Prevention of drug addiction among youth
March 1, 2025 – International Day Against Drug Abuse.
Currently, the problem of drug addiction and substance abuse is increasingly progressing among the younger generation.
Drug addiction and substance abuse – are severe chronic diseases caused by the use of psychoactive substances (PAS) (medicinal preparations, chemical and plant substances), characterized by the development of mental (a morbid craving to experience this altered state again and again), and consequently, physical dependence, mental and somatic disorders, and personality changes.
This occurs due to the body's restructuring under the influence of constant drug intake. As soon as the drug's effect wears off, a severe condition occurs, which drug addicts call "ломкой", and medics – "abstinence" (withdrawal syndrome).
An adolescent using PAS becomes a slave to the substance they have used; it is not by chance that the term "dependence" is used in medicine.
Reasons leading an adolescent to drug addiction:
- curiosity, a desire to experience unknown sensations;
- to be accepted into a certain group;
- often a desire to "forget" and be dissatisfied with life.
Behavior of adolescents when using narcotic substances:
- the adolescent becomes secretive, may come home in an unusual state, avoids parents, conducts some secret phone conversations, old friends and activities, including educational institutions, are no longer of interest; they lose interest in studies, run away from home for several days, become uncontrollable and aggressive; sharp mood swings, lethargy, apathy appear; a decrease in intellectual development, disorders of various systems are observed; their clothes are untidy, jars, syringes, needles, pills can be found in their pockets; the adolescent's expenses increase, things often disappear from home.
This should alert parents!!!
1. Look into the child's eyes – is there an unusual shine in them? Pupils, after the use of narcotic and toxic substances, become either unusually narrow or unusually wide. The sclera may be reddened, the eyelids swollen, resembling the appearance of a drunk person.
2. Paleness or redness of the skin should be a cause for concern. Sometimes it acquires a greasy sheen. Look at your teenager's hands: in the elbow bends, on the forearms, on the back of the hands, there may be traces of injections. Sometimes teenagers try to hide injection marks with scratches.
3. It is not difficult to detect odors in the child's breath, from their clothes (smell of tobacco (smoke), strong smell of burnt leaves). Sometimes the absence of smell can also be alarming: the teenager looks intoxicated, says they drank alcohol, but there is no smell of alcohol. Check how the child feels the day after an unusual state: they may appear sluggish, lethargic, broken, experience muscle weakness. But this is not the entire list of signs by which one can suspect that a teenager has started using intoxicating substances. Anything unusual that you notice in your child should alert you.
4. Pay attention to the presence of matches, lighters, tobacco in pocket seams, glue tubes, cigarette paper, white crystalline powder, small stone-like pieces in glass vials or plastic bags, needles or syringes for subcutaneous injections, burnt bottle caps or spoons, candles, razor blades.
5. Pay attention to how the teenager moves. You may notice jerky, sweeping, rough movements, unsteadiness in gait, unusual excitement or an irritable state. They may be lethargic and sleepy, with scattered attention, lost in thought, and may seem to doze off. Or they may be complacent, happy for no reason.
6. If you suspect something, do not "attack" the child with reproaches and take "cruel" measures. Talk to them confidentially, at least try to do so. Take them to a narcologist specialist. Try to convince them that a consultation with a narcologist is not a punishment, but a real chance to help them. The earlier treatment is started, the greater the hope for success.
Preventive measures against drug addiction should include:
- strict measures to combat smoking, the spread of alcohol and drugs;
- conducting informational and educational work among students and their parents;
- timely identification of functionally incapable families and correction of family upbringing conditions;
- organization of leisure activities for minors in forms that are significant for them and socially encouraged;
- research of students' personal resources;
- training of socio-psychological skills for adolescents' resilience to psychoactive substance use, including: developing communication skills in problematic life situations; forming an attitude towards health as a supreme value.
- promotion of a healthy lifestyle, including physical culture and sports.
- identifying individuals who have previously been dependent on narcotic substances and re-engaging with them. These measures are necessary to prevent relapses, as well as to protect healthy individuals from the psychological influence of those with addiction.
TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF AND YOUR LOVED ONES!
State Institution "Rossonsky RCGE" February 2025