Rehabilitation for Teens:
In spite of the continued “just say NO campaigns” our youth are still experimenting with drugs and becoming addicted. There are many rehabilitation centers across the United States, some are just scaled down versions of adult programs and some are specific for teens. After all, adolescents are not just “little adults.”

Teens in treatment tend to have more difficulties than their adult counterparts, they tend to have more family issues and their drug-use patterns are different; teens tend to abuse multiple substances.

Adult addicts have had more loss and consequences as a result of their addictions, they are motivated to go into rehab when they hit their “bottom.” Many adult addicts have been motivated to enter rehab because of the loss of a job and/or family, chronic medical problems and/or encounters with the law.

The motivation for a teen to enter treatment are much more subtle and are revealed in there performance in school, peer relationship changes and how they interact’ within the family unit; teens are also motivated by the judicial system.

Most teens do not go to their families and ask for help, their entry into treatment is usually mandated by family, the judicial system or by school officials. When an intake counselor asks teens what the problem is they say things like, “There isn’t a problem” or “My parents are overreacting” or “I’m just having a good time, there’s not a problem, I’m not an addict.”
Once they finally get into treatment, youth seek out and respond to different treatment modalities (favoring group therapy over individual), need to have their family included in treatment, and must have a school-based component if in inpatient or residential treatment.

Finally, most adult treatment programs are not set up to deal with the oppositional or acting-out behaviors characteristic of adolescent substance abusers. Fortunately, most residential facilities do not mix teen and adult recovery programs.