Blog

Teen Prescription Drug Abuse: A Dangerous Revolving Door

I pushed through a revolving door a few years ago, went all the way around and ended up going out the entrance again. My full 360-degree turn was embarrassing, humiliating, and to be honest, a little confusing—I ended up back where I started! In the fog of confusion my inconsiderate friends laughed from the other side, where they boasted in their superior revolving-door navigation abilities.

Ignoring my companions, I carefully pushed through the door again, this time successfully breaching the exit and joining my friends. In America, over three million teens discover themselves stuck in the revolving door of prescription drug abuse. They swallow that first pill or sniff their first opiate, and life begins going in circles.

Many claw desperately for the door’s exit, but confusion and bewilderment prevent them from reaching it. Some try and force their way out as if nothing happened, but relapse sucks them back inside.

Eventually, the consequences of an overdose, the cost of an addiction, or the findings of a parent will catch up, and the teen (if he gets the chance) is forced to walk through the door’s entrance again, ready to pick up right where the drugs found him.  And suddenly, vital years of his adolescence have vanished into thin air.

Teen Prescription Drug Abuse on the Rise

According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, every day in America six thousand teens use prescription drugs to get high for the first time. If abused, many drugs even sitting in your personal medicine cabinet are accompanied by a long list of chilling consequences.

Opiates such as pain relievers OxyContin and Vicodin; central nervous system depressants like Xanax and Valium; and stimulants like Concerta and Adderall are among the most popular.

Trail Mix: A Dangerous Party Cocktail

One dangerous and trending way to share and distribute drugs, termed “trail mix,” combines prescription drug use with groups of adolescents. An empty bowl placed in a central location at a party accumulates prescription drugs throughout the night. You’re expected to bring “your” pills (often smuggled from the family medicine cabinet) with you, and drop them into the community bowl.

At some point during the evening, guests form a circle and pass the bowl around. Each participant takes a handful of who-knows-what, swallows the pills, and waits. A few minutes later the party is overtaken by a rapturous atmosphere, and students begin acting outside of themselves: the trail mix was a success.

Teen Reactions to Prescription Drugs

Many times it starts with an injury. Teens will exit surgery with bottles of prescription pain killers or central nervous system depressants and eventually become hooked. Unfortunately, it doesn’t stop there. Addicted teens often tell their friends of their obsession and suddenly a community of prescription addicts forms.

Once hooked, teens always find a way to feed their addiction. “I had thoughts of robbing a pharmacy,” said one 16-year-old addict. “I just took them, and I fell in love,” said a high school freshman.

Reactions to prescription drugs vary from case to case, but common effects include states of “euphoria” or a sense that everything “slows down.”

Just One Time Can Be Too Much

On February 3, 2007, Sindy Sierzchula received a call from the hospital–her daughter, Courtney, was in critical condition.

“I thought that when I went to the hospital and I was holding her hand, and I was talking to her, and I was telling her to hold on… that she was going to wake up and start crying, and say how sorry she was.”

But Courtney didn’t get that chance. She died later that night from an overdose of OxyContin

Some teens get stuck going in circles and never make it out the entrance again. But right now, before you or your loved one gets stuck, realize that there is hope. Hope for recovery and for a normal life; but there must be willingness to start over–a willingness to boldly step through the entrance again and commit to a restored lifestyle of self-respect and personal responsibility.

Protect your medicine cabinet and watch out for revolving doors.