{"id":693308,"date":"2022-07-27T10:01:00","date_gmt":"2022-07-27T14:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.the74million.org\/?post_type=article&p=693308"},"modified":"2022-07-27T13:54:40","modified_gmt":"2022-07-27T17:54:40","slug":"amid-spike-in-teen-drinking-during-pandemic-schools-turn-to-alateen-for-help","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/www.the74million.org\/article\/amid-spike-in-teen-drinking-during-pandemic-schools-turn-to-alateen-for-help\/","title":{"rendered":"Amid Spike in Teen Drinking During Pandemic, Schools Turn to Alateen For Help"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Life lines in Austin: Combatting the teen mental health crisis \u2014 After two years of fear and isolation among teens across the country, suicide attempts among adolescents are up along with substance abuse rates. Anger and despair are palpable in middle and high school hallways, students say, as the pandemic\u2019s youth mental health crisis rages. But counselors, mentors, and teachers in Austin, Texas, have developed a plan, strategically deploying resources targeting suicide, teen alcoholism, social isolation. The approach is working. Teens and adults say they  are seeing glimmers of hope. In this series The 74 looks at three pre-pandemic programs offering lifelines to students<\/a> in their late-pandemic distress. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Teenagers drinking, always a concern for adults, continued along a different and more troubling trend during the pandemic: Instead of drinking to fit in, teens were drinking alone to dull the pain. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overall teen drug and alcohol use held steady<\/a> during the pandemic\u2014for every readily available liquor cabinet there was a canceled party\u2014but  in one study<\/a> teens self-reported a change in where, why, and with whom they drink. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Rather than a social behavior, teens were, like their struggling parents, drinking alone to cope with emotional pandemic fallout.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Austin, educators are looking to address not only the despair and frustration driving kids to drink in isolation, but the effects of living in a home where parents or siblings are also drinking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201c(The stress of living with an alcoholic) has been a very unmet need, a gap in services,\u201d said Tara Domasco, a social worker with Communities in Schools who co-sponsors the Crockett High School Alateen meeting. \u201cThen you add the pandemic on top.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the spring, Crockett co-sponsor Ginger Gannaway gave the high schoolers a writing prompt. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJust for tonight\u2026\u201d the prompt read. They finished the sentences with their own mantras, goals for their personal recovery. Shared anonymously in keeping with the program\u2019s pledge, the final products paint a poignant picture of the teens\u2019 struggles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJust for tonight I won\u2019t let other people\u2019s opinions matter to me. I\u2019m strong enough for what\u2019s coming tomorrow.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJust for tonight I\u2019ll try not to get mad at my mom.  I\u2019ll forgive her for not choosing me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJust for tonight I will love myself and know that I can overcome what\u2019s to come in the future knowing that I survived my past.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJust for tonight\u201d is a modification of the popular 12-step mantra \u201cjust for today,\u201d encouraging alcoholics, narcotics abusers, and their loved ones to confront addiction one day at a time. Alateen is designed for young people living with addicts, but many of them have begun using alcohol and drugs themselves. The children of alcoholics are four times more likely to become alcoholics themselves, according to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n