It Takes a Village: Finding the Right Support System in Addiction Recovery
Page 11
Don’t Depend on School Programs to Teach Your Children about Substance Abuse
Avoiding the topic and living in denial does not protect your children; in fact, you may be increasing their likelihood to experiment and possibly develop a substance abuse disorder. Limiting discussions about drugs and alcohol to “don’t do that” is just about as effective.
There is a fact of today’s society that we cannot afford to ignore: our children are not safe from illicit substances. Substance abuse is on television, in books, in schools, at the parks and malls, and sometimes right in your home. Drugs and alcohol are not limited to any one particular sect of society; addiction is unbiased. The problem with leaning on schools to provide all the drug and alcohol abuse prevention education is that the programs they provide are not wholly inclusive; they can’t be. With limited funding, time and commitment to substance abuse prevention there are often omissions and overlooked content in these programs.
Parents can rectify this themselves. Studies show that parental reinforcement of drug abuse prevention lessons is more effective that school courses alone (National Institute on Drug Abuse 2014). Parents are influential in their children’s lives from birth and some don’t understand just how much they affect their child’s perception of the world. Problems with addiction and other disorders can often be linked back to childhood experiences and overall environment.
Parents depend on schools to address substance abuse because they are often undereducated on the topic themselves. Social stigmas and widely accepted falsehoods make it difficult to learn the truth about drugs and alcohol. Because parents themselves don’t have the proper education, they may accidentally provide misinformation to their children. As a parent with personal experience with the effects of addiction it may be both easier and more difficult to discuss the subject; it is critical to be careful of your words and ensure you are providing accurate information, not just an account of your own experience.
Other parents use old-fashioned, questionable methods to discourage drug and alcohol use among their children; one popular such method is overexposure. The idea behind such a tactic is logically flawed: parents believe by forcing the child to overindulge, they are creating negative associations with the substance and eliminating curiosity. Not only can this backfire and actually cause the onset of a substance abuse disorder, it can and has caused accidental overdose deaths. As with parents who allow supervised use of drugs and alcohol, these parents believe their presence makes the use of illicit substances somehow safer.
This is a dangerous assumption. There is no absolutely safe method of experimentation and you may unintentionally lead your child to a life of substance abuse. The best way to help your child understand the dangers of drugs and alcohol is to properly educate yourself and maintain a channel of open and honest communication with your child. You may think your words aren’t getting through to your child, but they hear you.
One other cause for the disconnect between parents and children regarding substance abuse prevention is that many parents rely on schools to provide thorough and complete education on the topic. Schools often find themselves in a catch-22, faced with parents’ expectations, lacking budget, and criticism regarding educational methods. Some go as far as to question the need for non-core curriculum programs such as S.A.D.D. and D.A.R.E. Heavily conservative or religious communities are especially against traditional methods of education on these controversial subjects.
Today’s school systems are suffering under the strains of tremendous demands from their communities combined with continually thinned financial resources. Often the first areas of the school’s curriculum to feel these effects are extracurricular programs, electives, and additive programs such as D.A.R.E. and S.A.D.D., which in many states is voluntary. Schools which do provide these substance abuse prevention programs often must squeeze vital information into short sessions in a limited time frame, leaving information to be lost in an effort to remain So with the obstacles these substance abuse prevention courses face, are programs like S.A.D.D and D.A.R.E. effective?
The most recent data from the National Institute on Drug Abuse note that the most effective programs are specific to the community needs and includes reinforcement from parents and caregivers (2014). Studies that followed children from the initial drug prevention course through to adulthood found that programs like D.A.R.E and S.A.D.D. have little effect alone. But why? Unfortunately, because of political and social pressures, substance abuse prevention programs focuses less on providing genuine information and more on discouragement tactics. Rather than informing students of the real and severe possible side effects of various drugs and alcohol, educators use guilt and fear to dissuade impressionable children.
This is ineffective in the long run. Fear can lead to curiosity in later years. Teenage rebellion can turn into drug abuse and the development of addiction out of spite for the rules set forth in childhood. Learning later in life that statements presented as facts by drug prevention programs may not be absolutely true can consequently lead to the belief that drugs and alcohol aren’t as dangerous as they were taught. Learning to stigmatize drug abuse in early life and having that ideal socially reinforced leads to adults with substance abuse disorders too ashamed or unable to seek help.
With the shift in political attention to drug law reform and seeking new ways to combat addiction in this country, some bold politicians and spokespeople have declared drug abuse prevention programs in schools completely ineffective- that’s not true, either. The reality is we need substance abuse prevention education in schools. In fact, we need more of it. We need courses that provide true and unbiased information about the effects and consequences of substance abuse as well as promotion of open conversation regarding the topic. Above all, we need parents who are more involved at all levels to help ensure new generations don’t become victims because we didn’t do enough to stop it.
Chapter Three:
Love, Romance, and Recovery