SAC Corner

Issue No. 5

January

Why Might Kids Be Doing Drugs?

We need to understand it, to counteract it, to help prevent kids from developing addiction and other issues with both their mental and physical health.

Here are some things to consider:

Is there a genetic and/or family history of addiction and/or substance use?
Monkey see Monkey do. If it is used & enjoyed in the home, it can normalize it. Teens don't always understand they aren't adults and it isn't regular for their life. It also creates access.
Is there an underlying mental health condition?
Is the child self medicating anxiety, PTSD, mood disorders, or depression? Maybe they don't meet a clinical diagnosis but they are trying to treat their own stress or awkwardness.
What are their peer relationships like?
There may be unspoken peer pressure just to fit in. The "peer pressure" may be from their own brain worried about fitting in. It can also be from not having close relationships to others w/o substance involvement.
What is the social environment like?
How easily available are substances? Is your teen socially isolated? Bullied? Are friends healthy or constantly fighting, manipulative, or stressful?
Has there been academic struggles or poor sports performance?
Is the child trying to enhance a performance? Focus better?

Here are some ways to combat substance use:

Believe it or not, more healthy family time
Stability at home, time with siblings & parents/guardians, closeness
Healthy peer relationships: school friends, friend friends, best friends, teammates, etc.
Resilience
Does your kid know how to fail? How to bounce back? Now is the time to teach out to cope, sober, from failures and disappoints. To learn they can survive it, and will survive it.
Financial stability & consciousness
Treatment facilities. Inpatient programs, Outpatient programs, support groups.
Optimism, confidence, strong self-image
So often teens think substances and alcohol make them more fun, less anxious, more sociable. As a byproduct, their sober time can become less functional in normal day to day interactions. It's important they have social confidence sober, know who they are, and are comfortable alone with their own thoughts.

Loneliness

Ms. Dominiak recently shared a short podcast episode with me. The podcast discusses the subjectivity of loneliness. If your student has expressed feeling lonely and it surprised you, give this 15min episode a listen to help maybe it understand it better. The podcast episode is linked in the button below:

Short Wave Podcast: Episode Loneliness

Online Classes Taking A Toll

A recent study compared electrical activity in hearts and brains of students who took a class in person to those taking it online and found those taking the online class had activity indicating stress, mental fatigue, and overall fatigue. "Zoom fatigue" can be increased from excessive eye contact, sitting for long periods of time, and catching glimpses of yourself on camera.

An increasing amount of students feel they would do better in an online learning environment. This can sometimes indicate avoidance of stressors. Avoidance can lead to weak or nonexistent resiliency.

Students often feel being in the comfort of their own home, being in bed, getting to sleep in, etc. will relax them and increase their success. What students are not accounting for is time. Those things feel good in the short term, but in the long term can lead to avoidance, anxiety, discontentment, and depression. There is value in getting up, getting moving, leaving the house, interacting with others, and developing the executive functioning skills of getting to school/work on time and with your responsibilities completed.

Being Proactive

ReThink

Detects "hate" before you post it and prompts you to stop & think if you want to post it. 93% of kids changed their mind when prompted their post may be hateful/bullying.

Trigger Warning Database

If there is certain content you may be sensitive to, check books here before reading

Does The Dog Die (a trigger warning database)

If there is certain content you may be sensitive to, check movies, tv shows, and more here before starting.

Safety Plan

SAMHSA provides free safety plan templates to use when in crisis or as a preventative conversation starter

Teen Mental Health Temperature Check

Newport Academy is offering a guide on how to do a mental health temperature check w/ your teen using 10 questions. Newport Academy also offers ways to incorporate evidence based "temperature" lowering activities into your teen's life and routine.

Take It Down

Website dedicated to removing exploitive images of minors.

Megan Thee Stallion's site for Mental Health Resources

CAUTION: the website title and linked song both use language deemed inappropriate.
Resource for: therapy, BIPOC specific resources, free therapy, suicide, crisis, substance use, LGBTQIA+, & more

Haddonfield Virtual Wellness Room

A place to go when you're stressed out, bummed, or feeling not yourself and need some resources to help reset yourself.