Prescription Drug Abuse Among Teens
The relatively recent focus on Attention Deficit Disorders has spurned a whole generation of ADD kids on stimulants like Ritalin and Adderall.
Teens in their thousands are being diagnosed with the disorder and prescriptions for ADD medications abound.
Parents of teens can't sleep. They suffer pain, depression, and anxiety. Ours is the instant gratification society where suffering is quickly disguised with designer drugs. The average suburban home of the average suburban teenager is brimming over with prescription drugs. The scene is set for teens to become involved in prescription drug abuse.
Some say that the recent alarming statistics on teens abusing prescription drugs is really only an extension and symptom of a much larger problem.
The problem is a philosophical one. It has to do with the new solutions that we now use for age-old problems and the old solutions that we have done away with.
The fact is that people, parents and teens alike are struggling with a world seemingly devoid of meaning. Yes, in a broad sense, it is an existential problem.
The suffering and boredom that results from perceiving one's world as essentially meaningless is translated into an obsession with ailments and symptoms.
Prescription drugs abound, each one claiming to offer a profound solution to a problem. Most only mask the symptoms. It was only a matter of time before teens cottoned on to prescription drug abuse. Some children even have parents who are overly dependent on, or outright addicted to, their medication.
The subject of prescription drug addiction amongst teens is a sensitive one and for all the wrong reasons. The teens' capacity for appreciating and taking advantage of the readily accessible supply of legal drugs from their own bathroom cabinet has put the powerful drug companies on the defense.
Lobbying groups are forming to protect the good name of legitimate medications and the power and money behind them is immense. Concern for the growing number of teen prescription drug abuse victims is not as big or as powerful.
How sad that we are more concerned with the honor and availability of our medication than we are for the fragile physical, mental and spiritual welfare of our children.
Eva is one of many teens on the outskirts of the growing problem with prescription drug abuse. She attends a highly regarded public school at the center of an affluent and highly educated community. Here is how she describes the situation at her school:
"Prescription drugs are so easily available it's ridiculous. Kids crush pills on the lunch tables in the cafeteria and then sniff them. Almost everyone has a ready source.
Many kids are on prescription drugs that they don't want to take. They sell them at school to those that do. Ritalin gives a nice high and Vicadin numbs you out."
Prescription drug abuse amongst teens has evolved into something of a science. Kids know what alcohol to mix with what drug to get a certain high. Some mix prescription drugs with illegal street drugs to create a cocktail to help them pass an evening.
Statistics on prescription drug abuse among teens is alarming. Painkillers come out on top as the most abused drug with approximately one in five teens using Vicodin, a heavy weight painkiller that creates a nice feeling of numbness. That is 4.3 million teens nationally - 18% of our youth. The figures are staggering.
Stimulants like Ritalin and Adderall are lower down on the list with 10 percent of teens using them as their particular preference of prescription drug abuse.
The latest studies also show that parents are speaking less to their children about the dangers of drug abuse.
Teens report that their sole source of information is often the TV commercials on prescription drugs.
We parents need to wake up and pay attention. We need to be aware of what medications we ourselves take and how often we fill a prescription for a drug that we fail to use. Much of this overflow is finding its way onto the playgrounds at our children's schools.
Our only defense is facing this alarming reality. We need to get back to talking to our children about the effects of prescription drug abuse.
Many teens feel that prescription drugs are safer than street drugs so they take them in large amounts, often. They mix them with other drugs and alcohol placing themselves in severe, sometime mortal, danger.
We need to discuss deeper issues to, like what makes a fresh young teen want to numb and blur his or her existence on a regular basis. To really look at this we will have to look at our own ways of dealing with the struggles and challenges of being human.
Gail Walter
Boulder, Colorado
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