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Subscribe to RSSYoung recovering heroin addicts Tej Yaich, 20, Holly Yates, 20 and Tara McCormac, 22, and Dr. Joseph Gay share their stories and discuss the growing heroin crisis in Ohio.
The crackdown on illegal use of prescription painkillers in some parts of the country has fueled increased use of heroin -- a cheaper and more dangerous alternative -- among teens. Both the painkillers and heroin are opiates, a class of drugs derived from the poppy plant.
If parents suspect their teens are using opiates, quick action is urged. Warning signs include:
- Missing pills from prescription bottles in the home. Adults who’ve been prescribed opiate painkillers should be vigilant about storing them out of reach of teens. Young people often think the drugs are safe because a doctor prescribed them.
- Behavioral changes, such as diminished interest in school, extracurricular activities and friends.
- Indifference or even sleepiness, because opiates are sedatives.
- Constant requests for money with nothing to show for it. Opiate users eventually build up tolerance to the drugs, so they need increasing amounts to achieve the same effects.
- Needle marks or unseasonable long-sleeved shirts to cover them up. Injecting heroin carries the added risk of disease transmission by shared needles. Heroin’s purity is increasing, though, so teens can get the same high from snorting it as from injecting it.
“Parents should not hesitate to force their kid to seek help for this,” says Dr. Joe Gay, an Athens, Ohio, psychologist who treats addiction, noting the “ever-present danger” of overdose. “This is such a critical condition, and it’s progressive. It’s important to get help as soon as you can.”
And studies show that the earlier it’s treated, the greater the likelihood of long-term abstinence, says Dr. Lynn Fiellin, a Yale internist who treats and studies addiction.
Sarah Mayer, 27, and her father Randy, 54, of Hilliard Ohio, share her story of addiction and recovery with NBC News.
What to do
Treating teens is particularly challenging, she says, because their parents are usually the ones seeking help, not the teens themselves.
There are two medications used to treat addiction to opiates and opioids, which are synthetic opiates: methadone and buprenorphine, sold under the brand name Suboxone. Methadone is available only at methadone clinics, so patients must go to a clinic every day to drink the drug. But patients can get a prescription for buprenorphine -- launched in 2003 in the United States -- at their local pharmacy and take the pills in the privacy of their own home.
“Methadone is still considered the treatment of choice for maintenance in adolescents,” Fiellin says. “Increasingly, there’s more use of buprenorphine in teenagers, but it’s still limited.”
The safety and effectiveness of Suboxone in children under age 16 has not been established, according to Food and Drug Administration-approved prescribing information. In 2009, fewer than 1 percent of doctors who prescribed buprenorphine were pediatricians, according to government data. However, a growing body of research supports the use of buprenorphine in teens, Fiellin says.
SAMHSA, the federal Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration, has a searchable substance abuse treatment locator at findtreatment.samhsa.gov. SAMHSA also maintains a searchable locator of physicians and treatment programs that use buprenorphine.
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End the abysmal "war on drugs".
Heroin can also be snorted like cocaine, so parents might watch for chronic upper-respiratory symptoms like a continuous stuffy/runny nose or even the unusual/occasional bloody nose if they suspect their kid is using.
I've raised two drug free children. That doesn't make me an expert, but here's some things that seemed to work for us: Educate your kids about drugs, be sure to include alcohol which is a very potent and dangerous drug. Don't give your kids a lot of money. It takes money to buy drugs. Give small allowances and teach them to manage money wisely. Teach them to have fun without drugs. Model this with your adult friends too. Have plain old fashioned fun that doesn't include any form of getting high, including alcohol. A lot of kids (and adults) seem to have forgotten how to "play." The party should not be based on alcohol. Kids see this and then follow the same behavior without the adult wisdom. What happened to sports, board games, card games, dancing etc, theme parties? Also, don't keep a lot of drugs in your home (that includes alcohol and prescription drugs). Buy alcohol for special celebrations, drink at the restaurant, keep one bottle of your favorite stuff. In other words, limit this stuff in your home, don't have a cabinet full. Toss out prescriptions for pain killers when you are done, and keep a close eye on them when you are taking them. Better yet, don't bring those opiate based pain killers home if you can help it.
Im glad it worked out for you. not sure if you are aware that there is an element of luck and serendipity involved as well. Something about your post makes me think you think YOU did a better job then other parents or it is only what you did that made the difference. If I misread I am sorry.
. I've worked in homes with teens for a decade and I have seen what things parents can do to NOT make an impact when it was needed...and have seen the kid go down the wrong path. So much of what you did is right and will help other parents who don't know to do those things
In addition to doing all that is right as above. Some parents are just unlucky. Probably many parents who made mistakes think they were just unlucky, so there is that danger in my post. Yet for you--it would be good if you could have acknowledged that you perhaps ALSO have been lucky with your kids. Inborn temperment matters and how it matches those of the parents matters also. If it's a bad match it's harder to get through to kids because sometimes different kids need different things.Some kids are very easy to raise and don't go off. Others experiment constantly and need more skillful parenting or more of a 'village' to raise them...and we don't have that enough in our society.
It's good for parents to do all they can,as you did. But plenty of kids go off track even in those circumstances and their are kids who won't no matter how unstable the home environment is. Just keep in mind not to judge yourself as superior parents because it worked out in your family...it could have been luck. Instead congratulate yourself that you did your best.
You definitely misread me. I said "but here's some things that seemed to work for us." I just wanted to share some ideas. I realize that I was blessed because things turned out well. But these steps also helped and may help others.
And while states continue to legalize the use of medical marijuana, the federal government continues to classify marijuana as a Class 1 drug with no none medical uses. All the while pharmaceutical companies continue to manufacture and sell drugs which, as this article points out, are highly addictive, destroy lives, and after a point, do little or nothing to control pain. What these drugs have going for them that marijuana does not are: 1) Lobbyists, 2) nation ad campaigns 3) MONEY 4) MONEY 5) More Money, and 6) legal status as drugs with medical purpose. That purpose would seem to be 1) keeping people hooked on drugs 2) creating patients for life 3) creating and maintaining a market for big Pharma 4) maintaining the illusion that only drugs dispensed by a doctor are safe and legal whereas drugs dispensed by a dealer are not.
Hypocrisy abounds. People suffer.
Heroine is so passee
Parents of drug abusers need to understand that addiction is a chronic, progressive brain disease and that treatment works.
Addiction is a disease which causes the brain's Limbic "reward" system to malfunction. This system is not only involved in the experience of pleasure, but is also central to learning, decision-making and motivation. Teenage addicts, like all addicts, make terrible decisions not because they're stupid or morally deficient, but because it is their brain's decision-making apparatus itself that malfunctions. Addiction is a disease of fundamental irrationality -- addicts, especially teenage addicts, will take risks no rational person would take because their rational faculties are compromised by the disease.
Most people don't know how to deal with addiction's fundamental irrationality without help. That's one reason why guidance and support from those with experience dealing with addiction -- treatment professionals, Al-Anon, etc. -- is so important. A detailed understanding the nature of the disease can also help parents make the best decisions in dealing with their kids' addiction.
For a not-for-profit website that discusses the science of addiction in accessible English (what makes it a chronic, progressive disease; what parts of the brain malfunction; how that malfunction results in addict behaviors; how addicts' decision-making and motivation is skewed by substance abuse; why some get addicted while others don't; how treatment works; how well treatment works; why relapse is common; what family and friends can do; etc.) please click on www.AddictScience.com.
Steve Castleman
AddictScience.com
Addiction is a chronic, progressive brain disease of the Limbic "reward" system, which is not only involved in the experience of pleasure, but is also central to learning, decision-making and motivation. Addicts, especially teenage addicts, make terrible decisions because it is their brain's decision-making apparatus that itself malfunctions.
For a website that discusses the science of addiction in accessible English (what makes it a chronic, progressive disease; what parts of the brain malfunction; how that malfunction results in addict behaviors; how addicts' decision-making is skewed by substance abuse; why some get addicted while others don't; how treatment works; why relapse is common; what family and friends can do; etc.) please click on www.AddictScience.com.
Now that all the young people have forced the government in Florida to have the drug stores stop filling pain meds including oxycontin,methadone,and many more.The drug stores are profiling not kids but older people that make up the biggest percent of people in this state!!I have taken a friend that is fifty and went to at least 50 drug stores down here.We are on the west coast and they have made a new state law that you cant go more than 2 county's to fill your meds.We have older people suffering because the drug store Gods have taken it upon there selfs to not fill these for anyone!! All because young people have abused the system.Are we going to have to spend our Social Security on Heroin?You cant even buy a pill down here anymore or they have put unbelievable prices on them that insurance wont pay.I guess its whats better for the few dummy's than the older people to have the meds they need.So now there huffing freon out of your air handlers!!Snorting bath salts and eating peoples faces off.There going to get high no matter what the DEA or the drug stores do! I say let them Its about time the gene pool gets a good cleaning.If there that stupid to do these thing do we want then running the country in a few years?I say no!Cant wait till the AARP and the rest of the older generation start a class action law suit against Florida and its new laws.Just hope that it doesn't take to many Innocent lives from not having the pills they have been on for years,not by there choice but some people are inoperable and have to take these.All over the kids you cant spank anymore,Look were thats got us.
The lack of understanding addiction fuels the spinning of many 'stories'. Yes, cigarette addiction is definitely related to heroin addiction. Yes, a genetic component exists in many cases. Both have been shown to be true over several years of research. But some proselytize with little, or no actual knowledge about chemical characteristics, such as the difference between a drug and a poison; or whether a drug is a narcotic or not.
This ignorance extends into the medical field itself, where the proper use of pain killers, such as type of drug and dosage, is not adequately taught. While many contemplate the benefits of extreme measures like euthanasia, medical schools still do not know how to incorporate education on pain treatments. It has even been shown that psychiatrists graduate with little knowledge of their own pharmacopoeias.
The ignorance is profound, and I wonder what can change it. Some are 'pulling their hair out' worrying about the mind-controlling effects of certain substances; but are oddly silent (brainwashed?) when the numerous commercials are broad-casted for legal pharmaceuticals that promise miracles plus dozens of side effects!?!
You cannot just go to the pharmacy and get your SUBOXONE! This article is very misleading. Finding a dr. who can even prescribe it is tough. When you do, they can only treat 100 pt's at a time. The clinics are full and have waiting lists to get in. Suboxone is the most preferred choice method for treatment and is no more harmful than a Tylenol. It is very expensive and most insurance company's will not pay for the few dr's who can prescribe it. However, they will cover the cost for the Suboxone with Dr.'s charging 300 or more to walk through the door! The govt, FDA, have made it almost impossible to treat this addiction. Many of the funds used for Mental Health Services have been cut. And then we wonder why there is an epidemic! MSN..do us all a favor, research this and write a real story!