Drugs: What Every Parent Should Know

Jan 19, 2002 11:59 AM

PARENTS:WHAT YOU DON'T KNOW COULD HURT YOUR SON OR DAUGHTER

For the sake of your child, it is important that you learn to recognize some of the warning signs of drug and alcohol abuse:

• Red eyes
• Irritability
• Erratic behavior
• Depression
• Trouble sleeping
• Abrupt weight loss
• Poor personal appearance and hygiene
• Loss of interest in school and activities
• Sharp decline in grades
• Truancy
• Increasing confrontations or fights with classmates, friends, teachers, relatives

If your child has these symptoms, you're right to be worried. He or she needs attention. While there may be medical or psychological reasons for such symptoms, it is also possible that your youngster is using drugs.

Different drugs have quite different effects. Crack, for example, usually produces extreme aggressiveness, barbiturates lead to depression and withdrawal, while amphetamines produce overstimulation and extreme activity. If your son or daughter is a teenager, also keep in mind that many teens are moody. It is normal for them to be rebellious, hostile or depressed at times. It is when the changes in your teen's behavior and moods are extreme that something may be wrong. And that something might be drugs.