Kids and Overdose. Alert to Parents and Kids!

Tragically, in the news, you may hear about a child getting hold of an opioid and overdosing (stopped breathing). If the child was very young, then the drug was probably was hanging around, and like kids do, they put it in their mouth or mimic what they see the adults do. If was a preteen or teenager, then most likely they overdosed because they chose to use an opioid of some kind. Once you reach a certain age, it's all about choices. Why would a preteen or teenager decide to use an opiate? The first thing that comes to mind is Peer Pressure. Their friends are doing it and they want to be part of the gang and fit in. OK for maybe one time, but there are root causes for continued opioid use. The one that comes to mind is physical pain: a football injury, cheerleader injury or a sports injury of some kind. Or it could be pain from an accident such as a car accident. So what is the other reason? Emotional pain. Any type of chronic emotional pain such as teasing at school for any reason, poor relationship with parents/siblings, childhood trauma of any kind, ....anything that a kid would consider hurtful that continues on. The kid wouldn't know what to do about it and that could lead to hopelessness. To stop the emotional pain, a kid might drink alcohol or use drugs to temporarily feel better. Dangerous, yes, but kids don't think that far into the future, especially if they are hurting in some way. Now we all have had some childhood issues at one time, but I am talking about months to maybe even years of emotional pain. To a kid that is forever. Parents, what can you do to help prevent your child from falling into this death trap? I call it LOUD. Tell your kids you want to talk LOUD. It stands for:

Let's talk about
Opiate
Use and
Drug abuse

You see, kids like to think they are fooling their parents when taking certain risks. Let your kids and teenagers know that you are AWARE and KNOWLEDGEABLE. It opens the door to drug talk. It is at that time that a kid might say how they are feeling hurt over something in their life or even alert you to the behavior of another kid or teenager. There is a 2017 phrase, "Take 5 to save lives". It is about kids supporting each other to prevent suicide. Well, the same can be done for drug abuse to help prevent overdoses! Parents, tell your kids you want to talk LOUD! Kids, band together and help each other prevent drug use and overdoses. Stay alive, Don't Die! Talk LOUD to your parents! Talk LOUD to your friends!