How to protect children from drugs? How to determine if a child is using drugs?

It is difficult to imagine something more terrible for any parent than the addiction of a child. For several decades, the coordinated work of doctors, psychologists, social workers and educators is aimed at finding an answer to the question of how to protect children from drugs, how to prevent the worst, how to save those who stumbled and turned off the track. This problem is so multifaceted that scientists have no unequivocal answer until now. Meanwhile, the consequences of child addiction are much more severe than adults.

The rule, which says that the best medicine is prevention, works 100% here. But how to convey to the stubborn teenager the main essence? Where can I find the right words? And what to do, if the worst thing happened, where to run, where to seek help? Our article will help to find answers to these questions.

Statistics data

In Russia, according to the Ministry of Health, at least 15% of adolescents first get acquainted with prohibited drugs before the age of 14. Drug use by children of this age leads to the formation of a physiological dependence and a stable habit. According to experts, the earlier the ill-fated acquaintance occurred, the stronger will be the connection.

The most common among adolescents are plant-based drugs based on cannabis (cannabis).

The main risk group

The primary candidates for the role of chronic addicts are immigrants from disadvantaged families. Drug addiction among minors born and raised among drug addicts and alcoholics is unusually high throughout the world. A child who has seen a certain social environment since childhood grows in the conviction that it is normal, and he aspires to become a part of it.

Such children often begin to get acquainted with drugs early. Among them, the practice of inhaling glue vapors, smoking cannabis, as well as parts of plants soaked in acetone and other chemical solvents is common.

The reverse side of wealth

Incredibly, the risk group number 2 is from a completely different world, which can be safely called the opposite. Children of wealthy parents risk becoming dependent almost the same way as street children.

Here the list of drugs is wider. The price tag for some drugs is just cosmic, but it does not stop a child who does not know the value of money and is hungry for new impressions, in the hands of which there are solid amounts.

Acquaintance can begin with the same cannabis (of course, better), LSD, amphetamine, ecstasy. Mixtures based on various narcotic substances, called "mixes" and "salts," are distributed.

Heredity

Like alcoholism, drug addiction is a hereditary disease. Scientists have long established this, but they can not yet determine the specific mechanism of the drug's effect on genes.

In the risk group, not only the children of drug addicts, but also come from drinking families. Children of alcoholics also have an increased chance to "sit on the needle."

Recent studies have shown that juvenile addiction is more severe. Accustoming comes at times faster, the consequences bring greater torment, rehabilitation is more difficult and more prolonged. And about full recovery in most cases it does not go.

Other factors

To understand how to protect children from drugs, the analysis of risk factors will help. Specialists refer to them as follows:

• Complicated pregnancy of the mother, heavy childbirth;
• Concussions of the brain, TBI, especially multiple;
• Upbringing in an incomplete family;
• Excessive employment of parents, lack of attention on their part;
• Mental illness in the family;
• Early independence (12-13 years);
• Oppressive parent hyperope;
• Uncontrolled access to money.

The data were obtained on the basis of the analysis of the statistics of drug treatment centers. The list only talks about the increased risks, and not that a person falling from a swing in early childhood will certainly become a drug addict. Even hereditary heredity is not a verdict. There are often cases when children of alcoholics and drug addicts grew up as convinced teetotalers.

Let's look at the reasons

Specialists studying the question of how to protect children from drugs first of all try to analyze the reasons. Why did the fifteen teenagers in the hundreds first become interested in an unusual cigarette or pill? What moved them, why did not they pass by the seducer?

Affects the romanticization of the image of a drug addict who opposes himself to a society that is in search of new sensations, the limits of expansion of consciousness.

Modern fashion trends are changing for the better. In the trend, beautiful skin, healthy hair, a tightened body. But if in the company surrounding a teenager, it is considered that drugs do not cause harm, but only help to have fun and relax, the risk of getting into the very 15% is great.

Distortion of information leads to the formation of incorrect foundations. Therefore, the task of the parent and teacher is to bring the truth to the child as early as possible, and as convincingly as possible.

What should a child know about drugs?

Experts do not advise to go to extremes. Both lack of knowledge and their surplus will not lead to anything good. Do not need to give the child a complete list of drugs with a detailed description of the effect of each of them. A teenager should not be told that there are hallucinations from LSD and you can see what really is not, and from the grass you want to have fun and laugh. But it is necessary to get acquainted with the list of drugs and psychotropic drugs that are subject to control in the territory of the state (Government Decree of 30.06.1998, No. 681).

Other methods are needed. Consider the example. Talking about the dangers of drugs, try to speak in understandable language. Due to lack of life experience and knowledge in the field of physiology, a teenager simply can not imagine dying brain cells. But the pigmentation spots and terrible ulcers at the injection sites can impress him immensely.

The main task of lectures on drugs is to convince the child of the danger, irreversibility, seriousness of the problem. This is difficult to do, but real.

Responsibility before the law

Many teenagers are apprehensive about this factor. The fear of arrest and criminal responsibility is a powerful deterrent. Explain to the child how the stigma can be attributed to the article for possession and distribution of drugs. In the future, this will prevent you from entering a good educational institution, getting a job.

Money issue

Often, dealers add new customers to drugs, serving them for free. But it will not last long. The purpose of the distributor is to acquire a new source of income. And the further, the more money will be needed for addiction.

Here it is worth noting that a child who does not earn money, very vaguely represents how to finance the addiction. It will not be superfluous to recall that if he has to engage in extortion or theft, it will open very quickly. And for such acts, too, responsibility before the law is provided.

Immunological danger

Talking about the dangers of drugs, mention the attendant factors. According to the Ministry of Health, the absolute majority of injecting drug users are sick with hepatitis C or B. The greatest number of HIV infections occurs with a needle. And if some forms of hepatitis are curable, then modern medicine is powerless against HIV. Submit information in an accessible form, tell about these diseases, stressing that they invariably accompany drug addiction.

Influence on the intellect

The fact that the chronic addict is not capable of intellectual work, the children know. The problem is that many teenagers oppose "heroin and cocaine" with "light drugs". Experts have established that the herb rarely causes physiological habituation, but its regular use "for relaxation" destroys memory, weakens the reaction speed, reduces the ability to think analytically.

Impress from childhood that the impact of drugs on the development of the child has irreversible consequences. Any kind of drugs blocks the normal functioning of the brain, which subsequently simply closes the road into a normal life.

Indirect signs

Observe the son or daughter, note the slightest change in behavior. Do not bend the stick, remember the normal hormonal outbursts, self-doubt, stress accompanying puberty. However, it is worth to be particularly vigilant if you systematically notice the following:

• A sharp change of mood;
• Causeless laughter or tearfulness;
• Increased interest in money in the absence of meaningful purchases;
• Suspicious objects among children's things (empty blisters, bottles of medicine, small bags with zipper, syringes);
• Atypical rate of speech;
• Disorientation in space, loss of coordination in the absence of a smell of alcohol;
• Strange words in conversations with friends on the phone, similar to ciphers;
• Unreasonable regular delays on the street.

Try to keep in touch with whom the teenager is friends and communicates. A suspicious environment is an excuse to be on the alert. Narcotic substances of vegetable origin, as a rule, have a pronounced smell. From many drugs, the pupil's reaction to light changes.

How to determine if a child is using drugs? It is not difficult to do this. If you suspect that the child is in a state of drug intoxication, ask to do something simple, but requiring concentration: read a short text, write a shopping list, retell the plot of the film series, describe the image of the book hero. It's not easy to do it.

However, such tests are not enough. For sure to confirm or deny the presence in the blood of a drug can only special analysis of urine or blood.

What if the worst was confirmed?

Do not blame. Do not allow the child to step back. You will swear and punish later. And the paramount task is to provide assistance. The child should feel that you are around, that you can rely on, and your support is unconditional.

It is important to pull out a teenager from a pernicious company. If in your case it is possible to contact parents of other children who are subject to the same influence, try to establish it. It is easier to act together.

Do not try to cope with the disaster yourself. Consultation of a doctor, and in some cases even hospitalization, is necessary.

Is it possible to believe advertising?

It is often possible to find colorful booklets of a rehabilitation center for drug addicts, which promises to help get rid of the problem in a week or two. Professional narcologists insist that such is impossible. According to WHO, only 10-15% of drug addicts have a chance to completely recover.

Russian narcologists have modern means that can raise this percentage by half, but the process will take much longer than 2 weeks, in addition, it will require considerable financial investments. Only medical care is clearly not enough, long psychological rehabilitation is needed.

If the worst fears are confirmed, you should not ignore the problem in order to save the reputation of the family. We need to immediately seek a good rehabilitation center for drug addicts and prepare to go through a difficult path to healing with the child.

Alternatives

As we see, drug addiction is not a death sentence, but the statistics simply shock. The chance of salvation is small, but it is there.

Therefore, timely prevention, sufficient attention, sincere relations in the family and frank communication with an adult are important.

Encourage hobbies. Do not deny the child his right to organized leisure. Allow the boy to visit the section he liked. Even if the cost of trainer services seems to you rather big, believe me, this is nothing in comparison with the price of rehabilitation, which will be expressed not only in money, but also in spent nerves, ruined health, lost youth. Do not let the girl learn to look after herself, to master the basics of makeup; Instill interest in sewing and needlework. For many young ladies, the fear of loss of beauty is the main motivator in favor of refusing to get acquainted with drugs.

Specialists say that prevention is the determining factor in finding an answer to the question of how to protect children from drugs. Try to be the friend of the daughter or the son, encourage development, enthrall and motivate your own example. This will significantly increase the chances that a terrible disaster will bypass your family.