Do sports protect teens from abusing painkillers or enable it?

Reported By: Alexandria Hein, FoxNews.com Health As communities nationwide battle a growing opioid and heroin use epidemic, researchers and public health officials are scrambling to identify how abuse may begin. One of those sources, research suggests, could be high school athletics. But studies conducted thus far have produced conflicting results regarding whether participation in sports encourage […]

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How Parents Can Help Their Underage Kids Resist Alcohol

Reported By: Aimee Cunningham, NPR Health News    “Parental monitoring and warmth are a protective device against kids’ binge drinking.”   While a sense of inevitability often surrounds the topic of teen drinking, adults can play an important role in preventing underage alcohol use. Two recent studies provide guidance for parents. One finds that parents […]

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Rituals in Therapy

Written By: Ann Stillingfleet, ACS Clinical Intern, Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment and Community Counseling Programs What comes to mind when you think of rituals? Perhaps you visualize a religious ceremony, a celtic gathering in an oak grove,  a medicine man or sage woman conducting a healing or a centuries old tradition passed down through generations. […]

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Marijuana use and abuse rates decline among US teens

By: Sam Levin, The Guardian  Rates  of adolescent marijuana use and abuse have declined across the US, according to an unprecedented study that casts doubts on one of the central arguments against legalizing weed. Researchers from the Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis surveyed 216,852 teenagers from all 50 states and found that […]

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The Addict and the Enabler

Written By: Laura Cole, ACS Clinical Intern, Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment and Community Counseling Programs ACS’ Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment Program depends on the participation of not only the teen struggling with substance abuse, but the family or guardian as well.  Addiction affects the entire family, and each family member has a personal responsibility to the […]

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Substance Use Among Teens Is Never Benign

By: Kathleen Meyers, Ph.D., YouthToday.org Kathleen Meyers, Ph.D., is a senior investigator with the Treatment Research Institute and a recognized leader in the assessment and treatment of adolescent substance use disorders, delinquency and co-morbidity. Meyers is the author of the Comprehensive Adolescent Severity Inventory, a multidimensional assessment instrument for youth with co-morbidity, which is widely […]

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Praise Goes A Long Way

Written By: Christine Miller, ACS Clinical Intern, Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment and Community Counseling Programs Too often teens feel like they are constantly being told “No” by their parents, teachers, coaches, or other adults, and that they do not hear “Great Job!” enough. Being a teen is hard enough. But, being a teen that has […]

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Additional Support for Parents when Adolescents Lie about Drug Use

Written By: Mayra Vargas, MFTI, Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment Program Parental instinct is key to supporting their teens with their drug use/abuse. Parents sometimes ignore their “gut instinct” that lets them know something is happening with their adolescent.  Often a parent will tentatively ask about these issues, and the teen will say ‘everything is fine’ — […]

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Anatomy Of Addiction: How Heroin And Opioids Hijack The Brain

By:  Jack Rodolico, NPR Health News   “I ended up sniffing a whole one, and I blacked out… it ruined me that time. But I loved it.” When Jack O’Connor was 19, he was so desperate to beat his addictions to alcohol and opioids that he took a really rash step. He joined the Marines. […]

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ACS Practices Mindfulness!

Written By: JoAnn Kukulus, MFTI   |  ACS’ Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment Program & Community Counseling Program Recently I had the opportunity to become trained and certified to implement a group and individual curriculum called “Mindfulness-Based Substance Abuse Treatment for Adolescents,” which the ACS programs are beginning to utilize.  This relatively new evidence-based curriculum, founded by Sam Himelstein […]

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