Money Issues and Teen Substance Abuse

The Correlation Between Money and Teen Substance Abuse

Financial Warning Signs of Teen Substance Abuse
By Susan J. Runge, LCSW-R, SSW

Parents rightly want their children to feel safe, comfortable, and unhampered with concerns about money, perhaps wanting to correct for a struggle that they once experienced in their own teenage years. There is a dangerous pitfall, however, that many parents fall into when they indiscriminately and ambiguously dole out funds to teens who often do not understand that these offerings are privileges rather than rights. Parents expect that their teens will be grateful, responsible, and will reciprocate by making good use of what is given to them. The opposite can occur. Teens may develop a sense of "being owed" and may then become resentful and demanding when they are not immediately gratified. This in addition to the boredom that results from not having to work for what they want or need can help set the stage for substance abuse.

In a survey conducted by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University, measuring the impact of extra money, boredom, and stress on substance abuse in the teen population, researchers found that teens who receive $25 or more per week in allowance are nearly twice as likely to drink, smoke, and use illegal drugs. The survey also found that teens who are bored are 50 percent more likely to turn to these substances. A teen equates "getting high" with belonging to a group, being "cool" and daring, filling up empty time, socializing, easing painful self-consciousness, and escaping from problems. Alcohol, drugs, and accompanying high-risk behaviors often provide immediate, temporary relief for angst-filled teens.

The course is predictable. The user is curious and asks or is offered a free serving of alcohol or drugs. If this results in a pleasurable experience, the user will move to recreational use on weekends, then to daily use. This becomes very expensive. Teens with more money will have more access to a wider variety, higher potency, and larger quantity of substances. Once they have developed an addiction, they will stop at nothing and spare no expense to get what they need. Where will this money come from? Parents are frequently the most immediate source. Indicators of substance abuse that parents are advised to watch out for include: missing valuables, credit cards and cash, repeated requests for advances on allowances, borrowing money from siblings or relatives, complaints of missing items from neighbors, the appearance of large amounts of cash, new clothes, or equipment that parents do not recognize that may have been shoplifted.

As parents come into an awareness of a substance abuse problem, they may ask how it is possible that their teen could have slipped so far into trouble. What would drive anyone to such dangerous and criminal activity when everything, every material thing, has been provided? Research has proven that the teenage brain is not fully developed, particularly the portion of the brain that discriminates between what is an unsafe or safe decision. Teens tend to think that they are immortal and invulnerable, that they are immune from consequences, or that that will be miraculously rescued at the eleventh hour from disaster. The answer is, then, that these troubled teens do not think ahead at all. They are living in the moment and attempting to fill an inner emptiness. Adrenalin flows freely when stealing, sneaking, breaking laws, out-smarting authority, dealing with large amounts of money and getting high.

Teens are in crisis long before they realize it and often long before their parents realize it. At this point it may be necessary to get professional help by removing the teen from a toxic environment of substance abusing peers to a therapeutic setting such as The Family Foundation School where he or she will receive support and education.