Commentary: Empowering Parents in the Fight Against Addiction

More than 80% of adolescents identify their parents as one of the most important influences in their lives. It may be hard to believe that statement especially if you are parenting an adolescent who may be using drugs or alcohol. But did you know that if a teen learns about the risks from his or her friends or “on the street” rather than from parents, then that teen is more likely to engage in substance use?[1] Parents truly play a vital role in their child’s behavior. Understanding such behavior is as important as learning how to talk to them appropriately about drug or alcohol use. We are going to address both in this blog.
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It’s important to first have a little more insight into your child’s brain. Our brains develop somewhat unevenly, from back to front and the parts that develop first are those which control physical coordination, emotion and motivation. During adolescence these parts of the brain are fully developed. The part of the brain that controls reasoning and impulses is near the front of the brain, which therefore, develops last. In fact, this part of the brain does not fully mature until age 25. As you can imagine, an individual that has not yet developed control of reasoning and impulses may show some of the following characteristics:

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