Parent Drug Education Talk

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Parent Drug Education Talk

• Campolindo High School April 9, 2009
• Parent Presentation
• Ralph Cantor

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Parent Drug Education Agenda

• Whats out there
• The adolescent brain
• Endorphin model / Reward System
• Marijuana
• Alcohol
• Influencing our children

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Statistics
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Adolescent Brain
Adult Brain
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PreFrontal Cortex

• Parents, therapists and our task
• Sometimes need to act as though they are their
  teenagers frontal cortex . . . talking through
  possibilities and options. They have to function
  like a surrogate set of frontal lobes, an
  auxiliary problem solver.

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Pruning Mylenation

• USE IT OR LOSE IT Reading, sports, music,
  video games, x-box, hanging outwhatever a
  child/teen is doingthese are the neural synapses
  that will be retained and those not worked get
  pruned away
• Those neural synapses that are consistently used
  get hardwired in through mylenation

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Reward System

• The reward system is responsible for seeking
  natural rewards that have survival value
• seeking food, water, sex, and nurturing
• Dopamine is this systems primary neurotransmitter

reward
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Dopamine ReleaseSynaptic Space
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Drugs Hijack the Brains Reward Circuitry

• Immediate effect of drug use is an increase in
  dopamine
• Continued use of drugs reduces the brains
  dopamine production.
• Because dopamine is part of the reward system,
  the brain is fooled that the drug has survival
  value for the organism.
• The reward system responds with drug seeking
  behaviors
• Craving occurs and, eventually, dependence.

reward
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Neuroadaptation

• In direct response to overstimulation, brain
  regions decrease in sensitivity and
  responsiveness. Brain regions become
  unresponsive (deaf) to usual levels of
  stimulation, a process by which the reward and
  pleasure centers of the brain adapt to high
  concentrations of pleasure neurotransmitters
  (tolerance).
• Under unstimulated conditions (without drugs)
  there is profound interference with the ability
  to experience normal pleasure. When sober, the
  user feels anhedonia, anxiety, anger, frustration
  and craving.
• In addition to pleasure neuroadaptation, other
  brain pathways stimulated by drugs also become
  underactive, directly leading to anxiety,
  depression, loss of energy.
• Once neuroadapted, the pleasure system remains
  impaired for months to years, interfering with
  sobriety, learning, and impulse inhibition.

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Dopamine vs. Serotonin

• Dopamine produces a feeling of pleasure
• Serotonin produces a feeling of well being
• Difference between pleasure and happiness (short
  lived vs big picture)
• Developing skills, interest, relationships,
  meaning (getting a life)
• Resiliency

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Marijuana Receptor Sites

• Hippocamus
• Memory, memory, say what, memory
• Amygdala
• Novelty Threshold
• Attention effects
• Motivation
• Sensory input
• Noticing differences

• Cerebellum
• Motor Coordination
• Flow, time ADD
• Basal Ganglia
• Reward system
• The final common pathway for drugs

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Hippocampus

• Gateway between short term and long term memory
• Draws information from long term memory
• Discriminates relevant new information
• Trashes unimportant information
• Stores new information in long term memory

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Concerns with Marijuana

• Intrudes on the ecology of the brain at a crucial
  developmental time having an influence on present
  performance and future functioning
• Hippocampus/Learning
• Ultimately producing opposite results
• Gateway to cigarettes
• Pruning and Neuroadaptation

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Cannabis

• WITHDRAWAL
• Insomnia/nightmares
• Loss of appetite
• Anxiety
• Irritability/anger
• Depression
• Tremor
• Anhedonia

• EFFECTS
• Sleep inducing
• Appetite stimulation
• Induces calm
• Induces mellow feelings
• Elevates mood
• Reduces muscle tone
• Produces pleasure

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Are adolescents more susceptible to alcohol than
adults?
Most certainly YES

• Reduced sensitivity to intoxication
• Increased sensitivity to social disinhibitions
• Greater adverse effects to cognitive functioning

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Alcohol and Teenagers

• Date Rape one to two-thirds of teen sexual
  assaults involve alcohol
• 18 of Females/ 39 Males say it is acceptable
  for a boy to force sex if the girl is stoned or
  drunk
• 40 of children who start drinking before age 15
  will become alcoholics
• In television 9 out of 10 drinkers are portrayed
  as having no effects or only positive outcomes
  from their alcohol consumption

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Whats the big deal about kids drinking anyways???

• Have you ever seen a group of drunk teenagers?
• Demeaning behaviors
• Date rape
• Accidents
• Teenage brain effects before 18 yrs old
• Do we want to continue the level of pain this
  pain and suffering this has caused look what
  have done with cigarette smoking

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Notes for alcohol

• Extent of binge drinking
• The alcohol industry
• Integrated in society
• Shifting gears, events, stress substitute
• Modeling

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Are you at Risk?

• Family history of addiction?
• Do you have a tendency to boredom or ADHD?
• Are you anxious or depressed?
• Have you suffered sexual trauma?
• Do you have an effective way to manage stress?

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Pleasure Scale
NORMAL RANGE
Dysphoria
Euphoria
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Risk of addiction

• How well does the drug work?
• Positive and Negative Reinforcement
• If, in addition to producing pleasure (positive
  reinforcement), a drug is more addicting, if it
  relieves negative states boredom, anxiety,
  depression or stress (negative reinforcement).

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Promoting Resilience

• Positive relationship with an adult
• Positive peer group activities
• Involvement in faith-based activities
• Participation in Drama or Music or Dance
• Taking care of pets
• Volunteer activities
• Finding pleasure in daily activities

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Talk to your child

• I care, I see, I feel, Listen
• Clear expectations and consequences
• Communication Monitoring
• Integrity Self Assessment Modeling
• Teen-proof your home
• Connection

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Prevention Factors

• Supportive family (tuned in, time together,
  supervision, fair rules/boundaries)
• Non using peers and role models
• Youth are connected (school, activities)
• Social Skills
• Resiliency (coping with stress, celebration)

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Important Website

• What to do if you suspect your child is using
  drugs or alcohol?
• What to do if you know your child is using drugs
  or alcohol?
• http//timetoact.drugfree.org

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Self Assessment

• Andrew Weil Unhealthy relationship
• Ignorance that the substance is a drug and what
  it does to the body
• Loss of desired effect w/increasing frequency
• Difficulty separating from the drug
• Impairment of health or social function

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Bibliography / References

• Marijuana Whats a Parent to Believe? Tim
  Cermak 2003, Hazelden
• Uppers, Downers, All Arounders Darryl Inaba
  1997, CNS Publications
• Alcohol Whats a Parent to Believe?
• Stephen Biddulph, 2004, Hazelden
• Alex Stalcup New Leaf Treament Center NLTC.com

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Contact Information

• Ralph Cantor
• Alameda County Office of Education
• Drug and Violence Prevention
• [phone]
• rjcantor_at_aol.com