10 Ways to Curb the Adolescent Heroin Epidemic

Nearly 50 years ago, a retired bishop of the Catholic Church in Albany, New York, founded a drug rehab center, naming it the Hope House. His purpose was to help the large numbers of African-American men whose lives had been devastated by the epidemic of heroin addiction. Recently, the center has had to double its capacity in response to a major increase in the rates of heroin abuse, and due to the number of teens becoming addicted to heroin they have also opened an adolescent facility.

It is now time to take effective action to get the problem under control and save young lives threatened by this drug.

How to Keep Your Teens Off Heroin

In the same Albany Times report, we learn of the stories of Naomi and Gwyn, two 16-year-old girls who are in treatment for addiction to heroin at the Hope House. From these stories, we can learn some important points about what can be done to prevent heroin abuse and help to curb the spread of heroin addiction:

1. Strip Away the Glamour

“Heroin seemed glamorous at first. I thought the lifestyle was cool. But I ended up with no friends and got really, really depressed,” says one of the girls. Too many young people think, thanks in large part to images presented in the media, that using drugs will make them cool or edgy. Share the facts about how drug use affects a person, and make uses of resources such as before-and-after photos of drug addicts, to make it abundantly clear that using heroin will not make you anything like glamorous.

2. It Can Happen to Anyone

“People need to understand that the teenagers dying from heroin overdoses are not junkies in the gutter. They’re just normal kids who couldn’t stop using.” Many young adults who get started using heroin think that they can get away with it, since they don’t meet the profile of a person who they think is likely to become an addict or die in the streets. Make sure that your child knows that his or her neighborhood, school, social class or anything else will not protect against an overdose if he or she starts using heroin.

3. Keep a Tab on Spending

If your teenager is using heroin, it is likely that he or she has easy access to the drugs. Heroin is cheap and abundantly available in most areas of the country. According to recent reports, a bag of heroin can be purchased for as little as $6-$7, a cost which puts the drug on par with buying a 6-pack of beer or a pack of cigarettes. Your child could by buying heroin without having to resort to desperate measures to raise cash to feed the habit, so do what you can to keep an eye on how and where his or her money is spent so that you can catch the problems in the early stages if necessary.

4. Build Young People Up

“I have low self-esteem and I’ve got a lot of emotional issues. I’ve struggled with my relationship with my father and my own addictive personality. I’ve been depressed for a long time.” Too many young adults who begin using drugs do so in an attempt to escape from feelings of depression, anxiety or low self-esteem. They’re looking for a way to feel better, however, that can be done. Make sure that you take every opportunity in your interactions with young people to help them feel good about themselves and to build their self-confidence.

5. Pay Attention to the Signs

“As soon as I woke up, I did a Roxy [a type of OxyContin medication] and during the day I’d pop an Oxy or two. All the days kind of melded together. I’d be high on the school bus and nod off in class. I’d slur my words when a teacher called on me. Nobody did anything, so I kept using.” All it takes is one parent, teacher or someone else to notice that something is wrong and to act on the signs. Don’t be too willing to rationalize or make excuses. If something seems fishy, start checking around and asking questions, and you may find out that there is a problem while you still have time to handle it.

6. Focus on Interpersonal Relationship Skills

It is common for teenagers and young adults to feel uncomfortable in social situations, and in some cases, this can be a contributing factor in developing a substance abuse problem. “I’m working hard at overcoming my social anxiety and awkwardness in talking with people,” said one of the young women in treatment. Work with your children to ensure that they feel confident in communicating with others in social and professional settings. This can make an enormous difference in determining how successful they will be in life, and can serve as a buffer against the risk of developing an addiction.

7. Stress Goals and Purposes

One of the young women is currently working to complete her GED, and has plans to attend community college for an education in marketing. “Having goals keeps me focused and off drugs.” Pursuing goals of this type is important in recovery as well as in prevention. A teenager who has clearly defined life goals will be less likely to get involved with drugs. He or she will tend to recognize that drug use will only get in the way of pursuing these goals, and will also typically feel more motivation and satisfaction in life, making it less likely that he or she will resort to drugs to self-medicate negative emotions.

8. Improve the Home Life

If you have children of any age living in the house, do what you can to make the home a safe and peaceful place for them. Having a stable home life means that your children will not feel as great a need to turn to heroin or other drugs for relief and refuge. Home is where they can come to feel safe and protected, rather than having to retreat into getting high.

9. Address the Issues of the Past

“In almost every case, it comes down to some kind of trauma or internal pain,” says a social worker who is quoted in the Times Union article on the subject of adolescent heroin abuse. “Using drugs takes their hurt away. It’s a matter of self-medicating.” If your children have a history of abuse, domestic violence or some other type of trauma, including physical pain caused by injury or illness, look for ways to alleviate this pain and help them to deal with it in positive and healthy ways. Don’t pretend that it doesn’t exist; it’s there, and left unhandled it will act as a risk factor for drug use.

10. Make Life Less Stressful

The program at the Hope House includes meditation, yoga and other stress-reduction activities. All too often, a person who starts using heroin or other drugs is looking for a way to diffuse the stress he or she confronts on a daily basis. This is true of teenagers, many of whom get involved with drugs to escape the stress of homework, school performance, extracurricular activities and other expectations placed on them. While it is a good thing to encourage your children to strive for greatness, you should remember that they have limits on how much they can handle, and avoid placing so much stress on them that they feel they have no other way out than through drugs.

The most important thing that you can do to help your children stay off heroin and other drugs is to make sure that you are involved in their lives. The young women featured in the Times Union story both share a common background, inasmuch as their fathers were both addicts and largely absent from their lives. The mother of one was also an addict, and the other girl’s mother was largely absent for other reasons. Whatever else is going on, if your children know that you love them, that you are interested in what is going on in their lives, and that you are there to help, they will feel a stronger connection with you and more support, things that can be invaluable in keeping them out of trouble and away from drugs.