The Lifeworks Group, Inc.

Brian M. Murray, M.S., IMH A nightmare scenario for a parent can be the day they discover their teenager is using drugs. Upon this discovery the parent will often question themselves as to how this happened and may even begin to question their parenting skills. One of the best things a parent can do is to equip themselves with knowledge of what teen drug use looks like. If a teen is caught using drugs know that there are several factors involved with them using. Teenage years are often a time of exploration, hormonal changes and what psychologist Erik Erikson in his psychosocial stages of development identifies as identity versus role confusion. They are trying to figure out the world, who they are and their place in it. Drug use is often best resolved if it is treated like an open wound. Find out what they are medicating. What kind of life situational issues are they trying to resolve through the use of drugs? Sometimes it is simply a choice. Like any adult who suffers fr...

By Chris Hammond, MS, IMH Have you ever watched someone struggle with answering a simple open ended statement such as, “Tell me about yourself”?   They seem to get lost often looking like a deer caught in the headlights and respond with confusion, “Well, what do you mean?”   Or “What do you want to know?”   Occasionally they may even give with overly generic statements that by the end you still have no idea who this person is in front of you.   Their struggle is not because they don’t know how to answer as much as it is because they really don’t know who they are and how they fit in with society. These adults have not yet mastered Erik Erikson’s fifth psychosocial stage of development called Identity vs. Confusion.   During the years of twelve to eighteen, most teenagers begin the search for who they are in comparison to the other adult and peer influences in their lives.   Around twelve years old, a teen develops the cognitive ability to criti...