Teach Teens to Understand Pain

Heroin

(Source: www.teendrugsrehab.com)
Kids in sports?  Injuries in sports addiction to opiates?   Yikes.
(Source: CDC, https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugfacts/prescription-over-counter-medications)

That's the latest on young people who become addicted to opiates.  Before they go begging for the street stuff, it all starts in the medical offices.

Teenagers who play sports get hurt.  It happens.  It is a given.  Sports medicine is a big niche now.  Colleges are giving out scholarships based on sports performance.  It's an exciting time for a kid.  And also full of pressure.

If you read the news reports, teenagers are given pretty strong pain meds to help them get through an injury.  Just one taste is all it takes.  

The brain is delicate for all of us. We should be respecting our brains.  But for children, the brain is in constant development up to age 25.  The brain is still immature developmentally for quite a long time.  The wiring is still primitive you could say.

Look at very young children.  They  want want want all day long.  They need parents to keep their desires in check.  A child that doesn't know how to share needs to learn by having toys taken away and given to another child.  A child that only wants cookies needs to not have cookies.

When it comes to children and pain, we don't want them to hurt.  Most children are lucky enough to get to adolescence without major diseases or injuries.  They don't know what serious pain feels like.  When they do experience pain, they need to be reassured that it is a normal part of the healing process and they need to patiently wait it out.

Caution here.  I did say "normal" pain.  The kind that is not ominous.  It's not cancer or a stoke.  But a sprained ankle does hurt, so does wisdom teeth surgery and conservative precautions can be taken while the body mends itself.

The prescription option for teenagers should not be necessary.  Basically we need to teach our children to handle pain.  There is no quick fix.  We need to teach our children to live in a tough world.

It's been a hard lesson for some.  Young people have died because their brains were exposed to a strong addictive chemical and they just couldn't get enough.  Cherish the brain.