How do we go about talking to teenagers about drugs and alcohol?

I have been getting more and more calls from parents who have children in the 15-18 year old bracket, concerned about their teens either experimenting or having a problem with some sort of substance. The topic was resurfaced when a parent I know asked me a similar question: How do we go about talking to teens about drug experimentation? How do we handle it?

One of the things I see as most important in dealing with this is to lead by example. If a teenager sees a parent using and abusing drugs or alcohol, they automatically view it as alright. When your parent is doing something, it comes across as an acceptable thing. Part of what needs to be explained is that many people/parents do and can socially have a drink or two. Adults can have a drink occasionally and it does not affect their life, but in the same right, there are people who cannot.

I have always taught my own kids in this way. I use my own sister as the perfect example. She is a hardworking professional, mother of two successful children who occasionally has a glass of wine with dinner. The point is, she knows when and where the proper time and place to do so is. This is what most teenagers don’t know.

The key is keeping the lines of communication open. It is what I have always done with my children, really educating them on what the use of drugs and alcohol can do to an individual. I believe that parents should always let their kids know that they can tell them about their thoughts and questions in this area, what they are thinking about it. What I can’t stress enough is how important it is to educate young folks on the pitfalls of drugs and alcohol, to share your own experiences.

For many years, I have gone to speak in elementary, middle, and high schools, with kids of all ages about the medical, psychological, and personal problems that drugs and alcohol can cause. My own daughter had come home once in her junior year after hearing a professional speak at her high school. She was so struck by the way they went about teaching them, the way they displayed to the students the damage this can do, how wrong things can go from what they think is pure fun.

We need to start educating them on the severity, on how fatal innocent experimentation can be. And, we as parents need to start this process as young as early middle school. If we establish that open communication early on, then it will always be there. That makes all the difference.

Let’s continue to communicate and educate, getting through to teenagers before they are surrounded by the peer pressures that inevitably come. And, by the time there is that high school party, they will know what the right thing is to do.

Please comment with any specific additional questions I might be able to answer for you, because it is such an important topic for us to address.