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Rehab For Teenagers

Written By Stuart Croft
Reviewed By Tiffany Green
Medically Reviewed By Wajahat Choudhry
Updated January 18, 2023

Few things in life are as painful or frightening as watching a loved one spiral into addiction or substance abuse. When that loved one is your child, it is so much worse. In this awful situation, where acting quickly and decisively is so critically important, it’s best to get an addiction professional on your side to help you make the right decisions and provide the necessary care and treatment.

Gladstones Clinic has been helping teenagers recover from substance abuse, addiction, and other self-harming behaviours since 2012. We take a family-centred and clinically tested approach to helping teenagers take back control of their lives and helping families heal from the damage caused by addiction. If you or a teenage loved one require professional help in dealing with addiction, continue reading to learn more about addictive behaviour in teenagers, how the Gladstones Clinic teenage addiction rehabilitation program turns lives around, and how to get started on the journey of recovery.

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Understanding teenage substance abuse and self-harm

Teenage substance abuse and self-harm can be difficult and sensitive topics to bring up and openly discuss. Teenagers engaging in this behaviour often feel shame or fear, making them less likely to be open about what is happening to them until their behaviour or addiction starts to have serious or even life-threatening consequences. Many parents might feel like their child’s addiction is their fault and that they’re squarely to blame, pushing them to look for quick fixes out of desperation and not wanting others to know of their failures.

The reality is that addiction, dependency, and self-harming behaviour of any kind and at any age are incredibly complex phenomena. Feelings of guilt, shame, fear, and many other negative emotional connotations we create in dealing with it only serve to delay getting teenagers the help they need in their time of crisis. If we as a society are ever to make definitive and measurable progress in reducing teenage addiction and substance abuse, we need a clear picture of the causes and an openness and willingness to talk about it freely. With this openness in place, we believe that more teenagers and parents will seek the help they need before their addiction causes crisis.

When it comes to the causes of addiction in teenagers, it is important to realise that it’s usually the result of a number of factors. As convenient as it would be, simply pointing the finger at a single factor in an individual case of teenage addiction would be a gross oversimplification and likely result in ineffective or short-lived treatment. That being said, an understanding of the causes and the ability to connect them to specific cases through experience and professional training can help addiction professionals identify why someone might become a victim of addiction and help develop effective and long-term strategies to deal with it.

Substance addiction and self-harming behaviour in adolescents are often –but definitely not always– the result of the interplay between a range of closely-interlinked factors, such as:

  • Peer pressure: The pressure to fit in with your friends is never as high as it is in your teenage years. This pressure to be accepted by others your age can cause otherwise healthy, sensible, and forward-thinking adolescents to take risks they normally wouldn’t. especially in social situations where substance use or risk-taking behaviour is normalised or encouraged.
  • Social media pressure: Social media often glamourises or normalises drug use in specific environments or social settings. It’s not uncommon to see drug-related insignia or design motifs related to events that teenagers would go to. While it’s easy to downplay the effect this has, over time it paints the picture that drug use is harmless or acceptable at certain types of events or environments. In other words, social media often misrepresents the potential risks and consequences of substance abuse.
  • Dysfunctional family dynamics: This broad term covers a range of destructive behaviours or environments that a teenager might be subjected to at home, from witnessing domestic violence, dealing with a parent who has addiction issues themselves, to feeling neglected by parents who are trying to make ends meet. These cases can be difficult to deal with, as they usually involve serious commitments from the parents to help create a more nurturing environment, and often incorporates family therapy into the teen’s treatment.
  • Academic failure or pressure: The pressures of performing well at school can easily drive a young person to experiment with drugs or alcohol to find some relief. This is especially prevalent in cases where they have undiagnosed or misunderstood learning disabilities. Students who consistently feel like their best academic efforts aren’t good enough might feel a loss of self-worth or like they’re a disappointment to themselves or their parents, leading to despair and self-destructive behaviour.

Again, it’s important not to simply pick the closest match as a reason for addiction. These factors and many others, like stress, trauma, undiagnosed depression, genetic predispositions, bullying, curiosity and more, are very closely interlinked, and it’s almost always a combination of them that turn a first-time user into someone who becomes dependent on substances to cope.

Why choose Gladstones Clinic for something this important?

If your child is in a crisis of addiction, getting professional help is of the utmost importance. While there are a number of addiction centres advertising teenage drug and alcohol rehabilitation programs, and even DIY solutions on the internet –we strongly advise against tackling something this complex and important on your own– Gladstone Clinic has the experienced staff, necessary facilities, and clinical knowledge needed to provide effective long-term rehabilitation solutions.

We are one of only a handful of facilities in the UK that is regulated and approved by the Care Quality Commission to work with and accept referrals for vulnerable groups like adolescents. We have over 15 years of experience helping patients of all ages and suffering from a wide range of addictive and self-harming behaviours recover, transform, and take back control of their lives, and, since 2012, our mental healthcare and addiction recovery experts have been working on and improving our teenage (specifically 16 to 18-year-olds) rehab program with great success, helping countless teenagers beat addiction across our many facilities.

Our expertise with teenagers also goes beyond just substance abuse. We have successfully helped teenagers with addiction in the battle against self-harm, gambling, eating disorders, and even internet and video game addiction.

Gladstones Clinic believes that mental health and addiction treatment should be available to all people, not just the wealthy. Many of our patients come from ordinary middle-class families. We’ll also gladly provide you with all the documentation needed to claim from private insurers if needed. Visit our rehab cost and finance page for more information.

You can learn more about our vision, core values, holistic approaches, how we incorporate family into the recovery process, and our amazing staff by viewing our ‘Why Gladstones’ page. Read through our testimonials page to see how we’ve helped people from all walks of life beat their addictions.

If you are a concerned parent, contact Gladstones for professional teenage rehab services without delay

Our caring and understanding operators will gladly address any of your concerns to get your child the substance addiction, eating disorders, or mental health disorder rehab treatment they need.

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