Just read this fantastic guest blog on Lisa Belkin’s Motherlode (New York Times). This brave mother, Janice Lynch Schuster, has two teens currently battling what she figuratively refers to as a “big black snake” – or, as it is more commonly known, drug and alcohol addiction. I’m sure that most parents who have watched their children struggle with a drug problem would agree that Schuster is right on target when she compares addiction to a scary – and possibly deadly –snake.

Facing her children’s drug problems, she writes, used to paralyze her. Even when she wanted to confront the monster, she was reduced to ineffectively yelling, taking away things that her kids could just get more of, and convincing herself that drug use was simply a rite of passage for teens. But luckily, Schuster finally got strong enough to intervene and get help for both her addicted children. Here’s a great quote from the post:

“I insisted that first one child and then another be admitted to a substance-abuse recovery program, a residential program that specializes in treating children, like mine, who are alcoholics and drug addicts. Just writing that is painful and foreign; it is as difficult as speaking in the snake’s tongue. The language of addiction is full of loss — lost opportunities, lost lives, lost potential, lost families, lost time. Now both children are in what is called recovery — they have been clean and sober, one for about eight weeks and the other for scarcely more than two.”

For those of you who can relate to Schuster’s story, I highly encourage you to check out Intervene, our newly launched blog here at the Partnership. We’re so proud of Intervene because it’s more than just a website – it’s a supportive community of parents and caring adults concerned about a beloved teen or young adult’s drug use. Right now, we have some very inspiring guest bloggers posting, including two authors with new books out and one wonderful woman who has been running marathons all over the world to raise funds and awareness for drug addiction and treatment.

And remember, you can also visit our website TimeToAct if you suspect or know your teenager is using drugs. TimeToAct has tips on how to initiate a conversation and get your child help.

• 	Posted by: Joe Keenan | 2 Comment(s)
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One kid is too many, but an astounding 12 percent of American kids (8.3 million) live with at least one parent who is addicted.  Researchers working with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) found that approximately 7.3 million children lived with a parent who was dependent on or abused alcohol, and 2.1 million children lived with a parent who was dependent on or abused illicit drugs.

Their report, Findings for Children Living with Substance-Dependent or Substance-Abusing Parents, looked into the lives of children ages 12-18 between 2002 to 2007.

Speaking about the impact of this fact on young lives, Eric Broderick who is the acting director of SAMSHA put it this way, ”The chronic emotional stress in such an environment can damage their social and emotional development and permanently impede healthy brain development, often resulting in mental and physical health problems across the lifespan. This underlines the importance of preventive interventions at the earliest possible age.”

If you have someone in your life who struggling with substance abuse, please take action.  If they have a family, realize that you’re not only helping the person with a potential addiction, you’re helping the lives and futures of their children for the better.  If you need more information, start on the intervention portion of our site. 

Our full suite of support, tools and tips from experts and parents also includes a link to our Time To Act program if you think or know your child might be experimenting or using alcohol and drugs.

• 	Posted by: Steve Pasierb | 1 Comment(s)
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It’s occurred to me lately that my 3-year-old son has developed a somewhat alarmingly unhealthy relationship with cherry-flavored children’s Tylenol. He asks for it when his nose is stuffy or when he has a sore throat. Other times he will claim that more unusual body parts are giving him trouble. His bellybutton say, or occasionally his hair. I’ve always just chalked it up to the fact that he loves the flavor, a sickeningly sweet concoction containing enough sugar and brilliant red dye to send any child into momentary raptures of hyperactive joy. 

Lately, however, I’ve become a bit concerned because his preoccupation with treating ailments with medications has begun to expand beyond the aforementioned red goop. If I complain that I have a headache, he’ll immediately ask if I plan to take something for it. When his back was itching the other night, he called out from his bed to ask if I had any medicine that would “scratch it” for him. It’s obvious that he’s already made a strong connection between physical ailments and chemical solutions and what’s even more upsetting to me, is tha this is completely my fault.

I’ve been clean and sober for eight years now but I’m the first to admit that even though I haven’t ingested anything stronger than Benadryl in all that time, I still have the mind of an addict. If something hurts, I take something. I’ve never fooled myself about this and there are times when I pop an Advil, that I am perfectly aware that my reasons for doing it are just as much psychological as they are physical. I never dwelled on it much, however, as I always figured that in terms of important issues to deal with, I had bigger fish to fry. If it makes me feel better to take an antihistamine after a couple sneezes, well it’s certainly the lesser of a bazillion other lurking evils.

Now that I’m pregnant and the only medicine remaining on the shelf is a bottle of Tylenol (which trust me, I have not neglected), this dependence has become even more glaringly obvious to me. Last month I had a nasty cold and spent many a waking hour lamenting the lack of Alka-Seltzer Cold Plus in my life. The crazy thing being, that even as I pined for the fizzy remedy, I admitted to myself that it had never really helped that much to begin with. I just wanted to take something.

It is now clear to me that my son has noticed this and that my attitude toward medicine is making a quick descent down the branches of the family tree. I realized the other day that although I’m always quick to appear with the noxious red syrup and a teaspoon at the first sign of any complaint on his part, I have never really sat down and talked with him about the purposes of medicine, and that while it can be very helpful, it can also be very harmful. I suppose that I always thought he was still too young but now I’m not so sure. I freak out if a man sits down next to us at the bus stop while smoking a cigarette but don’t think twice about running to the medicine cabinet at the first sign of a stuffy nose (and this, despite the fact that I’m well aware that there is not even any real evidence to show that these medicines work in young children). Something’s wrong with this picture.

Despite the fact that there are plenty of guidelines about how to talk to young children about smoking, drinking and illegal drugs, there is very little information out there about how to talk to young children about OTC (over-the-counter) medications. I find this surprising as it seems doubly important to talk to them about the substances that they see and are in some cases, already ingesting on a regular basis.

This is especially crucial in light of the fact that adolescent abuse of both prescription and OTC medications (such as cough syrup) has been on the rise in recent years. What’s more, studies show that although more parents are discussing the risks of alcohol and illegal drugs, for the most part, they are still not talking about the very real dangers of OTC and prescription drug abuse.

My son is only 3 but it is now clear to me that I am setting a dangerous precedent for him and that something needs to change in my whole approach towards medication. Any suggestions are welcome!

• 	Posted by: Johanna Bailey | 11 Comment(s)
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Michael Phelps, Santonio Holmes and Bob Hayes: Three sports legends and one unprecedented weekend.

For those who don’t regularly follow sports, Phelps is an Olympic legend with 14 gold medals, Holmes is a football star with a Super Bowl ring and the Hayes was both - a multiple gold medal winner and one time “world’s fastest man” and also Super Bowl winning wide receiver from the Dallas Cowboys.

And, this past weekend, they gave us three very different perspectives of the intersection of sports and drugs.

On Saturday, Hayes was posthumously elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Whether Hayes would ever make the Hall has been an ongoing debate for nearly 30 years. He had what most considered a Hall-worthy career, but the taint of a 1979 drug arrest for delivering narcotics to an undercover police officer and the resulting 10-month prison stint had long been considered the reason he was not getting inducted. He finally made it, but didn’t live to see his long time dream realized.

In a story that developed over both Saturday and Sunday, Phelps acknowledged that a picture of him smoking marijuana at a University of South Carolina party was authentic. This has been followed by a series of spin-control, PR moves and apologies and has resulted in Kellogg’s not renewing his endorsement contract and a 3-month suspension from USA Swimming. It is much too early to know how this will impact his standing and legacy.

Then, on Sunday, Holmes who has admitting to dealing drugs when he was in elementary school and was arrested for marijuana possession earlier this year, had a breakout performance in the Super Bowl which ended with him scoring what is already considered one of the greatest touchdowns in football history and being named MVP of the game.

As a parent, these give us plenty of topics to discuss with our kids. We can talk about Phelps’s poor judgment and the contradictions of his supreme physical conditioning and his unhealthful behavior. We can talk about the way that the consequences of our actions follow us much longer than we might realize. We can talk about the brave decisions that Holmes made to change a dead end course into a productive life, but also how that battle still continues. But most of all, we can share with our children the knowledge that brilliance in sports does not make a person a role model and that no one, no matter how wealthy or famous, is immune to the negative impacts of drugs.

• 	Posted by: James Ponti | 3 Comment(s)
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From the window next to my computer, I can look out and see groups of young men walking down the street.  They are wearing jackets and ties and seem to be at a loss as to exactly what they are supposed to be doing.  They’re not sure of the protocol as they slowly make their way up the street to a house not far from mine.  They have just returned from a funeral of their friend - a young man just a couple of years out of high school.  A few days ago, from this same window, I could see the paramedics and fire department and a few hours later the medical examiner all approaching the same house.  A night of alcohol and drugs mixed with a young man’s feeling of invincibility came to a tragic end.  I pray for the boy.  I pray for the family.  And, I pray for the young men who don’t know what they are supposed to be doing.  Hopefully, they will figure out more than how to act at a funeral.  Hopefully, they will figure out how to keep another funeral from happening. 

• 	Posted by: James Ponti | 5 Comment(s)
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A recent article in U.S. News and World Report talked about how the majority of Alcoholics Anonymous attendees drink coffee (90%) and smoke cigarettes (60%). Many believe that by helping to alleviate feelings of depression, anxiety and irritability, these “lesser” addictions can actually help alcoholics and addicts avoid relapse. Now, however, a researcher from the Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center of the University of California, San Francisco is suggesting that recovering alcoholics who continue smoking cigarettes may actually have a higher chance of relapse. Because of this, she feels that nicotine and alcohol addictions should be treated at the same time.

The article doesn’t go into details about the evidence for this claim other than mentioning that animal studies have shown “that nicotine can cause relapses to alcohol drinking” and after reading it, I felt a bit uneasy. The idea that smoking can lead to higher rates of relapse amongst alcoholics is compelling and it would indeed be interesting to see if more AA members who smoke relapse than those who don’t. In the meantime however, without further research, I think it could be a bit risky to start advocating the idea that people who are trying to quit drinking should also quit smoking at the same time.

In my own experience getting sober, cigarettes (and coffee too for that matter), have played a fairly crucial role in my recovery. I got sober at 25 but it took me another 4 years to quit smoking and I still drink at least 2 or 3 cups of coffee a day. Certainly I’m not claiming that I couldn’t have gotten sober without these crutches because in retrospect, it’s impossible to say. What I do know is that at least for me, it made staying clean and sober easier, but not for the reasons that most people might expect. Yes, cigarettes did “take the edge off,” but my real motivation for continuing to smoke went deeper than that because to me, drinking, using, and smoking cigarettes were not just addictions, they were a part of my identity.

(More…)

• 	Posted by: Johanna Bailey | 7 Comment(s)
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Have you checked your spam folder lately? 

If it’s anything like mine the subjects look like:

Vi%gra cheap!!!!!!!!!!!!
Rx %$*&^( pre$cr1pt1ons
cheap via9r@, d1et p1lls, etc.

Not to mention the “she’ll love your new member” and “I represent Mr. Nkoko, the Nigerian oil billionaire” e-mails.

This past school year, my daughter Freckles wrote a research paper on the lunar astronauts.  We went to the local library and checked out a couple of books, but the majority of her research was done online especially on the NASA.gov website.  (Interesting tidbit: the school doesn’t allow the kids to use Wikipedia.)

I thought back to when I did a research report in fifth grade - lots of time in the local library using whatever they happened to have there and only during library hours, searching through that card catalogue, Xeroxing photographs for the report on that smelly old machine that churned out shiny paper b&w copies that I had to physically cut and paste into my report.

Contrast that with Freckles’ access to thousands of sources whenever she wanted, ability to watch video interviews with actual astronauts, option to download thousands of pictures in the NASA database and intersperse them in her paper in the appropriate place.

While she was working on this paper, I couldn’t help but think how fantastic the internet can be.  Then I checked my spam folder.  I guess as with everything, there’s an upside and a downside.

(Getty Images)

(Getty Images)

• 	Posted by: Sarit Catz | 0 Comment(s)
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My colleague Jim Siegel attended last night’s Home Run Derby and has the following to share with us:

Last night at Yankee Stadium, before the Home Run Derby began, the crowd cheered when hometown stars Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, and Alex Rodriguez and Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson were interviewed live from the field over the Public Address system.

But those cheers were low volume compared to the chant that engulfed the stadium later in the evening. That’s when Josh Hamilton of the Texas Rangers was smashing one homer after another on his way to hitting 28 in Round One of the Home Run Derby.

No one’s ever done what Hamilton did last night.

Fifty-seven thousand plus voices — me included — roared, “Hamil-TON! Hamil-TON! Hamil-TON!”

From my seat amidst the noise, I watched Hamilton down at home plate.

It seemed as if he was the one calm person in the whole place.

He did all the normal ballplayer things – take a pitch, take a practice swing, check his batting gloves, knock dirt off his spikes with his bat.

But you could sense from his manner, from his stance, and from his swing that he was filled with some sort of calm.

Later he told the press that he was “in the zone.”

What’s the source of that inner calm?

Hamilton says his calm comes from “a higher power” that helps him stay drug-free after years of terrible drug addiction that came this close to ruining his life.

Drug addiction is a complicated disease. To overcome it requires tremendous self-discipline every single day. To overcome it requires help from others.

The story of Josh Hamilton’s comeback this year and his accomplishment last night is – and I choose this term carefully – heroic.

But no less heroic are the stories of many people we know personally – teenagers, young adults, older adults. These are people who have struggled with drug and alcohol addiction, people who are in recovery today – some for days, some for months, some for years. I bet if you asked Josh Hamilton, the calm guy amidst the roars that filled Yankee Stadium last night, he would agree that they’re heroes as well. And that we should applaud each of them, too.

P.S. If you don’t know Josh Hamilton’s story, check out this Sports Illustrated cover story from June 2, 2008.

• 	Posted by: Joe Keenan | 5 Comment(s)
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The New York Times published an editorial today Not Winning the War on Drugs that, regardless of how you might feel about the total piece, contains an important message to all of us, especially parents.  It talks extensively about the ongoing struggles of fighting illegal drug supply around the globe and yet does indeed mention (albeit brief and dismissive) the very real progress we’ve made together in reducing the demand for drugs in America over the past several years.  Significant progress, like meth use down over 60 percent and overall teen drug use down 24 percent since 2001.  But tucked away toward the end are the important points to me.  Ones I wish had greater emphasis and prominence.  The conclusion calls for much more effort to curb demand overall, investing more on addiction treatment, emphasizing prevention, and shifting the model to one of a public health concern.  

That’s right where we are here at the Partnership.  We view drug use and childhood drinking as adolescent health issues.  These are behaviors that are preventable, and if use should lead to the brain disease of addiction, one that is treatable.  As adults, we’re talking about the kids in our lives we love and whose health and potential we want to protect.  Obviously, as a nonprofit, non-government organization, the Partnership is dedicated to helping parents have the tools and information they want and need to engage with their kids and also to preventing first time drug use on a broad scale.  But as important is the work we’re doing right this very minute to create new science-based tools to help parents detect and intervene early when drug use and drinking is present as well as to support parents who are travelling a journey with a child through treatment and recovery.  

With our wonderful partners at the Treatment Research Institute in Philadelphia and with input from our Parents Advisory Board, last month we launched “Understanding The Teen Brain” at www.drugfree.org/teenbrain.  Please check it out.  Coming very soon are tools to help parents understand the current (and very different than when we were teens) drug landscape, a general parent toolkit of the essential nuts `n bolts every family can use, and an educational module to help parents make an early intervention if their child has begun to experiment.  We’re also working tirelessly with all of our partners to fulfill our promise to parents who have children in, or in need of, addiction treatment.  We believe passionately we must be advocates for parents, their children and for improving adolescent treatment.  Keep a close eye on us – there are exciting, useful things on the way in the coming months!

As we transition into the July 4th holiday, my best wishes to you and your family.  I’ll leave you with a thought a parent shared with me several times last week, “…touch your children every day, tell them you love them and make certain they know you care.” 

• 	Posted by: Steve Pasierb | 1 Comment(s)
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