No parent wants to realize their child is using drugs. But, knowing what signs to look for helps you help them. Here’s how to tell if your child is using drugs.

It’s natural for parents to worry about their children, from whether they’re eating right and getting enough sleep to who their friends are and can they be trusted. However, one issue parents seem to be particularly concerned about, and justifiably so, is drugs and alcohol.

There has been a rash of prescription abuse since the 1990s. The question is how to tell if your child is using drugs. Teenagers go through a lot, some of it natural, some stress-related, and some may even be due to something more troubling, so it’s best to know what to look for.

We’ll break down some of the warning signs in the paragraphs below.

1. Eyes

A lot of drug use can be identified by the state of the eyes. For instance, certain substances, such as cocaine and marijuana, will make your pupils larger. Please note that this is especially true for cocaine.

Pupils will expand drastically in response to cocaine use until the colored iris turns into little more than a tiny ring of color around the gigantic pupil.

Heroine, on the other hand, will cause your pupils to shrink. The pupils may be slower to react to light, so shining a light on them might help.

Keep in mind, strange-looking eyes and pupils don’t absolutely mean drug use, but they are a potential sign.

2. Smell

Smell is one of the most important senses in our body, and it’s quite useful in this context. Certain drugs, such as alcohol or marijuana, can often be smelled on a person’s breath.

In many cases, these smells may be on their clothes or in their cars. The good news is that the drugs that do have smells often have distinct ones, so this is a more telling way to see if your teen has been using drugs or alcohol or has been around someone who has.

3. Clumsiness

People who return from a night of heavy drinking or drug use will often appear uncoordinated. They may fall over frequently or bump into things. It’s also possible that their speech will be slurred and confused.

Their clumsiness, if they are using a lot, may lead to a lot of unexplained injuries. There are a few kinds of injuries that you should specifically be looking out for, like frequent bloody noses or track marks on their arms.

If drops of blood are showing up on their walls, this should also be noted, as it is often a side effect of intravenous drug use.

4. Sickness

Sickness is more common among drug users, so if your teen is sick a lot, this may be a sign of drug use. Some symptoms to look for include nausea, vomiting, sweating, headaches, constipation, runny nose, and even unexplained seizures.

5. Decline in Self Care

As the drug begins to take hold of their lives, many teens will suffer from a very noticeable decline. They may bathe less frequently, or shave and brush teeth less frequently.

Their clothes may not be washed. Their grades may slip. Job performance may suffer. You may find that they’re lazier and less interested in things they used to love.

6. Another Side of the Coin

One thing to note when searching for signs of drug use is that drugs aren’t necessarily the only explanation. A lot of teenagers may just be lashing out and rebelling, while others may be using drugs, and still others may be dealing with something entirely different.

Many of the symptoms mentioned above could also be a sign of emerging mental illness. Many of these conditions first appear when a patient reaches adolescence or young adulthood. Many of these illnesses may even lead to drug use, often because the sufferer is attempting to medicate for their condition.

There’s no definite answer for how to tell if your child is using drugs, but you’ll need to be there for them no matter what they’re going through. If they’re using heroine, for instance, you’ll want to know the best opiate detox center, and you’ll need to get them into it.

Drugs or not, though, it’s always best to have them talk to a counselor. Even if they are sober and healthy, growing up is tough and we could all use someone to talk to every now and then.

How to Tell if Your Child is Using Drugs

We can only give you some advice on how to tell if your child is using drugs. At the end of the day, it’s a process that’s going to require a bit of investigation, a lot of patience, and all the love you’ve got. It’s a difficult thing to get through, but together you can do it.

If you want more life advice, please visit our site. We can tell you about therapy dogs and how they affect recovering addicts. We can also tell you about some of the most important medical tests for a woman to take, whether you need to undergo them yourself or remind your wife about them.

Published: 2018-11-02 12:33:52