You’re a concerned parent who’s worried about your son or daughter. If you suspect substance use, you want to know how to tell if your child is using drugs. Learn what to look out for so that your child can get the necessary treatment that can put them on the right track.
How to Tell If Your Child Is Using Drugs: Signs to Look For
If your son or daughter seems moody and withdrawn, that doesn’t always mean they have a problem. Adolescents are notorious for their moods. Also, they often move closer to their peer group and away from their parents as they explore their individuality.
However, because you know your child best, you suspect it’s more than regular teen moodiness that’s making your son or daughter behave in strange ways.
Signs that indicate your child may be abusing drugs and alcohol and need teen drug rehab include:
- Falling grades, especially in kids who’ve previously done well in school
- Hanging out with a new crowd
- Excessive secrecy at home and not wanting you to enter their bedroom
- Paraphernalia, such as empty medicine bottles and small plastic baggies
- Loss of interest in activities they once enjoyed
- Unexplained weight loss
Once you know how to tell if your child is using drugs and your worst suspicions are confirmed, what’s next? It’s important to get your son or daughter into a treatment program before things get worse.
Choosing a Rehab
If the signs of how to tell if your child is using drugs point to substance use, your next step is finding a rehab facility.
Drug and alcohol abuse affects more than your child. It impacts your entire family. To address these issues, quality treatment involves evidence-based practices, such as psychotherapy and group therapy. You may also participate in family therapy, which is designed to heal the family unit as a whole. During counseling, all of you will work together to repair broken bonds and communicate effectively and positively.
Whichever rehab facility you choose for your child, make sure it meets their specific needs as well as those of your family.
Addiction Treatment Meeting Individual Needs
Crestview Recovery is an addiction treatment center in Portland, Oregon that provides a range of services and therapies designed to help you or a loved one overcome addiction. We treat addiction for everything from Adderall to opioids to alcohol in outpatient, intensive outpatient, and partial hospitalization programs.
Our programs include:
- Dual diagnosis treatment center
- Family therapy program
- Trauma therapy
- Holistic drug therapy
- Mental health disorder treatment
Don’t let addiction destroy your life or that of someone you love. Call the compassionate team at Crestview Recovery, and find out how you can begin to heal and recover from the damage addiction has done. Reach out today at 866.262.0531.
Since 2016, Dr. Merle Williamson, a graduate of Oregon Health Sciences University, has been the Medical Director at Crestview Recovery, bringing a rich background in addiction medicine from his time at Hazelden Treatment Center. He oversees outpatient drug and alcohol treatments, providing medical care, setting policies, detox protocols, and quality assurance measures. Before specializing in addiction medicine, he spent 25 years in anesthesiology, serving as Chair of Hospital Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee and Chief of Anesthesia at Kaiser Permanente. This experience gives him a unique perspective on treating prescription drug addiction.
