Recent Trends

Do sports protect teens from abusing painkillers or enable it?

in Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment / Drugs & Alcohol / E-News / Electronic Cigarettes / Marijuana / Parenting / Prescription Drugs / Prevention / Recent Trends / Risky Behaviour / Smoking / Teenage Smoking / Uncategorized / Vaping  by Adolescent Counseling Services 0 comments

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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Talking to Teens about Violence and Tragedies

in Community Counseling / E-News / Grief / Mental Health / Mental Health / Monitoring Media / Parent Tips / Parent-Teen Communication / Parenting / Recent Trends / Stress  by Adolescent Counseling Services 0 comments

Written By: Ann Stillingfleet, ACS Clinical Intern, Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment and Community Counseling Programs Every week the news brings stories of seemingly senseless and random acts of violence — either globally or locally.  How do we talk to our children, especially our teens, about these events when the source of much of what they […]

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How Parents Can Help Their Underage Kids Resist Alcohol

in Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment / Binge Drinking / Drinking / Drugs & Alcohol / E-News / Marijuana / Parenting / Prescription Drugs / Prevention / Recent Trends / Recovery / Risky Behaviour / Smoking / Teen Partying / Treatment  by Adolescent Counseling Services 0 comments

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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The Addict and the Enabler

in Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment / After-School Counseling / Co-Occuring Disorders / Community Counseling / Drugs & Alcohol / E-News / Parent Tips / Parent-Teen Communication / Parenting / Recent Trends / Recovery / Risky Behaviour / Setting Boundaries / Teen Partying / Teen Peer Groups / Treatment  by Adolescent Counseling Services 0 comments

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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LGBTQQ Youth and Health

in E-News / LGBTQ Issues / Outlet / Recent Trends / Risky Behaviour / Sexuality  by Adolescent Counseling Services 0 comments

Written By: Rodrigo Garcia-Reyes, Outlet Program Spanish-language and Education Coordinator  22 states, including California and the District of Columbia require public schools teach sex education. 35 states and the District of Columbia allow parents to opt-out on behalf of their children.  A 2011 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) survey indicates that more than […]

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Additional Support for Parents when Adolescents Lie about Drug Use

in Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment / Drugs & Alcohol / E-News / Parent Tips / Parent-Teen Communication / Parenting / Prevention / Recent Trends / Treatment  by Adolescent Counseling Services 0 comments

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

in Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment / Drugs & Alcohol / E-News / Prescription Drugs / Recent Trends  by Adolescent Counseling Services 0 comments

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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Revisiting the “Tiger Mother” Phenomenon

in Anxiety / E-News / Helicopter Parenting / On-Campus Counseling / Parent Tips / Parenting / Recent Trends  by Adolescent Counseling Services 0 comments

Written By:  German Cheung, Psy D.  |  ACS Site Supervisor, Terman Middle School    “Tiger Mother,” a term that was hugely popularized by Amy Chua’s article in the Wall Street Journal in 2011, titled, “Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior,” describes how parents hold suffocatingly high expectations for their child that often lead to conflicts in […]

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Teens’ overall substance use declining, but marijuana use rising

in Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment / Drinking / Drugs & Alcohol / E-News / Marijuana / Smoking / Substance Abuse  by Adolescent Counseling Services 0 comments

Image: Torbin Hansen, Marijuana Joint Reported by: EurekAlert!, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)   Marijuana use in teenagers is on the rise, while cigarette and alcohol use are stable or declining, according to health statistics researchers. In particular, black teens are using more marijuana than in recent decades. “Our analysis shows […]

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Dating Violence – Is Your Teen At Risk?

in Dating Violence / Domestic Abuse / E-News / Parent-Teen Communication / Recent Trends / Relationships / Teen self-esteem / Uncategorized  by Adolescent Counseling Services 0 comments

Image: Jan Fidler Kissing couple Author: Maria Horwich, LMFT Site Director at Redwood High School Adolescence is an exciting and turbulent time for many of our teens. It is at this age that many of our children start dating. Many parents I meet are surprised that teen relationships are sometimes abusive.  In a nationwide survey, […]

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