Today’s teenagers face a range of distractions and temptations unlike any other generation before. Hormonal changes, school pressures and peer pressures coupled with a seemingly infinite online world environment can easily overwhelm a teen’s ability to cope with daily life. These factors coupled with easy access to drugs and alcohol place young people at high risk of engaging in substance abuse activities.
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, over 20 percent of high school seniors have used prescription opioids for recreational purposes. Considering the incredibly high addiction potential these drugs carry, opioid addiction can quickly take over a teenager’s life.
Much like the addicted adult, opioid addiction treatment often becomes the only means for helping a teen overcome an addiction problem. Fortunately, the range of opioid addiction treatments available for teens offer the type of support and guidance needed to help them take back their lives from addiction.
Teen Addiction Issues
Some teens use drugs to cope with problems at home.
By nature, teenagers seek out new experiences as part of a need to develop their own identities. This trait automatically predisposes young people to experimenting with drugs. Teens also have a need for acceptance among their peers, which can also present opportunities for drug experimentation.
Home environments where conflict, drug abuse or mental illness exists have a considerable influence on how teens learn to cope with conflict, whether internal or external. Each one of these factors increases the likelihood of addiction taking root within a teen’s life.
Treatment Options
Brief Intervention Therapy
While the physical effects of opioid addiction play a central role in driving drug-using behaviors, addiction-based behaviors stem from a mindset that’s come to depend on a drug’s effects to cope with everyday life. For teens at the early stages of opioid abuse, brief intervention therapy offers a focused and targeted approach for helping teens replace addiction-based behaviors and thinking patterns with healthy ways of coping with daily pressures. According to the University of Washington, brief intervention therapy typically runs for a minimum of six sessions wherein teens take part in intensive exercises specifically designed to eradicate destructive addiction-based tendencies.
Outpatient
In general, the more severe the addiction problem, the longer and more intensive the treatment approach should be. Teens struggling with mild to moderate forms of opioid addiction will likely require the type of long-term treatment approach outpatient programs have to offer.
Opioid addiction treatment programs administer a series of behavioral-based interventions, some of which include:
- Peer-based support groups
- Group therapy sessions
- Individual psychotherapy
- Drug education and counseling
- Relapse prevention training
Residential
Teens who’ve abused drugs on a regular basis over the course of months or years struggle with the most severe forms of opioid addiction. In effect, this degree of drug abuse makes it that much more difficult to overcome an addiction problem.
Opioid addiction residential treatment programs operate as live-in facilities that provide teens with the time and space needed to focus on their recovery efforts. While residential programs use many of the same interventions as outpatient programs, treatment takes place within a highly structured setting on a day-in, day-out basis.
Treatment Considerations
More than anything else, it’s essential to ensure your teen receives the level or intensity of treatment that best addresses his or her treatment needs. Ultimately, addiction recovery is a process that may well take more time than expected, though the benefits are well worth the effort.
If your teen struggles with an opioid addiction problem and you have further questions about opioid addiction treatment for teens, please feel free to call our toll-free helpline at 877-743-0081 (Who Answers?) for more information.
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