the need

Help a youth escape a drug habit… before it is too late

Youth on drugs can't be managed as we do adults

Their need is different. Our management of them must also be different. Youth are running away from “the noises” of life to a more welcoming space. So taking them from their welcoming space leaves them with “the noises” they do not YET have the experience or resilience to manage. We first need to guide them to a more palatable way to build themselves so THEY have the insight and experience to manage life, not escape it.

Youth are special people. They are at the cusp of adulthood making the jump from tender childhood to the adult world of self-reliance and self-determination. Without adequate preparation, they may stay stuck at this cusp for years, or even decades.

In that uncertain and unstable space, they are vulnerable, impressionable, and scared, some more so than others. It is no small wonder, therefore, that some, or too many of them, will gravitate to a seemingly better or less demanding world of drugs that relax or dissociate, like-minded friends who seem to embrace them unconditionally, and activities that entertain more than impose. This is an attraction, and it becomes more so when we welcome them to reality by condemning their activities and thus instilling a greater desire to run back to where it seems more comforting though dangerous.

And the more uncertain or unprepared is that youth the more power does that attraction seems to have. They go because they need to escape, not because they have an established addiction or mental illness. Therefore, we need to approach them differently, like attracting a scared horse with an open palm. not a harsh whip. We have to be less scared and more welcoming of them than they show or can be to us.

This is a delicate job. Yet it is both essential and rewarding. The intent is not just to save them from death or imprisonment, but to raise them from the death they are already experiencing – the death of being.

Let us help you save your youth.