Custom term paper on Treatment for Delinquent Juveniles

The extensive use of alcohol and drugs by teenagers may cause very serious depression. And that in its turn may lead a person to a suicide. As researches of the 2008 show, 2.3 million people made suicide plans, 1.1 million people attempted suicide, 0.9 million people made plans and attempted suicide, and 0.2 million people made no plans and attempted suicide (Office of Applied Studies). Suicide is a real risk for those people who suffer from depression. It is not easy to cure depression, but the effective combination of talk therapy and antidepressants may help. Antidepressants help a person in the following way: they increase the amount of the chemical serotonin and thereby facilitate the process of communication between the neurons in the human brain. Most adults prefer to use antidepressants if necessary, and it usually helps to cure depression. Unfortunately in the case with young people antidepressants only are not enough. “The teenage years are full of turmoil, emotions and hormonal changes, and there are family conflicts and conflicts with relationships that can contribute to distress in adolescents, and antidepressant medications may not be able to deal with all of those problems” (Neighmond, 2008). The special subdivision of psychotherapy – the cognitive behavior therapy – must be an integral part of the treatment. It appears to be very helpful if it concerns the treatment of adolescents. The reason to it is that it targets a person’s thinking and feeling in that particular way that a medicine cannot provide. What is especially good about the cognitive behavior therapy is that it particularly aims at suicidal thinking of a youngster. Unfortunately the general idea most people have about depression is that it just makes a person sad. But that is a very serious delusion that may cause a lot of trouble. Depression can cause more serious consequences that just sadness: a person feels himself or herself useless, unlovable, worthless, no good and, of course, a loser. Besides the most extreme cognitive symbol inherent in depression is the suicidal way of thinking, when a person really believes that being dead is the best way to avoid feeling anything that causes pain. That kind of thinking is challenged by the cognitive therapy. It helps the patient to see the world in an optimistic way, not to forget that you are not a loser, but a happy person, who can do a lot of things that will do good for many people around.

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That treatment makes an adolescent feel that he is successful both with friends and at school. The essence of this method is that a youngster is challenged with reality and his or her dysfunctional beliefs are corrected in the way that changes their thoughts in the positive direction.
Family influence of delinquency of an adolescent can be tremendous (Family Has Most Important Influence on Young Adults). Unfortunately a youngster may start taking drugs because of his parents’ breakup, their indifferent relation to him or her (even the complete neglect of a youngster’s personality). Different conflicts and misunderstanding within the family may also result in addiction. Besides, deviance may cause the same effect. All these factors may contribute to a young person’s decision to solve his problems with the help of alcohol and drugs. Sometimes inattentive parents may push their child to choose the wrong way in his or her life.
We live in a highly stressed and complex world. Unfortunately not every member of our society is able to cope with the high speed of life, of many changes and difficulties. Sometimes youngsters find this world especially difficult and incomprehensible. They are very often told by the adults that alcohol, tobacco and various drugs are very harmful for human health. On the other hand adults themselves show their children the bad example. Mass media try to instill the idea that alcohol and drugs may lead to death. Still numerous advertisements demonstrate that smoking and drinking makes a person self-confident, independent and cool. There is no wonder that youngsters get confused on these opposite ideas of alcohol and drug abuse and therefore they make wrong conclusions very often. Most teens usually start using drugs out of a mere curiosity. They actually believe that they will be able to stop anytime with no difficulties. There are many reasons as to why adolescents may use drugs (Youth and drug use): sometimes there is no reason to it; sometimes young people are bored and have nothing to do; sometimes they feel isolated and want to relax; they may also follow the example of their friends. The problem is that the earlier a child starts taking drugs, the more problems it is going to raise. Drug abuse can influence a person’s physical, emotional and mental development. Being not yet grown-ups they cannot calculate the possible admissible dose. The continued drug abuse may lead to dependence that is very difficult to cure. Besides, the more a person is addicted, the more difficult it is to cure him or her. Sometimes it appears to be next to impossible. A lot of reaches are conducted in the sphere of drug usage by youngsters. The results of these researches may help to prevent the spreading of the problem among adolescents and to elaborate prevention programs and to focus attention on prevention efforts. Thus, according to the research of 2008 (Office of Applied Studies), 2.9 million adolescents aged 12 and older initiated drug use: 56.6% chose marijuana; 22.5% preferred pain relievers; 9.7% – inhalants; 3.2% – tranquilizers; 3.2% – hallucinogens; 3.0% – stimulants; 0.8% – cocaine; 0.8% – sedatives; and only 0.1% chose heroin.