(gentle upbeat music)
- My biggest fear with telling
my healthcare professionals about drugs
is thinking that they are gonna tell my parents
or maybe even go to authorities.
I'm not super clear on what their rules and regulations are.
They give small disclaimers,
but I never know when to trust them.
Someone very close to me
had told her healthcare professional
that she smokes weed every day
and after saying that they would never tell their parents
anything they tell them,
they said, "Well, that's one of the things
"that we wanna tell your parents."
So I'm just not very clear on what the real rules are.
- I think it kinda ties in, too,
like at that age you, don't really know
what you're getting into.
So it's good to do research on it, at least.
It's good to ask your peers.
It's good to ask other people you know,
"Hey, what was this feeling like for you, man?
"What can I do to get where I wanna be?
"And what happens if I go outta control?
"Where can I go to for help?"
- For some young people in my life
who have maybe coped with something like violence
or trauma through self-harm,
a lot of times adults will respond with like kind of,
"What's going on in your life?
"Here are some mental health help resources,"
and a lot of other things
that the young person might need
to get the support that they need, which is great.
But when an adult finds out
that a young person is using substances,
they assume that it's only for experimentation.
But I know for some of the young folks in my life
that substance use can actually be signs
that they are going through something really difficult.
So maybe it's a coping mechanism for violence or trauma
that they may be experiencing within their lives.
I think that it's really important for providers
to keep this in mind because a lot of times
when they find out that young people are using substances,
they assume it's just for harmless experimentation
or that it's a part of a substance use problem
that isn't tied to any sort of other issue.
And so they give resources or advice based on those things.
- One factor that draws a lot of young people
to marijuana and alcohol is the thought
that it'll make you cool, thought that you will
get more friends, you'll become popular,
and at the beginning, that is true.
You might start hanging out with a lot of new people,
meeting new friends, but those relationships
are fairly weak and you might be weakening
your other relationships that you've had for a long time.
For example, I've seen this happen with myself,
I've now stopped smoking weed and personally,
I've lost a lot of friends.
Everyone wants to have the best night ever every night
and they think that weed or drinking can do that for them
and if I can't do that, then I'm just not useful.
- When I was in middle school, someone who was
really important to me started using
a lot of different drugs, like weed and Xanax
and I think for me,
watching somebody who was so close to me
have that was sort of deteriorating his life
and his interactions with me,
that was really hard for me and I think
it's almost kind of like it sort of scared me
from getting involved in any substances.
And part of it was just seeing how
whenever he was using it made him really
just aggressive and
he'd steal things or we couldn't
sit down and enjoy each others' company.
And that was also really frustrating
just to see sometimes
his other friends, how they'd be able
to use with him, but then they'd
show up to school and they could
go to class and get a job and go to college,
but for him that wasn't really a possibility.
And I think it's just been a constant reminder
of how unfair and unpredictable
substance use can be.
- The drugs that I see most in my school
are mainly weed and a little bit of alcohol.
And it's become a lot more accepted.
I'm not sure if it's for better or for worse,
but all I know is when someone's drinking every day
or just very addicted to alcohol, that's a problem
and people will speak up and they'll say something,
try and get them help, but with weed,
it's kinda the other way around.
It worries me a bit that I know a lot of people
who smoke daily and not a lotta people
see a problem with that.
They might get weird glances
or some people that judge them about it,
but the overwhelming majority
doesn't have much to say about that.
- As teenagers, I think it's really easy
to fall into the habit of using substances
as a way to cope, whether it's with a mental health issue
or trauma or grief.
And a lotta times it's more accessible
than treatment services that would
be more beneficial, like therapy.
And it's more socially acceptable
to drink away your problems
than to actually get the care
and the treatment that you need.
And I think it's important for providers
to recognize that and go about
addressing substance abuse in a way
that's not shaming people who are using,
but rather helping them to find better ways to cope.
(gentle music)