Is Your Kid an Addict?
By: Christine Hammond, LMHC According to The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, 4 out of every 25 people over the age of 12 have an addiction. When six addicts are put together, one of them will have a multiple addiction problems. This means that for every standard classroom size of 25, there are 4 middle/high school kids who are already an addict. This does not include those who will develop addiction in later years. What is an addiction? According to the DSM-V, the word addiction is no longer clinically used. Rather, it has been replaced with Substance Use Disorder or Substance-Induced Disorder. Each individual substance (like alcohol) is further divided into use, intoxication or withdrawal with specific criterion for each. Some common characteristics of a substance use disorder (addiction) include: · Having to take the substance (like drugs) in greater amounts to achieve the same desired effect (high). · Attempts to reduce the intake a