Bath Salts and K2

Do you even know what these things are? I didn't until I spent some time with our substance abuse counselor at the hospitaI I work for. K2 is the legal marijuana you may have heard about. It is an incense, sold at smoke shops across the country legally. Kids smoke it and reportedly get a high from it. This has not been tested and we no idea what this is doing to the kids and adults who use this stuff. We do know that it does not show up on drug screens. Our recent news reported a recent death of a young man who regularly used K2. Some states are moving to make it illegal. Bath salts is another such substance of abuse. It is not the bath salts you buy at Walmart that makes your bath watter so luxurious. Bath salts’ contain powerful stimulants methadone and methylenedioxypyrovalerone, also called MDPV, and there have been scattered reports across the country of drug-induced deaths accidental overdose or suicide. these little packets of powder carrying names like Ivory Wave, Bliss, White Lightning, Hurricane Charlie and Vanilla Sky are akin to synthetic cocaine or methamphetamine – and very dangerous. Several states have moved to make MDPV illegal. There have been tests created to test for these substances, but currently they are prohibitively expensive. The American Association of Poison Control has created a link to information about bath salts. http://www.aapcc.org/dnn/Portals/0/prrel/BathSalts11811.pdf

It is painfully obvious that kids will try anything to get a different feeling than what they are experiencing. Children as young as 7 and 8 are being introduced to these substances during times of critical brain development. There are no studies on the effects of substances like these on the brains of children. There is much concern expressed over the use of psychotropic drugs for children. Perhaps we should focus more on what the kids may be using that we have never heard of in addition to the other things. We think we are seeing the results of abuse of these two items on our units. Kids become very aggressive and violent, breaking doors and windows. If we do not ask them if they have ever used this stuff, chances are they won't tell us on their own. Anytime a drug is prescribed for a child, the physician must know what else they are taking in order to prevent an adverse drug to drug interaction .  Bottom line, there will always be new things for kids to use to get high. We need to stay on top of these types of things and watch for unusual behavior in our kids.

Community of Healing or Despair

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I tend to post things about kids and their travels through the difficult years to adult hood when things really get weird. The absolute worst period for a child is middle school years. It is so bad they actually created separate schools just for this age group! Remember back in the day when they were in with the elementary schools kids? In looking at kids who are hitting this dramatic time in their lives, we must also look at the bigger picture of the community. What does the community give these kids as role models and attitudes about health, wellness and compassion? I added compassion specifically because of the over whelming  urge to find some one's weakness and hammer on it until they break. Kids will do what they see as being the accepted norm. Maybe parents are not engaging in belittling behaviors but look at the rest of the community. Look at the tv ads, the magazine articles.. or just the headlines at the checkout stand. We tend to sensationalize people's despair. We talk about the latest star to go to rehab like it is a sign of weakness. No wonder people are afraid to even consider the possibility of a mental health issue or a drug and alcohol problem. We as a community should be supporting people who recognize they need help. no matter what the thing is they are seeking help for. We should be secure enough to know that there are diseases of the brain just like there are disease of the heart or thyroid glad. The strength to realize that you or a child of yours requires help you are not capable of giving them is a sign of deep care and love for that person... especially if the person is you. I listen to kids everyday. They talk about how bad they feel because they aren't as good as they should be. They aren't as talented as they should be, not as smart, pretty, athletic, cool.. the list is lengthy. The despair these kids feel in tangible. And they feel that no one is listening or cares. They talk about their parents and how hard it is to talk to them. They are genuinely fearful of telling their parents they feel like hurting themselves or dying all the time.  They are afraid of being sent to a mental hospital. The over riding fear associated with this is what will people think? If you need to be locked up, then you are crazy, bananas, wacko, whatever the current term is. If you drink too much and take drugs, you are cool at first, then just a really bummer person to be around. If you get help then you are not fun anymore cause you don't drink or smoke anymore. The community as a whole needs to promote people getting help. It needs to celebrate recovery from all diseases in a grand fashion. We have walks for cancer survivors. They wear pink ribbons and proclaim their years of recovery in a very public forum. Where is the forum for recovery from mental illness or substance abuse? Where are the runs and parties and balloons? Did you know there is a walk every year for people who have lost someone to suicide? It happens all across the country and it is called  the Out of Darkness walk. NAMI has a walk to promote mental illness as a treatable malady that people do recover from. Clarity Child Guidance Center in San Antonio had their first ever Pinwheel Run for Hope to bring a level of focus to the fact that kids have mental health needs that we are not recognizing, and to raise money to treat kids who don't have insurance or are under insured when it comes to metal health. There are grass roots organizations that are working to destroy the stigma that surrounds these diseases and brig them into main stream health discussions, just like obesity and diabetes. It is time we all join in this fight. It is time that we as  community, support all efforts to be healthy both physically and mentally. It is time for open and honest talking with our kids about what to do if you feels like dying, or if you are too anxious to be able to concentrate, or you have been experimenting with drugs and think it might be a problem. It is time to help our kids create a community they can be proud of and participate in. It is time for us to stand up for our own well being. We re the problem so lets be the solution too.

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Here's a Kids Story. Is she someone you know?

I have told you stories about how we can impact children by helping them with what they have to deal with in today's world. Today, I decided to give you a snapshot of one of these kids and what it is she has to cope everyday. Leslie is a precocious 8 year old with long dark curls and beautifully curly lashes. She is bright and can sing like an angel, which she enjoys. It is one of her few joys, she says. She also has just been admitted to the hospital for cutting her wrist, so deep she needed 24 stitches and a blood transfusion. Leslie was the child of addicts. From the time she was a toddler, her daddy injected her with crystal meth, cocaine and variety of other drugs. Then he raped her from the time she was 4, every day, until just a few weeks ago when she went to live with a foster family. She remembers the nights especially. The smells, the sounds and the pain. She also remembers the blood. There was a lot of blood. She learned not to cry and scream because it only made it worse for her. Things got shoved in her mouth if she made too much noise. So she learned to leave her body while this was happening. She learned that pain can be overcome by "checking out" as she calls it. But she said you have to come back sometime. And it gets too real too fast. When the pressure of her life gets too much for her little shoulders and mind to bear, she cuts. The blood is sanctifying and washes away the dirt. She has few friends. Everyone knows there is something different about her, but they have no idea really just how deep it goes. She is haunted by pieces of memories that are too horrible to talk about right now. She can't see anything past where she has already been. She needs counseling and intense therapy. She needs to know she is more than the sum of what was done to her.She needs to know that does not have to define her life. She needs to be able to do that at her own pace and with loving support from at least one person she can learn to trust. She has just learned that she will always be susceptible to addiction, because she was not able to grow up learning how to deal with normal feelings without substances clouding her perceptions. She knows her kids may have th same possible probelm with addiction. She has trouble sometimes figuring out what is real. This may sound like an extreme case to you, but these are the kids I see everyday, either at the clinic, in juvenile custody or on the streets selling themselves for rent. These kids are the forgotten ones. Meanwhile a battle rages in the mental health profession over what is the priority to treat, substance abuse or psychiatric issues. I have a news flash. They are both equally important and substance abuse by children, even if it was forced upon them by direct ingestion or by growing up in a crack house has just a big a place in treatment as bipolar and depression. But take a quick look at the availability of effective substance abuse interventions for kids from the age of 10-18. In my area there are relatively none. What does that say about just how well the industry is keeping up with what the community needs? I think we can all agree kids are in desperate need of help in all aspects of their lives. Substance abuse deserves an equal amount of money and attention in treating a child. After all wellness included the entire body, mind and soul. Total wellness cannot be achieved with anything less. My challenge to you is to let your city officials know we need to get kids treatment for drug issues as well as mental health issues. If we can bail out GM and AIG we can surely spend a few hundred million dollars on saving our kids. Aren't they worth it?