Today’s Troubled Teens Need Solutions That Work

In the past people have relied on all sorts of approaches to help kids be able to kick drugs, but in reality drugs have been an issue since ancient times when the drug of choice tended to be alcohol of some form or another. Today, kids face the same temptations as adults, but they are less equipped to be able to handle the threat to their health and well being so it is up to adults to step in and do what we can to help these kids get their lives back into their own hands. Finding a great residential drug treatment center can help pull the teen from the place where they are suffering and give them a new look at life where they can make serious changes and actually affect a difference in their own life. This kind of approach can accomplish a great deal of good and help them to find out who they are outside of drugs or alcohol. This is the very first step to serious healing.

When we are looking at these centers there are all sorts of factors to take in, but the key is to look at the heart of the program or programs being offered to find out what makes the place tick. If we can look into the philosophy of treatments we can get a solid understanding of what the organization is seeking to do for kids and how they intend to help troubled teens turn their lives around and shape behaviors that give them rewards instead of further woes. Starting here is the best approach to choosing the right care for a teen today.

-Qualihits

Drug Rehabs in Houston:

• The Right Step
• Mark Houston Recovery
• Memorial Hermann Prevention and Recovery

Teens may face criminal charges in cyberbullying case

The mom of a frightened 14-year-old Newburyport High freshman said her “heart was just breaking” over the relentless cyberbullying her boy was subjected to by cruel pranksters who now could face criminal charges.

“It has to stop,” said the distraught mom, who alerted police after recovering from the shock.
Three Newburyport teens could face identity theft allegations for setting up a bogus Facebook account where the woman’s unsuspecting son became the target of their cyberhate.

“My heart was just breaking,” said the mom of the Facebook farce.
Her boy ended up eating lunch alone and confronting fellow students flamed by his online alter ego. He became ostracized and even contemplated leaving school, she said.

The boy told the Herald yesterday his alleged tormentors should pay.
“They kind of get what they deserve,” said the 14-year-old. “I would ask them why they did it. I’m just curious as to why they would do something like this and spend so much time.”

A juvenile clerk magistrate will decide the teens’ fates at a closed-door hearing on Tuesday.
“It amounted to cyberbullying,” said Newburyport police Lt. Mark Murray. “The problem is that the cyberbullying law is not put into effect yet.”

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-By Laura Crimaldi, BostonHerald.com

Lenient parents seen as part of the problem

The Santa Rosa parents provided a table and counter covered in booze and then left about 50 teens to have at it, including then 13-year-old Zachary Parenti of Sebastopol.

“Everyone was really drunk. Hundreds of dollars of property was destroyed. I drank an entire bottle of Tequila,” said Parenti, now 14, an Analy High School freshman and member of 1-4-1, a teen club at the west Sonoma County high school.

For many teenagers, drinking alcohol is a rite of passage, with partying teens filling Facebook pages with pictures of beer bashes, images reminiscent of dozens of popular movies that have championed a basic theme for decades: “Dude, where's the party?”

But with recent health studies showing the harmful effects of alcohol on the teen brain and the ever-present risk of drinking-related tragedies on the road, parents are trying to figure out what to do about the age-old problem of teen drinking.

And some parents say many parents are part of the problem.

Read entire article.

by: Randi Rossmann

Christian Parenting That Is Not Succeeding

More than any other generation, today's parents are worried sick that they will mess up their children's lives. There is so much fretting that even the backlash has spawned a notable movement and subgenre of its own, the slacker mom.

I find most Christian parents at the front of the line—the anxiety and success line, not the slacker line. Our most consuming concern is that our children "turn out"—that is, that our Christian faith and values are successfully transmitted, and that our children grow up to be churchgoing, God-honoring adults. It appears that many of us are not succeeding.

The exodus of young adults from evangelical churches in the U.S. is well reported, perhaps over-reported and hyper-hyped. If this isn't enough to induce parental panic, another unsettling report came our way in a summer 2008 Newsweek article, "But I Did Everything Right!" Sharon Begley reported that, contrary to the opinions of decades of experts, genetics may have a more potent impact on child development than our own parenting practices.

These scientific findings are not only ultimately hopeful and helpful for parents; more importantly, they also support Scripture in an area that has been plagued with presumption, behaviorism, and wrong thinking for decades.

Many Christian writers and parents have absorbed these values and drifted into what could be called spiritual determinism. We have absorbed the cultural belief in psychological determinism but spiritualized it with Bible verses, and one verse in particular. The result is a Christianized version of the cultural myth. It reads something like this: "Christian parenting techniques produce godly children."

Proverbs 22:6 has been widely adopted as both psychological premise and theological promise, despite the widespread recognition that hermeneutically, the Proverbs are not promises from God, but general observations.... Read more.

By Leslie Leyland Fields, Christianity Today