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Thursday, July 14, 2011

Parents, Teens and Drugs: The Conversation II

By RICHARD ZWOLINSKI, LMHC, CASAC

edited by I, praetorian and a host of others (personalities)

"If you don’t want to be convinced that even 'flirting' with drug use is potentially hazardous, you won’t be convinced. What I can tell you is that the data tell a different story."

Prescription medication abuse and addiction are such a serious problem that new medications and treatments are being developed all the time. It is quite a challenge to help people get off these drugs, especially since the withdrawal symptoms are very uncomfortable. People’s marriages and family relationships really suffer when a family member is just hanging on until their latest prescription can be filled. How many parents really want their kids “experimenting” on the weekends with oxyocodone, codeine, vicodin, or other medications?

What about ecstasy? Cocaine? What about crack? Heroin? Which one of these would be okay for your kids to experiment with? What would be the cut-off point? Would one line of coke be okay or six lines? What if they liked ecstasy so much that they decided to use it two or three times a months, but only on weekends?

Would you be okay with your child doing opium or LSD? What kind of environment would be “safe” for your son or daughter to hallucinate in? Would you be willing to be there in case they had a bad trip?

What about them using marijuana, which some people believe is safe because it is natural? Tobacco, poison ivy, and the ebola virus are also natural, by the way. Pot use can not only can lead to dependency , but can damage brain cells, cause serious lung disorders, trigger extreme paranoia and anxiety, and create such general apathy that kids give up on their life goals.

And yes, it is a gateway drug. The people who say it isn’t simply don’t have the facts. Go to any addiction treatment center in America and ask the people who work there and the clients who are in recovery if smoking pot once or twice a week is safe.

What is a reasonable pot budget for your teen to have? Would it be okay for him or her to take money from college funds and use it to buy pot? Would it be okay for them to spend the money they saved for a trip to Europe to spend on pot? Would it be okay if they money that might have been spent on tickets to a ball game or even donating to a charity? Would you be okay with them using the money you earn, i.e., their allowance money?

Where should your son or daughter go to buy pot? What would be okay with you? How much time would you like to see your kid spend smoking pot? Getting and staying high?

Would you let your teen drive drunk? What about high? Most people couldn’t pass a driving test while drunk or high—they’d never show up for the exam in that condition. Why do so many insist it’s just fine to drive that way?

If you have a supportive, healthy family structure (even if you have problems—everyone has problems), your pre-teens and even your teens will trust you and want to talk to you about many topics. Despite the generation gap portrayed in popular media, many teens do in fact turn to their parents for advice. A surprising number of kids also do feel comfortable asking their parents about very serious issues including drug use.

If you have serious problems and rocky relationships with your pre-teens and teens, and I agree many of us do, if they live with you, you still can repair and reconnect with them. Counseling may help.

If you suspect your children are doing drugs, don’t go in there like gangbusters. Unless you regularly have open conversations with your kids, confrontation could lead to arguments.

If the signs of drug use are there (see our post, The Seven Signs Your Kids Might Be Doing Drugs), call an addiction counselor, treatment center, or a hotline. Discuss your concerns with someone. Ask them for advice on how to handle your particular family situation. Asking your child to take a drug test might not be easy, but it might literally save his/her life and the lives of others.

Help protect children from bullying

Bullying is often seen as an unfortunate, but natural part of adolescence. However, pediatrician Dr. Sharon Cooper warns, “Cyberbullying can affect the social, emotional, and physical health of a child.” For these reasons, it is important that parents and guardians take steps to help their child deal with and respond to cyberbullying.
Tell your child not to respond to rude e-mails, messages, and comments.
Save the evidence, such as e-mail and text messages, and take screenshots of comments and images. Also, take note of the date and time when the harassment occurs. Install free services like "Open DNS."

Contact your Internet service provider (ISP) or cell phone provider. Ask the website administrator or ISP to remove any Web page created to hurt your child.
If harassment is via e-mail, social networking sites, IM, and chat rooms, instruct your child to “block” bullies or delete your child’s current account and open a new one.
If harrassment is via text and phone messages, change the phone number and instruct your child to only share the new number with trustworthy people. Also, check out phone features that may allow the number to be blocked.

Get your child’s school involved. Learn the school’s policy on cyberbullying and urge administrators to take a stance against all forms of bullying. California just passed a law to address Cyberbullying.
Make a report to www.cybertipline.com, and if you feel something illegal has occurred, inform law enforcement.

What is Psychotherapy? Should it be a requirement of School Board Trustees?

What is Psychotherapy?

Edited by I, Praetorian MA, PPS, STD, XYZ, July 14, 2011

Psychotherapy

John M. Grohol, Psy.D.

Psychotherapy is a process focused on helping you heal and learn more constructive ways to deal with the problems or issues within your life. It can also be a supportive process when going through a difficult period or under increased stress, such as starting a new career or going through a divorce.

Generally psychotherapy is recommended whenever a person is grappling with a life, relationship or work issue or a specific mental health concern, and these issues or concerns are causing the individual a great deal of pain or upset for longer than a few days. There are exceptions to this general rule, but for the most part, there is no harm to going into therapy even if you’re not entirely certain you would benefit from it. Millions of people visit a psychotherapist every year, and most research shows that people who do so benefit from the interaction. Most therapists will also be honest with you if they believe you won’t benefit or in their opinion, don’t need psychotherapy.

Modern psychotherapy differs significantly from the Hollywood version. Typically, most people see their therapist once a week for 50 minutes. For medication-only appointments, sessions will be with a psychiatric nurse or psychiatrist and tend to last only 15 to 20 minutes. These medication appointments tend to be scheduled once per month or once every six weeks.

Psychotherapy is usually time-limited and focuses on specific goals you want to accomplish. Most psychotherapy tends to focus on problem solving and is goal-oriented. That means at the onset of treatment, you and your therapist decide upon which specific changes you would like to make in your life. These goals will often be broken down into smaller attainable objectives and put into a formal treatment plan. Most psychotherapists today work on and focus on helping you to achieve those goals. This is done simply through talking and discussing techniques that the therapist can suggest that may help you better navigate those difficult areas within your life. Often psychotherapy will help teach people about their disorder, too, and suggest additional coping mechanisms that the person may find more effective.

Most psychotherapy today is short-term and lasts less than a year. Most common mental disorders can often be successfully treated in this time frame, often with a combination of psychotherapy and medications. However

Board Trustees may take considerably longer.

Psychotherapy is most successful when the individual enters therapy on their own and has a strong desire to change. If you don’t want to change, change will be slow in coming if at all. Change means altering those aspects of your life that aren’t working for you any longer, or are contributing to your problems or ongoing issues. It is also best to keep an open mind while in psychotherapy, and be willing to try out new things that ordinarily you may not do. Psychotherapy is often about challenging one’s existing set of beliefs and often, one’s very self. It is most successful when a person is able and willing to try to do this in a safe and supportive environment.

Common Types of Psychotherapy

Behavior Therapy

Cognitive Therapy

Interpersonal Therapy

Psychodynamic Therapy

Family Therapy

Group Therapy

Ignorance Therapy (Closed Group - Politicians Only)

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about Psychotherapy

Understanding Different Approaches to Psychotherapy

More bullying and more reason to ask your school what is it's policy toward bullying and the New California law AB746

A Burn Book like the one featured in the movie "Mean Girls" that singles out students and calls them names has led school officials in Texas to launch a district-wide investigation.

The "Spring Woods Book" was removed from Facebook Tuesday after the Spring Branch Independent School District in Texas launched an investigation into the page, KHOU Television reports. The Facebook site featured insensitive comments and pictures of students. The page's creator is still unidentified.

Miracle Camero, 17, was listed under the "SLUTS" section of the page.
"They put me under slut and they called me the B word and said that I was stuck up and that I'm all over guys that give me a second look," Camero told KHOU.
Cyberbullying has been a hot issue lately, and Camero isn't the only one who's been victim to relentless online taunting.

Last January, 15-year-old Phoebe Prince Hanged herself after being bullied at school and through Facebook. One of her bullies, Sharon Chanon Velazquez, was recently released from Juvenile Court and spoke out on the Today Show last week.

Facebook and Time Warner announced yesterday that they will partner to fight cyberbullying, and Gov. Jerry Brown (D-Calif.) signed into law last week a bill that allows schools to suspend students for bullying their peers on social networking sites like Facebook.

Schools will now be allowed to suspend students for bullying classmates on social networking sites, including Facebook. Assemblywoman Nora Campos (D-San Jose) introduced the legislation to update California's anti-bullying laws.

"The increase in popularity of social networks has also brought an increase in abuse, and in some instances depression and suicide," she said in a statement.

There was no organized opposition to her bill, AB 746, which was backed by the California State PTA and the California Teachers Assn. The Issue is supposedly addressed in California State Ed. Code

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Behavioral Modifications and School Intervention

This post is the first in a series of three, and examines the first level, primary behavioral intervention and prevention.

At the primary/universal level, support strategies apply to all staff, students, and areas in your campus setting. These strategies are preventive and proactive. School-wide Administration establishes strong prevention through the implementation of organization-wide systems that actively teach and recognize appropriate social skills and behavior, using consistent systems to discourage inappropriate behavior and educate all staff about how to implement and participate in the process.

In addition, staff members are taught how to collect and utilize data for effective decision-making related to the overall culture and climate of their organization and the effectiveness of these universal systems and practices.

Here are some examples of primary/universal support strategies:

Administrative leadership (What a Novel Idea)
Team-based implementation
Defined and prominently posted behavior expectations (an example is a matrix of what it looks like and means to come prepared or to show self-control.)
Teaching of behavioral expectations (such as “Be Safe, Be Responsible, Be Respectful”)
Acknowledgment and positive reinforcement of appropriate behavior (for example, “Thank you for walking rather than running through the hallway.”)
Monitoring and correcting behavior errors (for example, ask a student, “What is the school expectation about cafeteria behavior?”)
Data-based decision making (examples include observations, tally sheets, school-wide information systems [SWIS])
Family and community collaboration (for example, inviting family and community members to a PBIS kick-off event that the students are actively involved in, and sending home regular updates on the progress of implementation.)

Successful implementationinvolves the overlapping of and relationships between systems, data, practices, and outcomes. These elements work together to support social competence and academic achievement, decision-making, and student and staff behavior.

Read more about Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports on our Knowledge Base page.

Nearly all intervention strategies from the Nonviolent Crisis Intervention^® training program are applicable at the primary/universal level of support. For more information, watch this free on-demand webinar, Positive Connections: CPI and Positive Behavior Support, or read “Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports or the Nonviolent Crisis Intervention^® Training Program [PDF]," an alignment that demonstrates how non violent training can be integrated within the three-tiered model. Two of the most outstanding sources for more information are the Association for Positive Behavior Support and the OSEP Technical Assistance Center on Positive Behavioral Interventions & Supports. Both of these organizations provide information on the latest advances in both theory and practices.