Drinking or doing drugs alone, rapid personality change or a change in daily activity. Open communication between teens and their parents is the only way to calm parental fears and educate teens about the dangers of drug use. Teens need to know that they can get quality, non-judgmental advice from their parents, and parents need to know that their teens will listen to their advice and make good decisions. For further information about teen substance abuse, please contact a counseling professional in your community. Each year, about one million teens leave home without permission.
Runaways come from every social class, race and religion.
Typically, the teen runs away after a heated argument at home, and stays with a friend close by for a day or two before returning. Teens who repeatedly run away from home tend to stay away longer and usually have no plan of where to go. Nine out of ten teenagers return home or are returned to their home by the police within a month. There are many dangers involved in running away. Alone in a strange city or on the highway, a runaway is an easy target for thieves, pimps, drug pushers and other violent criminals.