The Heart of a Parent
When a child, whether grown or not, has an addiction problem, so much goes through the parent’s mind. Some of these thoughts include, “I’m a terrible parent,” “What did I do wrong?” “What happened to my little one that used to play with toys and watch cartoons and was so excited about birthdays and Christmas?”
When a child becomes addicted, a parent’s heart breaks. It may look like anger or disappointment or depression or any number of things but it’s all about a broken heart.
The Science of Prevention
What does substance abuse prevention really mean? What are we trying to prevent? The most obvious answer is that we are trying to prevent first use of a chemical substance. In fact, that’s a great goal. But then does that mean we forget about the kids that have already tried something? And why do we care about preventing some 14 year old kid from trying beer or marijuana? After all you might say, “I did that and I turned out just fine.”