The 12 Steps for Teens

Adapting 12 Step Programs For Teenagers Twelve-step programs can be extremely helpful for teens who are struggling with addiction or who are on the road to becoming addicted, but they are more useful if they are adapted to the particular needs of adolescents, according to an expert on teenage addiction. “These programs were developed for adults, and teenagers are not little adults—they are in a totally different developmental stage,” says Steven Jaffe, MD. Dr. Jaffe, who has spent the past 25 years working to modify 12-step programs to make them developmentally meaningful for teenagers, spoke about his work at the recent American Society of Addiction Medicine conference. “These programs are free, they’re everywhere, they provide big brothers and sisters as sponsors, and they offer recovering friends,” he notes. “That’s really important, because if teens go back to their friends who use drugs or alcohol, they will start using again, too.” Often, teens who are treated for substance use disorders are simply told to go to 12-step meetings. “You can’t just tell them to go, and leave it at that,” Dr. Jaffe says. “They have tremendous anxiety about going, so you need to link them with a sponsor who will take them to a meeting, or else they won’t go.” Just getting them to the meetings may not be enough, however. Some of the basic concepts of 12-step programs may be troublesome for teenagers, according to Dr. Jaffe. The first step talks about being powerl...
Source: Twelve Step Facilitation.com - Category: Addiction Authors: Tags: 12-Step Groups Addiction Alcoholism Contrast to other models Drugs Loss of control Recovery Target populations adolescents Programs For Teenagers Source Type: blogs