Facts About Your Teenager That May Scare You

I'm about to tell you about a recent study from the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University. I have to warn you , you may be shocked by their findings about your teenager. I say, YOUR teenager because I know mine and clearly, they are  angelsand would never do anything that I would object to, so it must be yours. So here is the bad news.

According to the study, 46% of American teenagers smoke, drink or do drugs. That isn't "tried" that is "do". What about trying or "experimentation". How about 75% of high schools students say they have tried tobacco, alcohol, marijuana or cocaine.  Alcohol is the most prevalent of those choices followed by cigarettes and marijuana. I know, kinda scary maybe I really do live in a bubble about my kids and their friends but I just didn't think the numbers were that high.

The scariest of all is the fact that 25% of Americans who start using an addictive substance before the age of 18 become addicted, only 4% if they wait until after 21. So it makes you think. What if you just cant stop them from wanting to "try" something? What if curiosity and peer pressure really are too hard to resist? Maybe then you should really , really try to drive home that until they are 21, they just shouldn't make that kind of choice. Not that your "forbidding" the behavior or experimentation, your just saying wait a couple more years. Maybe by then, they have gotten mature enough to walk away from the idea of even "trying" something.

In conclusion, I have two teenage boys , almost 13 and 17..  and as I said before, clearly this is not about them. So maybe you should take a look at yours because that's at least two out there who are not being as good. I'm just trying to help.

God Bless.