The age at which kids experiment with drugs has dropped over recent years. It is now expected that kids as young as 11 or 12 will be exposed to drugs and alcohol within their peer group and start to begin experimenting. Children at this age are at an important part of their development and the brain is just beginning to develop the new cognitive skills that will help the child to cope with teenage years. These skills include the ability to make decisions using high-level or abstract reasoning. Drug use at this time can cause permanent structural changes to the brain that will impair these functions. Current estimates suggest that about half of all teenagers will try an illicit drug at least once. It is thought that nearly all teenagers will experiment with tobacco and alcohol.

It follows that the groundwork for preventing teen substance abuse needs to start early. Ken Winters is a director of the Center for Adolescent Substance Abuse Research at the University of Minnesota. He maintains that kids as young as age 10 should be sat down for a specific and serious talk about the various health, emotional, and legal risks of using drugs, alcohol, and cigarettes (linked here). He advises to be honest with your child if you experimented in your youth but to explain that you wouldn't make the same decisions today. See this earlier post about talking to kids.

Your child might still be tempted to experiment with illicit drugs but the longer they wait to try their first drug the less developmental consequences there will be for them according to Michael Dennis, a psychologist at Chestnut Health Systems in Illinois who has conducted significant research into Cannabis use by young people. He found that those who first try marijuana under the age of 15 are two and a half times more likely to be dependent on it as an adult compared to those who first try the drug after age 18.

Helping your teenager to develop hobbies and activities to combat boredom can help to stave off experimentation. Nurture your teens passions as a way to keep them interested in healthy activities and avoid boredom. This is also important if your teenager has left an adolescent treatment center for a substance abuse problem.

You will generally have a sense of when your teenager is using drugs and might be in need of an intervention at an adolescent treatment center. They will exhibit certain physical symptoms like bloodshot eyes, excessive tiredness, and loss of weight. They will show psychological changes like a hostile attitude, withdrawing from social activities, and promoting drug use. They will show problems in dealing with everyday life and get into trouble at school.

An adolescent treatment center needs to provide a comprehensive treatment program that will address co-occurring psychological issues like depression, ADHD, and anxiety. These need to be treated in an integrative manner.

The South African treatment experience has shown that including a high amount of family participation while the teen is in treatment is associated with more positive treatment outcomes. It is for this reason that you should try to select an adolescent treatment program where you will be able to attend for at least part of the time.

Residential adolescent treatment centers are shown to be more effective when they are specialised in treating youth and don't admit adults. In South Africa special licensing requirements are in place for a facility to be able to house people under the age of 18. When choosing a facility you should ensure that they are specialised and properly licensed.

Adolescent treatment plans that are based on cognitive behavioural therapy and include motivational enhancement therapy have the best outcomes. Cognitive behavioural therapy helps the teen to identify the events and activities that trigger drug use. By developing strategies to deal with these triggers the risk of relapse is reduced. Motivational enhancement serves to help the teen develop an internal sense of reward for staying clean rather than having sobriety be just an externally enforced and undesirable fact of life.

A comprehensive adolescent treatment program will offer a sensible aftercare regime. Addiction is never completely "cured" and patients will benefit from continuing care that serves as a refresher and helps to address the various problems that can be expected to crop up. Attendance and participation in the recommended aftercare program is an important way to improve the quality and length of the adolescent patient's sobriety (see this earlier post about the benefits of mutual support groups)