Why People Abuse Stimulants

Jamie's parents had been fighting a lot lately. She could hear them shouting after she'd gone to bed, when they thought she was asleep. If her dad came to see her basketball games, he sat in a different section, far from her mother. Jamie just knew they would be getting a divorce.

---

---

She was afraid that her father would leave and she'd never see him again. Jamie wished she had a brother or sister to talk to, but she was all alone.

A girl she rode the bus with asked her what was wrong. “I just have a lot on my mind,” Jamie said, looking out the window.

“I have something that will clear your mind,” the girl said. She pulled some pills out of her backpack and handed them to Jamie. “These will make you feel better.”

Things have been so bad, Jamie thought, that these pills can't hurt.

There are many reasons why addiction can go hand in hand with family problems. Teens may turn to drugs to escape unhappiness at home. In some families, drugs may be abused by a parent. Parents may even supply their teenagers with drugs, or leave drugs where the teens can find them.

Drug abuse may be a family's way of coping with problems. Some families never talk about or deal with problems. Instead, they turn to drugs in order to forget. But drugs only make things worse.