Today’s parents are dealing with the addiction/addictions of children and teenagers much more often than they have been for some years.
Addictions vary from gambling, sweets, tobacco/alcohol and culminating in drug addiction. Addiction can be physical and/or psychological and the psychotherapeutic process needs to be adapted.
Each of the addictions leads, among other things, to behavioral changes. That’s when many parents notice more clearly that something is not right with their child and the question arises: What do I do now? The first instinct is to talk to the child and try to find out what is going on, it is very ok to do that, after which, together with the child, you need to come to the conclusion that it is a problem that requires a more specialized approach depending on each situation in part.
It is good for the parent to talk to the child, but being a parent has some limits in some situations and needs to access specialists to receive the necessary help. In reality, some parents try to solve their children’s addiction alone at home without specialized help, which can complicate the process or make the situation worse.
Why don’t some parents access specialist help? One of the reasons would be the social blame that if you go to a psychologist/psychiatrist/psychotherapist it means you are crazy, another reason would be the high price for some of the parents of psychotherapy sessions and another reason would be that they don’t have specialists who can help in the area where I live.
It is important that the parent realizes and adapts his behavior to the child’s/adolescent’s addiction and avoids behaving as if everything is ok or, even worse, blaming the child/adolescent for the situation in which he is now.
Great attention! Addiction is not a fad and self-will is not enough to overcome the situation, those who are addicted need psychotherapy and/or psychiatric medication plus other specific individual needs.
From the moment the parent identifies a possible addiction, it is advisable to turn to specialists and together with them to help their children overcome this problem, which is mostly psychological but closely related to the physical.
