEARCH PROVES THE “WAR” ON DRUGS HASN’T WORKED

The Partnership for a Drugfree America states:
“According to the 2009 Partnership Attitude Tracking Study sponsored by MetLife Foundation,

• The number of teens in grades 9-12 that used alcohol in the past month has grown by 11 percent, (from 35 percent in 2008 to 39 percent in 2009)
• Past year Ecstasy use shows a 67 percent increase (from 6 percent in 2008 to 10 percent in 2009)
• Past year marijuana use shows a 19 percent increase (from 32 percent in 2008 to 38 percent in 2009)

One of the factors associated with this increase in use is a decrease in perception of harm in using these drugs..

The percentage of teens agreeing that “being high feels good” increased significantly from 45 percent in 2008 to 51 percent in 2009, while those saying that “friends usually get high at parties” increased from 69 percent to 75 percent over the same time period. The Partnership/ MetLife Foundation Attitude Tracking Study (PATS) also found a significant drop in the number of teens agreeing strongly that they “don’t want to hang around drug users” – from 35 percent in 2008 to 30 percent in 2009.”

Well, that’s not encouraging. The chance that your child has used, is using, or at least is contemplating using is too high to just ignore. So now what!?

PARENTS DO INFLUENCE THEIR KIDS’ DECISIONS

Research shows that kids from grades 7 through 12 who learn a lot about the dangers of drugs from their parents are up to 50 percent less likely to ever use.
Parents should not only talk openly AND frequently with their kids about drug use and other high risk behaviors, but need to have a high degree of savvy when doing so.

I still remember my mother cornering me when I was in junior high (yes, that’s what they called middle school back in the dark ages) and yelling at me, “You better not be taking the drugs and getting hooked on those blues, reds, and yellows. First you’ll take pot, then you’ll get hooked on heroin or speed.” Way too many buzzwords that she heard from Reefer Madness-type movies. I couldn’t take her seriously. Of course, that was WAY before the days of internet, worldwide web, and instant information.

Now parents can research effective, teen-centered information so they can know what to do BEFORE the problem begins. Try www.timetoact.drugfree.org/ for some really good info about what to do if you suspect, or even worse, KNOW that your child is using. Then sit down and start to talk to your kids about life and its many twists, turns, and traps. You might find that they really want to talk about some of this stuff, but were afraid that you wouldn’t handle it well. Still not sure? You can seek some professional help or find out whether your local school district is offering prevention courses to youth and/or families. Someone trained in substance abuse prevention or counseling in your community can help you gain the skills to intervene before it’s too late. You can start with your child’s school counselor and ask for a referral for parenting classes or find a substance abuse treatment center and ask if they can help with interventions. You really don’t have to go this alone.

SHARE YOUR STORY

I’m wondering if anyone out there has successfully talked to their kid about drugs and alcohol. What worked for you? What didn’t?

Bob Cummings
Prevention Specialist
ARP Addiction Recovery & Prevention
http://arpnc.org/

This is an introduction to an eight-part series on teens and drug use.

Parents have one thing in common: we worry about our kids and want them to live happy, healthy lives. But national data captured in 2009 shows that, by the time teens reach their senior year, more than 43% are regularly drinking alcohol and more than 23% are using illicit drugs.* Although it may seem like an impossible task, parents and families can protect youth from substance abuse. Over the next couple of months we (this blog is being written by a team of substance abuse prevention and treatment professionals) will answer the questions below and provide you with tools that you can use to create the best possible outcomes for your kids.

• Why do kids use drugs?
• What makes some kids use drugs/alcohol and others not?
• What’s the difference between what youth think/do and what parents know about what they think/do?
• What influence do parents really have over their kids use?
• How can you talk to your kid about drugs?
• If your kid is already using, what can you do?
• What can a parent do to help prevent drug or alcohol use?
• Why didn’t the “war on drugs” really work?

Giselle Bango, MS, MFTA
Prevention Coordinator and Substance Abuse Counselor
ARP Addiction Recovery & Prevention