Help your teen off drug use

So your child, friend, spouse, father, mother, daughter can not let go of those drugs. Shot after shot they go, sniff after sniff they inhale. Trying to get off habitual drug use is not that simple because it causes psychological and physical problems to the users. Many aftermath effects are likely to be seen, for example, the person tends to feel detached from the peers as quitting drug use calls for leaving the group, miss the social activities and nightmares, feel sick all the time and most times becomes restless. However, this is not to say that it is hard to help your child already using the drugs. For one to be able to make it past the addictive drug use, it calls for support from family, friends and even counseling.

Mr Paul Nyende, a social psychologist of Mental Health and Community Psychology at Makerere University, says that a strategy must be in place if one must get over the problem of drug use. Nyende gives some actions a parent can consider if the child has just started using drugs, without necessarily taking the child to a rehabilitation centre;

Change of the social grouping
There is need for the parent or guardian to change the school in which the child struggling with drug use is attending. And the place of residency too if possible should be changed. Most times children learn to use drugs from peers. So separating them from these social group will help the child from going on with this habit.

Empower the child
This means that a child already using the drugs should learn to say no. This can mainly be done right from home because the parents can teach them to stand up for what they believe in. This is very important because it helps to build the child’s self esteem. Mr Nyende also emphasises that one needs to articulate him/herself clearly sending a clear signal to the person who initiated the use of drug that they are no longer interested them. At a certain point this may call for one to be insulting all in a bid to send off the person suggesting the use of drugs. People need to be taught to learn to put their feet down for what they are standing for.

Involve them in anti-drug use awareness
Mr. Nyende also explains it’s important to involve the children who have been using drugs in creating awareness. This can be done by starting anti-drug use awareness clubs in schools. “This is a way of equipping the children with valuable information, the peers will trust them and the awareness campaign will be a success,” he says.

Keep them busy with constructive activities
This will help in developing their skills, they will stop being idle and will always be interested in finding something to keep them busy. Nyende says that one loses nothing when he/she volunteers in community work but rather learns a lot and has no time to join bad groups that would lead him/her into using drugs.

Talk to someone
Both children and adults need to find someone to talk to, share what they feel and find the best way of recovering from the habit. Mr Nyende says that because the teenagers take drugs due to emotional strife, the drugs are used as a way to fight back for what is done to them. Yet in most cases these drug users do not like it. Better still, professional counsellors would work better as these know how best they can help one out and find a better option for one who has failed to get someone they can confide in. So any drug user needs to know that drugs only exaggerate the existing sentiments and get you to do more havoc, than helping you.

It’s clear that many teens experimenting with drugs are putting their health and safety at risk. But we need to appreciate that teen drug use and abuse can be prevented. Its high time parents with children using drugs helped prevent teen drug abuse by not simply talking to them about the consequences but also helping them to make healthy choices. Other rehabilitation centres in Uganda where a parent can take a child failing to get off drugs are;

Serenity Centre on Entebbe Road
Butabika Mental hospital
And all prisons are now rehabilitation centres.