How to Discipline Overly-Rebellious Adolescents

By the time they are adolescents, your kids should have a pretty good idea of what to expect in terms of parental goals and behavior limits. But even the well-trained youngster may be tempted to push boundaries or be led astray by friends to do something he shouldn't.

When that happens, a mother or father cannot afford to sit back and pretend that nothing has happened, hoping that it never occur again. Instead, you must be vigilant and take action to reinforce all that you have taught your children already from the time they were toddlers. Don't give in to their wheedling or your own time constraints. Take the necessary time now to train your adolescents properly, and that will mean issuing appropriate discipline.

The art of adolescent discipline falls into three categories:

The first is training or guidance. We discipline our children when we set household rules, place limits on their behavior (such as curfews), and monitor their social activities with friends. Moms and dads who fail to provide these boundaries and guidelines are not doing their duty by their kids. Children need to know what they can and cannot do, and most appreciate the security of parents who keep watch and respond accordingly. That is why you must know what your children do, when, and with whom. Until they turn eighteen, adolescents remain their parents' responsibility.

The second category involves incentives and rewards. Teens enjoy challenges and meeting goals; sometimes they see the opportunity to perform for a reward as a form of competition with themselves or with siblings or peers. When they do well in school, in sports, or in bypassing a temptation, moms and dads need to notice and congratulate them, as well as occasionally issue an affectionate acknowledgement of the adolescent's success. This may take the form of verbal praise, a home-made or purchased certificate of congratulations, or a tangible reward involving a gift or cash bonus. Research shows that anyone who receives rewards for doing well is more likely to continue doing so.

The third part of discipline centers on punishments or natural consequences. When adolescents fail to do their homework, they may not be able to pass a test, thus earning a natural negative consequence of the chosen action. Or if they stay up late, they may miss the school bus and end up with a tardy or absence on their record. But some behaviors are not so cut and dried in terms of consequences. For example, if an adolescent smokes a cigarette, he will not get lung cancer the next day. Or if he gets drunk with friends, he may not get caught.

When a mother or father finds out that a youngster has overstepped his boundaries, betrayed a parent's trust, or disregarded a household rule, it is the adult's responsibility to issue a consequence. Grounding works well for many adolescents. This can take the form of losing the privilege of going out with friends for a few days or a week or two. Or it can mean that the adolescent loses the right to use family appliances like the television, the telephone, the computer, or the VCR for a period of time. Moms and dads should impose a limit that as closely as possible fits the infraction, although this is not always possible.

Don't fail to follow up on your adolescent's good and bad behaviors. They depend on parents to be there and be aware. Without authoritative guidance, they will continue to make needless mistakes, some of which can be life-altering. So let them know you care by instituting fair-minded discipline to bring out their best qualities and help them develop character.

==> My Out-of-Control Teen: Help for Parents

Hyper-texting and Hyper-networking Linked to Drug/Alcohol Abuse

Research reveals that teenagers who text 120 times a day or more (which many teens do nowadays) are more likely to have had sex or used alcohol and drugs than teens who don't send as many messages.

The study is not suggesting that "hyper-texting" leads to sex, drinking or drugs, but it's shocking to see an apparent link between excessive messaging and this kind of risk-taking behavior. The study asserts that a significant number of teenagers are very susceptible to peer-pressure – and also have permissive or absent parents.

The study was conducted at 20 public high schools in the Cleveland area, and is based on confidential paper surveys of more than 4,200 high school students. It found that about 1 in 5 students were hyper-texters (i.e, those who text more than 120 times a day) and about 1 in 9 are hyper-networkers (i.e., those who spend 3 or more hours a day on Facebook and other social networking websites). About 1 in 25 are both hyper-texters and hyper-networkers.

Hyper-texting and hyper-networking were more common among (a) females, (b) minorities, (c) children whose mothers/fathers have less education, and (d) children from a single-mother household.

The study found that those who text at least 120 times a day are nearly 3½ more likely to have had sex than their friends who don't text that much. Hyper-texters were also more likely to:

• use illegal drugs

• take medication without a prescription

• binge drink

• engage in physical fights

Compared to the hyper-texters, the hyper-networkers were not as likely to have had sex, but were more likely to have been involved in other risky behaviors like drinking or fighting.

Other studies have found that:

• about one-quarter of teenagers have "sexted" (i.e., shared sexually explicit photos, videos and chat by cell phone or online)
• about one-third of 16- and 17-year-olds send texts while driving
• approximately half of children ages 8 to 18 send text messages on a cell phone in a typical day and average 118 texts per day
• only 14 % of children have a parent that sets rules limiting texting

==> My Out-of-Control Teen: Help for Parents

Teens Abuse of Cough Medicine on the Rise

Gulping cough syrup for an instant "buzz" certainly is not a new thing for adolescents that have raided the medicine cabinet for a quick, cheap, and legal high. But unfortunately, this dangerous and potentially deadly practice is on the rise.

So it's important for moms and dads to understand the risks and know how to prevent their children from intentionally overdosing on cough and cold medicine.

Before the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) replaced the narcotic codeine with DXM as an over-the-counter (OTC) cough suppressant in the 1970s, adolescents were simply guzzling down cough syrup for a quick buzz.

Over the years, adolescents discovered that they still could get high by taking large doses of any OTC medicine containing DEXTROMETHORPHAN (also called DXM).

DXM-containing products — tablets, capsules, gel caps, lozenges, and syrups — are labeled DM, cough suppressant, or Tuss (or contain "tuss" in the title).

Medicines containing DXM are easy to find, affordable for cash-strapped adolescents, and perfectly legal. Getting access to the dangerous drug is often as easy as walking into the local drugstore with a few dollars or raiding the family medicine cabinet. And because it's found in over-the-counter medicines, many adolescents naively assume that DEXTROMETHORPHAN can't be dangerous.

DEXTROMETHORPHAN abuse is on the rise, according to recent studies, and easy access to OTC medications in stores and over the Internet could be contributing to the increase.

The major difference between current abuse of cough and cold medicines and that in years past is that adolescents now use the Internet to not only buy DEXTROMETHORPHAN in pure powder form, but to learn how to abuse it. Because drinking large volumes of cough syrup causes vomiting, the drug is being extracted from cough syrups and sold on the Internet in a tablet that can be swallowed or a powder that can be snorted. Online dosing calculators even teach abusers how much they'll need to take for their weight to get high.

One way adolescents get their DEXTROMETHORPHAN fixes is by taking "Triple-C" — Coricidin HBP Cough and Cold — which contains 30 mg of DEXTROMETHORPHAN in little red tablets. Users taking large volumes of Triple-C run additional health risks because it contains an antihistamine as well.

The list of other ingredients — decongestants, expectorants, and pain relievers — contained in other Coricidin products and OTC cough and cold preparations compound the risks associated with DEXTROMETHORPHAN and could lead to a serious drug overdose.

Besides Triple-C, other street names for DEXTROMETHORPHAN include: Candy, C-C-C, DXM, DM, Drex, Red Devils, Robo, Rojo, Skittles, Tussin, Velvet, and Vitamin D. Users are sometimes called "syrup heads" and the act of abusing DEXTROMETHORPHAN is often called "DXMing," "robotripping," or "robodosing" (because users chug Robitussin or another cough syrup to achieve their desired high).

Although DEXTROMETHORPHAN can be safely taken in 15- to 30-milligram doses to suppress a cough, abusers tend to consume as much as 360 milligrams or more. Taking mass quantities of products containing DEXTROMETHORPHAN can cause hallucinations, loss of motor control, and "out-of-body" (disassociative) sensations.

Other possible side effects of DEXTROMETHORPHAN abuse include: confusion, impaired judgment, blurred vision, dizziness, paranoia, excessive sweating, slurred speech, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, irregular heartbeat, high blood pressure, headache, lethargy, numbness of fingers and toes, facial redness, dry and itchy skin, loss of consciousness, seizures, brain damage, and even death.

When consumed in large quantities, DEXTROMETHORPHAN can also cause hyperthermia, or high fever. This is a real concern for adolescents who take DEXTROMETHORPHAN while in a hot environment or while exerting themselves at a rave or dance club, where DEXTROMETHORPHAN is often sold and passed off as similar-looking drugs like PCP. And the situation becomes even more dangerous if these substances are used with alcohol or another drug.

You can help prevent your adolescent from abusing over-the-counter medicines. Here's how:

• Avoid stockpiling OTC medicines. Having too many at your adolescent's disposal could make abusing them more tempting.

• Keep an eye out not only for traditional-looking cough and cold remedies in your adolescent's room, but also strange-looking tablets (DEXTROMETHORPHAN is often sold on the Internet and on the street in its pure form in various shapes and colors).

• Keep track of how much is in each bottle or container in your medicine cabinet.

• Lock your medicine cabinet or keep those OTC medicines that could potentially be abused in a less accessible place.

• Monitor your youngster's Internet usage. Be on the lookout for suspicious websites and emails that seem to be promoting the abuse of DEXTROMETHORPHAN or other drugs, both legal and illegal.

• Watch out for the possible warning signs of DEXTROMETHORPHAN abuse listed above.

Above all, talk to your children about drug abuse and explain that even though taking lots of a cough or cold medicine seems harmless, it's not. Even when it comes from inside the family medicine cabinet or the corner drugstore, when taken in large amounts DEXTROMETHORPHAN is a drug that can be just as deadly as any sold on a seedy street corner. And even if you don't think your adolescents are doing it, chances are they know children who are.

==> My Out-of-Control Teen: Help for Parents