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Teenage Drug Addictions Teenaged addicts live in a world much different from the world of the other teenagers. It is not a small world. There are millions of teen addiction cases in the world because of drugs, which include heroine and cocaine and also, alcohol. Their lives are filled with violence and powerful emotions. Their fears and their tears are hidden from those people around them. According to the research of The Health and Human Services, drug use by adults rose from a low of 5.3% in 1992 to 10.9% in 1995 (Anonymous, 1996), and one study from the Drug Abuse Warning Network showed that the number of people who used drugs in twelfth grade increased 20% (Selleck, 2002). There are many reasons behind this problem, especially in United States, and it is impossible to give one single answer because the reasons are complex and differ from teen to teen. The causes can be classified into four categories: parents, peers or friends, social pressures, and governmental policies. First of all, In American families there are many single parents who must work very long hours to support their children. As a result, the children are sent to day care centers and are often cared for by strangers. This causes the children to feel depressed, lonely, and isolated because the parent is absent; the parent is unable to provide a good model for her or his kids. Children learn by example, and when their parents are not there, the children learn from television programs or their friends. As a result, the children do not learn good morals and ethics. An example about Heidi’s family can prove that idea. Heidi’s mother was usually at bars, discos, and at clubs more often than at home and she thought having fun was very important; otherwise, why spend more time having fun than at home with her daughters. Because of that, Heidi tried to use ecstasy, and then she got addicted (Selleck, 2002). Another thing, when the children see their parents smoking or drinking alcohol every evening to change their mood or to be happy, or when one or both of the parents are addicted, the children and other family members become victims. The children get a strong message that using these bad things is acceptable. Also, fighting among parents creates unhappiness, resentfulness, anxiety, depression, and extreme stress, so Children often use drugs in order to escape. Moreover, the divorce of their parents also makes the children be shocked because they are used to living with their parents and suddenly they lose one of them. They lose not only fathers or mothers but also the mothers’ love, the fathers’ love or both. They think that from now then no one will take care of them.
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