However, some of the most trying times come when parents realize that their troubled teens are struggling with addiction. While any teen can fall into this pattern of toxic behavior, adopted troubled teens are often hit harder by the destruction – and as deep and wide as parental love can be, adopted adolescents simply don’t view life from the same perspective. So, with so much as stake, you may be wondering, “How can I help my adopted child?” Aside from loving them unconditionally, it’s the methods of treatment you choose that can make a difference.
For those curious about what it’s like to be the mother of an adopted teen with addiction, there is just one word to describe it: heartbreaking. You can love them, support them, and try to keep them safe, but there are complex issues that go along with being adopted.
As adopted adolescents begin to move the normal changes that teenagers do, parents may see changes in their adopted teens that they have no control over. Your teenager may begin to feel a sense of abandonment, have trust issues, or indulge in negative behavior that ends in substance abuse – all of which you may have read about in literature provided by adoption agencies or other sources. But, reading never prepares you well enough for reality. No matter how prepared you think you are to tackle any tendencies for addiction or mental health issues, when reality hits, it’s painful.
As the addiction takes hold, you watch your adopted teen slowly self-destruct. You feel a sense of helplessness, fear, and desperation as you try traditional therapy and treatment programs… one after the other, over and over. It’s then that the mother in you begins to believe that maybe as an adoptive parent, you just didn’t do enough – but, it’s not true.
How Can I Help My Adopted Child?
Parental love is unconditional, and there’s no way to determine the extent of a teen’s troubles until they are worked through. So, as a mother, if your struggling teen is having trouble with addiction, it’s important to realize that their addiction may be more of a symptom or co-occurring issue than the main problem. They may have deeper psychological, social, or emotional issues that they need both parental support and professional therapy to deal with, and the methods of treatment you’ve tried? Well, perhaps they just didn’t factor in the additional complications that adopted adolescents face.
So where can you get help for your adopted teen? There is no better place for treatment than Three Points Center. As a treatment center created exclusively to provide help for adoptive families, they provide holistic, compassionate treatment that focuses on strengthening the family system as well as struggling teens themselves. Three Points knows that love knows no limits or boundaries. They are the one place that can mend your family and truly help your teen heal.