Become a member of Allies in Recovery and we’ll teach you how to intervene, communicate and guide your loved one toward treatment.Become a member of Allies in Recovery today.

Fentanyl’s Deadly Toll Leads Parents to Seek New Ways to Keep Their Children Safe

“Keep away from the hard stuff” used to be common parental advice to teens. But in an era when fentanyl and other synthetic opioids can crop up in counterfeit pills, that advice is no longer sufficient. As Betsy Morris reports in The Wall Street Journal, parents are working hard to make their children aware of the dangers, and even to prepare them to respond should a crisis occur.

In 2021, fully two thirds of drug overdose deaths were linked to synthetic opioids, the vast majority of them fentanyl. Deaths from this class of drugs shot up a jaw-dropping 23% from the previous year.

One big reason is that illicit drug suppliers are mixing cheap, potent fentanyl into everything from heroin and cocaine to counterfeit prescription drugs. And it’s just such prescription drugs (think Percocet, Adderall, Xanax) that many curious teens seek out.

Writing in The Wall Street Journal, health and science reporter Betsy Morris informs us that parent across the country are asking key figures in their children’s lives—coaches, teachers, doctors—to help spread the word about the dangers of fentanyl. They’re also forming peer-to-peer student groups to help their children combat disinformation or simple unawareness of the risks. Some teens are even learning to administer Naloxone (a medicine that can reverse a fentanyl overdose) in a crisis situation.

The bottom line is that both teens and parents need to be far more educated about the dangers—and the widespread presence—of fentanyl. The efforts of parents such as those Morris talks with could not be more timely. Click here to read the full article from the Wall Street Journal.

Note: Access to Wall Street Journal articles usually requires a subscription.

Loading

Related Posts from "What's News"

Fentanyl Deaths In Communities of Color: A Crisis “Decades In the Making”

A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reveals the unequal effects of the opioid crisis on Black, Native American, Hispanic, and white populations in the United States. Fentanyl deaths in particular have skyrocketed for all groups—but far more so in Black communities. Understanding the lasting effects of discrimination is essential, both for grasping the problem and seeking solutions.

Borderline Personality Disorder: A Family Takes Its Caring to the Next Level

Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) affects nearly 6% of Americans at some point in their lives, but research, treatment, and support for the condition lags far behind other serious mental illnesses. Paula Tusiani-Eng and her parents know first-hand what it’s like to live with, and eventually lose, a loved one suffering from BPD. Their story is remarkable not just because of those challenges, but because of what they decided to do next.

Debunked in 3 ½ Minutes: Harmful Myths About Family and Recovery

It can’t be said too often: substance use disorder is a disease. Yet unlike nearly all other diseases, it’s still often treated as a moral failure, or even a lifestyle choice. This short video illustrates this double standard in the starkest terms. It reminds us that showing care, commitment, and understanding to a Loved One with SUD is not just natural, but also the foundation for helping them at all.

Mental Health: Just How Much Have We Got Wrong?

Everyone knows that great ideas can spread. But bad ones can also “hang around so long that you can forget you have the option of questioning them.” In this arresting Ted Talk, the entrepreneur and mental health leader Khaliya takes on some ideas that certainly merit questioning, and make a passionate case for trying to “remove our mental health blinders.”

Material Rewards Can Make Recovery Fun — and Lead To Dramatically Better Outcomes

The research is clear: tangible rewards can greatly improve recovery efforts. Such programs are at last being given a chance. It’s called contingency management: the use of modest but far from trivial rewards for progress toward recovery. And for many suffering from SUD, it works. Now, after decades of resistance in the U.S., the approach is being adopted in states and cities across the country.

The Meaning of Recovery: Five People Share Their Stories

As Allies members know quite well, substance use disorder often throws not just the user, but the entire family unit into turmoil. The documentary “Our American Family” takes an intimate look at one such family in Philadelphia, diving deep into intergenerational addiction and recovery. This review from Psychology Today reflects on the film and the troubled but resilient family it follows. 

Three Common Thinking Traps, and How to Avoid Them 

Our minds have various kinds of natural bias. Fortunately they can be recognized and resisted. Bias affects everyone’s thinking. While it isn’t always a disaster, it can cause serious problems, including misunderstandings and conflict between Loved Ones. In this NPR interview, Yale Professor Woo-kyoung Ahn discusses three of the most common sorts of bias, and how we can train ourselves to counteract them. 

This Documentary That Shows the Whole Family’s Experience with Substance Use

As Allies members know quite well, substance use disorder often throws not just the user, but the entire family unit into turmoil. The documentary “Our American Family” takes an intimate look at one such family in Philadelphia, diving deep into intergenerational addiction and recovery. This review from Psychology Today reflects on the film and the troubled but resilient family it follows. 

On “Mom Guilt” and Self-Compassion

Parents, and especially mothers, often blame themselves for issues their children face — including issues over which the parents have little or no control. Such internalized “mom guilt” can have adverse effects on both parents and children. Amy Paturel’s essay in the Washington Post explores the roots of such feelings and recommends a self-care response.

A Court Ruling That Endangers 130 Million With SUD or Mental Health Challenges

A landmark ruling in 2019 required insurers to define “medical necessity” in accordance with accepted clinical standards. But in 2022, a three-judge panel threw out that ruling, allowing insurance companies to determine coverage by “arbitrary, profit-motivated, and internally developed criteria.” The March 2022 decision allows health insurers to use their own, opaque metrics when deciding who to cover.

Section 35: Playing Russian Roulette with Involuntary Treatment in Massachusetts

While many states use civil commitment, Massachusetts is believed to be the only state in the union that allows family members to file a Section 35 petition and court-order their Loved One to treatment. More often than not, they are sent to treatment inside jails and prisons — even if they haven’t committed any crimes. Family members who ask for involuntary committal call it “Russian Roulette”.

Toxic Moods

We hear a lot about Serenity in recovery programs. For me personally, developing Serenity meant no longer being codependent to four dynamics when they show up around me: Jealousy, spitefulness, moodines and rudeness.

When Does Drinking Moderation Work?

If you’re the family member of someone with a drinking problem, you probably have strong opinions about whether your Loved One can, or ought to, continue drinking. You know by now that it’s not up to you…. Learn more about moderate drinking and read Dominique Simon-Levine's full article on addictionblog.org.

Dr. Drew on Substance Use and Violence

Dr. Drew has published a new article on the connections between substance use and violence.  Drugs and alcohol can both trigger aggression and escalate/increase its severity, so when they intersect in intimate relationships the results can be devastating for everyone involved. 

A Hopeless Patient ?

…looking at my schedule, I remember saying, “Oh HELL no. I’m not seeing this guy. He’s not going to stabilize in an office-based practice.” But he had already paid to hold his appointment slot, so I felt obligated to see him. My plan was to tell him he wasn’t appropriate for an office-based program, and to recommend inpatient treatment, as I had so many times in the past.

Why Some People Swear by Alcoholics Anonymous—And Others Despise It

The 12 steps, first established in the 1930s by Bill Wilson, have now become a powerhouse in the addiction treatment world, with millions of attendees worldwide each year in AA meetings alone. More than 15 million have an alcohol use disorder. Excessive drinking alone is linked to 88,000 deaths each year. So whether one of the most common types of treatment for this disease is actually effective could be a matter of life or death.

How to Talk to Them When They’re Lying

One of the oldest and well known myths is that all substance users have profound character flaws that result in chronic lying.  Lying is a tool that almost everyone uses at one time or another to try and mitigate negative reactions and emotions in others. It’s a human communication strategy that is as old as time itself. 

7 Things a Parent Can Say to a Child Struggling with SUD

Let your child know when they are struggling with substances, that you are still there for them. You will be waiting for them when they are ready to cross the bridge to recovery. Your support can give them the inner strength that they need to start their life anew. Here are some helpful things you can say when your child is struggling with drugs or alcohol. These seven messages would be wonderful for any child to hear.

Can You Get Over an Addiction?

…Research also shows that half of all addictions — with the exception of tobacco — end by age 30, and the majority of people with alcohol and drug addictions overcome it, mostly without treatment. I stopped taking drugs when I was 23. I always thought that I had quit because I finally realized that my addiction was harming me. Opinion column from the NYT.

Opioid-affected Families are Learning to Cope

Joanne Peterson has attended more than 100 funerals for opioid victims, and she long ago learned the words to all the songs she hears at the services. But she no longer attends the wakes. “I could not look at another young person in a casket,” Peterson said. “There are some days when I just start crying.” … read full article here

How to Really Help Someone with Alcoholism

From addictionblog.org, Dominique Simon-Levine guest authors a post: A young woman named Kate came to see us, deeply upset about her mother’s severe alcoholism. As her drinking got worse, her mother had quit a high-paying job as a nurse, and was now almost a complete shut-in. Kate and her brother still lived with their mother, providing food and paying the bills. Read more here…

The End of Hitting Rock Bottom

SHORTLY AFTER 1 A.M. on March 27, Susan Knade awoke to the sound of her cellphone ringing. It was her 21-year-old daughter, Caroline, calling. She was crying. "Please," Caroline said. "Please, come pick me up." Caroline had been kicked out of her halfway house. She was entering heroin withdrawal….. (read more from the Boston Globe)

Alchohol Abuse Among the Elderly

AFTER 50 years of heavy drinking, a 72-year-old woman from Fairfield County was forced to confront her alcoholism when her son threatened to move out of the house he shares with her if she did not stop drinking. "I won't stay here and watch you die," he told her. Read the article on New York Times.

LEAVE A COMMENT / ASK A QUESTION

In your comments, please show respect for each other and do not give advice. Please consider that your choice of words has the power to reduce stigma and change opinions (ie, "person struggling with substance use" vs. "addict", "use" vs. "abuse"...)