Adolescent Drug & Alcohol Abuse: How to Spot It, Stop It, and Get Help for Your Family [Paperback]

Nikki Babbit Ph.D. (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 15, 2000 | Series: Patient Centered Guides

Is your child involved with drugs? Adolescent drug abuse and chemical dependency can happen to any teenager, whatever their drug education, economic level, neighborhood, school, or church attendance. It can happen whether parents are married or divorced and regardless of how much they know about effective parenting.

Adolescents are aware of potential dangers when they use drugs or binge on alcohol, but they think they are invincible and will escape the dangers. The average age when teens start drinking is 13; for marijuana experimentation it is 14.

Parents are often the last to know about their children's involvement with alcohol or drugs. Chemical abusers do whatever they can to conceal their use. Families can rationalize the behaviors, particularly in adolescence, as being caused by something other than chemicals. Is the defiance part of a normal separation from parents? Due to a breakup with a girlfriend? Just adolescent hormones kicking in?

Adolescent Drug and Alcohol Abuse offers parents clear information, support, and guidance:

• Understand the disease model of drug abuse, and that it's not your fault
• Overcome family confusion, denial, and excuses to get your child the help he needs
• Find allies in the community to help your child feel the appropriate consequences of his actions
• Know what to look for in chemical assessment facilities
• See what kind of help can be given your child in treatment
• Gain serenity and happiness for yourself, apart from the outcome of your child's drug abuse or dependency
• Listen to the voices of dozens of parents and recovering teens and learn that you are not alone in how this problem profoundly affects your family

Author Nikki Babbit has counseled thousands of parents and teens about drug and alcohol abuse and dependency. Her message, and the message of the families whose stories fill this book, is one of encouragement and hope for the future.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Nikki Babbit, PhD, has spent the past 35 years working with adolescents and families, first as a high-school teacher and then as a school psychologist working in schools, psychiatric wards and public health clinics. Nikki has consulted with schools, juvenile justice professionals, and youth agency professionals across the United States on youth and family issues and adolescent drug abuse and dependency issues. In 1989 she traveled to the Soviet Union to help begin AA and Al-Anon, which had been prohibited by the government despite their success in over 120 countries around the world. The following year, she was invited to Moscow to speak about western adolescent treatment at the joint Soviet- American Conference On Alcoholism. Nikki is licensed as a school psychologist and certified as a chemical dependency counselor and supervisor. She also holds a professional counselor license with the Ohio Social Workers Board. She is the author of the booklet Is Your Child Chemically Dependent? (Community Intervention Press, 1988). Nikki has been married to Harold Babbit since 1965. She is the mother of three children, one of whom is recovering, and she was the child and stepchild of alcoholics. She and her husband currently live in Shaker Heights, Ohio outside of Cleveland.

Product Details

• Paperback: 296 pages
• Publisher: Patient Centered Guides; 1 edition (March 15, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1565927559
• ISBN-13: 978-1565927551
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 0.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,544,917 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Melissa Guerrero's Review, March 21, 2000

By 

Melissa Guerrero (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Adolescent Drug & Alcohol Abuse: How to Spot It, Stop It, and Get Help for Your Family (Paperback)

I love this book. I wish something like this was in print when my mother was dealing with her alcohol and drug addictions. Not to discredit Dr. Babbit's field of psychology, but I am usually skeptical of psychology theories defining my behavior. The personal accounts in Dr. Babbit's fortify her method of healing and put the reader at ease. Any reader will know they are in good hands when they read this book.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars FAST, EFFECTIVE HELP!, September 2, 2001

By 

"vegascorphousing" (Las Vegas, Nevada United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Adolescent Drug & Alcohol Abuse: How to Spot It, Stop It, and Get Help for Your Family (Paperback)

In a nutshell, this book was one of the elements that SAVED MY SON'S LIFE!! If I hadn't read about the stages of addiction (easily described and organized within the book for quick intervention)I wouldn't have realized how serious a situation he was in already. There he was, crashing through the wall to the final stage (despair/suicidal)of addiction and, because he had woven such a web of chaos (balls in the air for me to keep busy catching)I was totally missing the desperate truth, that he was going to die if he wasn't stopped! If I hadn't reacted quickly I truly know he would not be here today.

Babbit describes the ways addicts and abusers foil our best efforts to find out what they're up to. Our kids are experts at manipulation, and will go to great lengths to "protect" their addictions. They distract us from our instincts, avoid our attention, and unfortunately can plummet downward in a deathly spiral, under our very noses. Babbit describes ALL THE POPULAR DRUGS, the corresponding paraphernalia that can identify each one's use, and the symptoms displayed by someone using them. YOU WILL BE SHOCKED as you read the myriad of ways our children have found to get high! Have you ever grabbed a can of whipped cream out of the fridge only to find it's gone flat?? (they "huff" the gas out of the can!)...some even unscrew the gas cap and huff gas fumes right out of your car (keep a locking cap on yours!)

Nikki Babbit's well written, non-judgemental book is an ESSENTIAL primer for Parents of substance and alcohol abusing teenagers!! This is NO-NONSENSE, "IN YOUR FACE" information, effectively organized for quick reference to deal with your individual situation (stage of chaos) quickly! I am ordering several copies now to distribute to those is immediate need, and to display while speaking at parent's groups/community outreach, etc. Sometimes the despair and pain we parents go through is best channeled back into the world by sharing a story or insight or knowledge. Once you've "interrupted" their progression and gotten them help, your kids basically have a long process to recovery and have to work their programs on their own. If parents then try to channel their pain and worry back into community involvement it helps keep you a little more sane and helps the effort to reduce the distribution of drugs. God bless, and good luck to you!

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Lifeline for Parents, April 24, 2000

By 

Mary J. Baker (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Adolescent Drug & Alcohol Abuse: How to Spot It, Stop It, and Get Help for Your Family (Paperback)

This book will provide a lifeline to parents struggling with children who they suspect, or in fact are, abusing drugs or alcohol. It provides a lot of useful information on resources and approaches for help but most importantly speaks from the author's years of experience working with youth and families involved in drug abuse. The personal stories are very helpful. This book doesn't point the finger at parents but provides instead some very practical help. If you have found out your child is abusing drugs,read this book first before any others-it will definitely get one moving in the right direction to get further help. I would recommed this book to all parents as its principles apply to other struggles parents encounter with teens and none of us are immune to our children getting in trouble with drugs.