Adolescent Drug and Alcohol Treatment Is The Hardest Decision In A Parent’s Life
If you are considering entering your adolescent into an adolescent drug and alcohol treatment program, you definitely should. It doesn’t matter if your adolescent drinks one beer or smokes one joint as opposed to many; any child at any age should refrain from drugs and alcohol until they are older. If your child shows any sign that they are using drugs and/or alcohol on a regular basis, or at all, you need to put them into an adolescent drug and alcohol treatment program so that they can get the help they need. This is the time in their lives where they’re struggling with who they are, and their bodies are going through changes, and they could end up making decisions or having certain things happen to them that could affect their life negatively for the rest of their life. Therefore, it’s imperative that any parent facing a child using drugs or alcohol should enroll them into an adolescent drug and alcohol treatment facility as soon as possible.
Inpatient
When you take your child to an adolescent drug and alcohol treatment program, you will be faced with the choice of putting them into an inpatient program, where they will stay at the facility until treatment is over, or an outpatient program, where they will come to meetings on a regular basis but can stay at home under proper supervision. You really should consider inpatient care. You may think that your child is the strongest alive, and that they will persevere, but inpatient care is much better suited for children who are prone to peer pressure and have the opportunity to stay at a facility without having to worry about a job or supporting a family.
Constant Supervision
The inpatient adolescent drug and alcohol treatment program will hold them in the facility and will monitor them constantly. Your child will never be alone. They will either be at a group therapy session, they will be eating with others, or they will be sleeping. This means they will be getting constant treatment and they will not have peer pressure or any outside influences threatening to bring them back into that bad lifestyle.
Kids Are Sneaky
Another reason why inpatient adolescent drug and alcohol treatment is preferred is because kids can be very sneaky when it comes to doing things or hiding things behind their parents’ backs. Your child could look completely normal, could dress sharp, smile and even tell you they’re not using; but it’s only when you catch them in the act, or find something accidentally such as paraphernalia, or an empty bottle, that you know your child’s been lying to you. For this reason too, you should enroll them in inpatient care so that they don’t have a chance to lie to you. They’ll complete their treatment completely absent from negative outside influences and that will help them to remain strong so that they can change back to the loving, non-addicted child they were until drugs, alcohol, or both, took hold of them and turned them into someone you don’t even recognize.