Drug Use, Death, Young Man

[Anonymous]

I may share this story with my teen. What struck me the most was just how normal, youthful and just like so many kids I know are the pictures on the second link.

Found this in General Parenting. The first link is a bit of an overview. The second is the very sad follow-up and a bit more detail on the situation.

http://www.babble.com/CS/blogs/homework/archive/2010/05/01/a-parenting-secret-i-am-no-longer-willing-to-keep.aspx

http://mamapundit.com/

[Anonymous]

Thanks for posting this. Something to share - addiction changes the human brain and is hard, hard to overcome.

[Anonymous]

this is so horrible.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for posting this. It's tragic. She tried so hard to turn her boy around. I've been reading her blog for five years. (She did not reveal he was a drug addict until after he'd been hospitalized.) Yes OP please discuss this with your teen, please share it with the folks who do drug education at your teen's school. That's this mother's hope, that her boy did not die in vain, that his story can save others.

[Anonymous]

I showed my 13yo this story and we talked about drugs, and addiction, and addictive personalities. My brother is a recovering alcoholic, and my son and I talked about how some people can try marijuana, and nothing else, and others - typically those with addictive tendencies - go on to harder things, dangerous things, and cannot turn back. I explained that you can't know whether you have an addictive tendency unless/until you have done some of these things, and by then it might be too late.

There is certainly addiction in my family, and I want my son to be aware of that.

Katie G's son's story makes me think long and hard about experimentation, and its normalcy. I am going to keep a hawk-eye on this for the next decade or so.

Unspeakably sad.

[Anonymous]

3:36 here. Me, too, 11:17, my son's 13, I have family members who are alcoholics, some recovered, some not. I'm sharing this story with the folks who do drug education at my son's school and at his friends' schools, too. I hope others will do the same.

[Anonymous]

There is addiction and mental illness in my daughter's paternal family. The mental illness, IMO, makes it particularly likely that addictions of any type can easily get out of hand.

We have talked about this, but she is only 9, and I think it is before the time that she actually has had to confront these choices personally. One thing I plan to do is more modeling and role-playing with her -- "what would you do if X offered you a drink?" "How would you respond if she made fun of you for not drinking?" etc.

I really worry that one of them will "experiment" and not be able to turn back. I also worry that there are many other parents out there who think "experimenting" is OK (or at least not unusual), and convey a different message than I do.

[Anonymous]

17:33 what's so hard as a parent is that many teens experiment, only a small fraction goes on to hard drugs and/or addiction. Some with alcohol. A tough one. My son is 13, on the verge of having to deal with all this.

[Anonymous]

if your kid gets addicted to drugs, its because you suck at being a parent. get over it. this isn't sad; the kid had a weak mind and his parents/elders failed him. big deal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:if your kid gets addicted to drugs, its because you suck at being a parent. get over it. this isn't sad; the kid had a weak mind and his parents/elders failed him. big deal.

Some parents don't care to be observant, vigilant, etc. Case with DH-would rather have peace in the house than confront any hard issue.

[Anonymous]

I had a friend my freshman year of high school that went off on a bad track and ended up committing suicide our senior year. Started with pot which I think was a gateway for him not based on the drug itself so much as the company he found himself keeping once he started with the pot. His parents did intervene, even sent him away to a teen treatment facility, but unfortunately it wasn't enough.

Reading the story linked by the OP really chokes me up. We have addiction in our family and it makes me frightened for my daughters. I ran the other way after watching my father but my children will not grow up seeing the horrors of addiction in a parent as I did.