Common household products are being inhaled by teenagers and can be deadly. The average age when teens start drinking alcohol is 13. This means that many are also starting at a younger age. The average age when teens start experimenting with marijuana is 14. This means that many are also experimenting at a younger age.
Adolescents think they are invincible.
They are aware that there are potential dangers when they use drugs or binge on alcohol, but think they will escape them. They, like adults, minimize their chances of death from inebriation accidents such as drowning in a river, mangling their bodies in a car, or suffocating from vomit. I realized how parents blame themselves when this happens, how issues from their own childhood affect their parenting in this painful situation, how even good marriages like mine are severely tested, and how parents have to deal with the frustration of not being able to make their teenagers well. As the daughter and stepdaughter of alcoholics, I had hoped that through good parenting and the power of example that my own children would escape substance abuse. I knew intellectually that addiction or alcoholism can happen to anyone, but deep down, on an emotional level, I thought I could prevent it in my own family.