How can I tell if my teenager is using drugs?
As your child turns into a teenager, the natural curiosity of childhood can become a far more worrying risk taking behavior. For most parents, the thought of their child taking drugs is the most frightening of these behaviors. However, ask any teenager, and they can tell you where to buy drugs and who at their school is selling them! For some parents, it is difficult to tell whether their teen is taking drugs, or whether their moodiness and lousy behavior is just normal teenage attitude!
The list below is not exhaustive, neither does it mean if your teen is exhibiting one or two of these behaviors, that they are taking drugs. However, if you teenager is showing five or more of the behaviors listed below, then you need to have a serious conversation with them about the possibility that they are taking drugs.
Signs your teen may be taking drugs
- Significant mood changes, extreme happiness, then extreme gloominess. Negative to positive mood swings and vice versa in a short space of time are a strong warning signal.
- Withdrawn, anti-social behavior, refusal to join family for meals, lack of socializing, pessimistic attitude
- Unexpected and extreme hunger at odd times of the day and night (known as "the munchies", very common with marijuana abuse)
- Extreme anxiety, often accompanied by very fidgety behavior, an inability to keep still, often a withdrawal sign
- Sudden secretiveness, never tells you where they are going, often leave suddenly, perhaps after a call or text
- A lack of personal hygiene, seems unconcerned about their appearance
- Extreme defensiveness, when you try to get them to talk to you will engineer an argument and walk away
- Money disappearing from your purse, the cookie jar, your other children's money boxes. Increased requests for money, when allowance has just been paid
- Difficulty in communicating, either seems very distant, "away with the fairies" or slurred awkward speech
- Odd smells, either from your teens' room, on their clothes or just from them!
If you notice a number of these signs, be aware that some of them may signify depression, and you may want your teen to see a medical practitioner, to clarify your concerns and to make a diagnosis. If you think your teen is taking drugs, you will have to talk to them; it is too serious to leave alone. See "Talking to your teen about drug abuse.