One of the most significant and potentially troublesome issues we face as the parent of an adolescent is their potential use of substances (alcohol, nicotine, weed, party drugs, etc.)

Depending on our background, our upbringing, our experiences with those substances, we can develop vastly different perspectives and attitudes about our kid’s potential use. Some parents see drinking or smoking weed as a harmless rite of passage. However, according to science, there’s nothing harmless about it and the risks are far too great to adopt that attitude.

This week, in part 1 of a 2-part series, my guest, Kriya Lendzion, an addiction and prevention specialist and adolescent clinician, gives us a closer look at the latest versions of substances our teens and tweens are exposed to today. And she explains how their brain is wired in such a way that makes substance use all too common and misuse and addiction a very real possibility for many.

We’ll continue the conversation in next week’s episode where you'll learn exactly what to do when you discover your kid has used drugs or alcohol and how to head it off in the first place.

Access TRANSCRIPT here.

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Sources, Resources and Mentions:

Kriya Lendzion (her website is currently going under alterations so direct links to the following are not working correctly - just go to her site and...

Under her Blog tab at the top, navigate to these articles: 

"How to Respond When We Discover our Kids Drinking or Using Drugs"

"10 Tips for Becoming a Teen Communication Jedi."

Under her Resources tab, click Parents and scroll down to Adolescent Brains and download "Grown Ups Guide to the Adolescent Brain (and how to parent it)"

The resource for parents she mentioned in the episode (more under parent resources on her site):

Get Smart About Drugs - DEA Parent website. Comprehensive info on latest teen use trends, news stories, and research.

Time Sensitive Offer: You are invited to jump into her Free Teen+Parent presentation as part of the Happy Healthy Teen Summit Wednesday March 8, 2023 on Having Impactful Discussions With Our Teens About Drugs & Alcohol! It's going to be available all day Wednesday and she's giving a Template for a Family Trust Agreement.

FREE MEMBERSHIP Finally, Under her Resources tab for Parents, click on her Members Only sign-in, plug in your email, and right above the "Submit" button type "neurogility podcast" and you're in and can access her other resources for life!