There certainly is a link between suicide and alcohol and drug use, yet contrary to what many parents believe drug and alcohol use has halved among teenagers.
Alcohol and drug use among teenagers is less of a problem than many people think it is, however if teens do go down that path it is really important to get them help as early as possible.
Some people can be “addicted” to alcohol and drugs, where they cannot stop using it. Other people may not be addicted but they may have the occasional night where they get really drunk, both addiction and one off’s like this can be problematic.
Intoxicating substances tend to worsen any mental or emotional problems an adolescent may already have. At the same time, they remove any inhibitions that may keep a teen from carrying out his desperate plan. No wonder the result is often tragic.
According to a U.S. Surgeon General’s Report, more than twenty million Americans aged twelve or older suffered from an addiction in 2015. That number included millions of teens and young adults.
Teens and young adults misuse alcohol more than any other substance.
The marijuana currently on the market is far more potent than the pot of the ‘60s, ‘70s, and ‘80s. Today’s marijuana is at least ten times more potent and damaging to the brain than the strains that were common thirty or forty years ago.
