Impact Of Drug And Alcohol On Children

Hello!

My name is Dr Ankita Mishra. I am a consultant psychiatrist and I will be talking on the topic today alcohol and drugs. What parents need to know? Many young people today are using drugs and alcohol and smoke quite often and statistically up to 50 % of children to the age of 16 years have tried illegal drugs at some point in time. So it is really important for a parent to be aware of this and not take this as part of normal growing up. Taking drugs and alcohol can have serious physical and mental health consequences and can lead to depression or psychosis as well.

Taking drugs can make a youth quiet unpredictable and can lead to accidents, injuries and they can involved in unprotected sex for that matter and it can also have serious physical health problems because of sharing needles and other equipment such as HIV and hepatitis. So it's very important to take all this into consideration. The most commonly used drug is something which is readily available like alcohol or smoking and there can be wear reasons why the youth today uses drugs it could be because of curiosity, for fun, it could be as a way to cope up with anxiety and depression as a way to deal with difficult situation. And it is commonly seen that if there is a member of family or one of the friends are using drugs or alcohol it's more likely for the person to get addicted to it.

It's quite difficult to say when using drugs or alcohol is more than usual or it's like something which is concerning but if you feel that your child is quite concerned about using alcohol and taking drugs or smoking or if you feel that it has become a focus of his or her life and it's quite preoccupied with either using a drug or finding ways to seek it or maybe spends a lot of time thinking about it then it something which can be quite concerning. There can be some behaviour and symptoms is well.

If you feel your child is quite isolated, is not involving in with family or friends, is behaving out of character or you senses unusual smell in your room or you find unusual things like silver foil or needle covers then it is something to be worried about. If you suspect that your child is doing drugs or taking alcohol for that matter there are certain things which you can do as parent. First of all, you have to take stay calm and make sure that it's actually the truth. Secondly, there is no point in getting angry with your child or blaming the child because at this point it's your support and helps that they need most.

There is no point in getting into long conversations or fighting over it especially when your child is in an intoxicated stat. The best possible way to help them out is to let them know that you are on their side and you are there to support them and seek professional help. You can contact a psychiatrist or psychologist what they can do is they can talk with you as well as your child and they can maybe if needed prescribe medication or get your child into therapy. And it's a way by which you as a family and as well aa your child will get the required help and support to recover from addiction.

Thank you so much if you have any further queries or if you want to contact me then you can do that through Lybrate.com