signs of drug abuse

Hi everyone, I was going to sit down and write a very well-composed message to introduce myself, but I think I am just too exhausted. Tonight is just another night in a long list of nights where my 16yo daughter has stressed me to no end. She has gone out, refused to answer my calls/text...

So over the summer we caught difficult child sneaking out and he admitted to smoking pot. Got a drug test, and he was clean. Really confused us, but we did not know what to think. Saturday he came home with a pipe, said he ran into D on a bike ride and D gave it to him and told him to take it home so he...

My only daughter is 17. She is a easy child, great child whose only shortcoming is that despite an IQ in the gifted range she doesn't give a hoot about academics and will likely have to go to community college (her SATs are in the 1900's but her GPA is below 3.0, she has been deferred at the state...

Here is a little background for those that don't know her story. A was a difficult child from the time she was about 3 until she was 10. Her diagnosis was ODD and Depression. We tried her on Lexapro which worked at first, but kept needing to be increased. We were looking at adding Seroquel to help...

Hello everyone, I am new to this site but reaching out for general support. I am a single mother of two (one is a teenager). It has been a very difficult past 2 years with behaviors (very oppositional). I have interventions going but it is still exhausting in those moments. I find myself...

More phone calls. Only this time it was her actual friend who called last night. We know the family pretty well, we were all close at one time, even myself and her mother became friends. B met this girl and her sister while in placement and when they got out they hung out together a lot...

My dirver license is gone, my daytimer is gone, my cell phone is gone. Today will spend hours replacing driver license and cell phone. I wil ltake difficult child with me. She is denying taking them but I knwo she is. I am trying not to react. Thanks. Compassion

I went to difficult child's appointment with his individual therapist this evening because difficult child is in psychiatric hospital and I wanted to bring him up to date. To refresh memories, difficult child turned in two boys at school last Friday for selling drugs and alcohol, so I mentioned this to therapist. therapist looked shocked and said "you mean he turned them...

hi so it's been a long day. my dad went in for surgery this morning, so i was up at hospital after getting difficult child to school (little one that is), then i went to hospital then i had mtg up at older difficult child's school who will be 15. older difficult child 15 - she is failing every class; has been in downward...

I don't know if difficult child 1 and her horrible attitude is due to teenage hormones or if she is starting to destabilize. I know one thing and that is that this year she is hanging out with a bunch of boys and her language has become awful! I believe these new friends of hers are influencing some of her...

difficult child never was rx'd medications for adhd and never had the diagnosis. I know nothing about the typical medications used for adhd but I'm wondering about the effects they would have on a kid who takes them off the street - who knows what dosage they took- when they didn't have adhd. Really, what I'm wondering if difficult child's...

Hi Everyone, I have been reading for quite awhile and have tried to get as much info from all of your experiences. My difficult child is my 16 yr. old daughter. Her problems started at 12 and a half, 2 months after starting 7th grade. Good student in elementary school, ballet lessons, soccer all that stuff...

easy child has been in the hospital with pneumonia, and the miracles never cease. Another mother from down the hall who had her son in here works for our local CPS. We talked "unofficially" about the new trouble that difficult child 1 has found herself in, with skipping school and taking drugs. She gave me the...

Venting, and this is LONG, sorry. So, as some of you have read here lately, although our difficult child's attitued and agressive/violent behavior has stopped, she has begun a whole SCHEME of behavioral problems and I am at the end of my ROPE!!! It is one thing right after another, she takes EVERY...

I am back after almost a year.... my daughter has now been propely diagnosed with mood disorder/bipolar.. she is currently on lexapro 10mg and seems to be adjusting to the medications well. she is not as moody or angry anylonger.. however, she is still making horrible decisions, lieing, and her...

Morning everyone! Looking for some thoughts on this one~ OK, before the question, bear with me through the set-up: difficult child tends to not be able to make or keep friends - the ones he does make, the friendships usually do not last more than week due to difficult child being too controlling, raging in front of...

Because of a past history of taking medications out of the cabinet and crushing them up with the intent to give them (unknowingly) to his brother all of the medications in our home are under lock and key. My difficult child has a pill distributor with 7 days worth of medications that he has access to. I refilled it on...

Our difficult child son can be defiant, and thinks that rules and laws don't apply to him. We know that he has tried alcohol and weed already. I read lots of text messages on my son's phone last night, and he was sending texts about selling weed to his friends. He was even bragging about how he has a...

and substance abuse- Is it that substance abuse causes mood disorders in families or is it that substance abusers sometimes are self-medicating a pre-existing mood disorder? Or is it some other connection?

Not sure why I'm even thinking about this but I have been so I decided to ask all of you Brilliant parents. How old was your difficult child when you first realized something was "not right" and what made you think that?