Dealing with substance abuse can range from prevention to intervention through different treatment options. It's important for caring adults to understand the different levels of drug use and know how to provide appropriate help at each stage.

Although we've broken down the levels into different stages, its important to know that the divisions are not as solid. They can easily blend into one another.

Three Levels of Substance Abuse

Before Use Starts through Experimental Usage—This level of drug use ranges from abstinence or non-use through low-level use, which includes using one or two times.

Prevention
In addition to keeping in touch and getting involved with your children, you can learn what different drugs are being used and what those drugs do to the body.

For more specific information on Keeping Your Kids Drug Free, click here to download a booklet from the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

Social Use Through Substance Abuse—This level of drug use ranges from using in social settings (e.g., weekend parties), through using more than once a week, up to daily use.

Intervention
Learn more—As a caring adult, you can learn about the signs, symptoms, and effects that come with drug use to help you understand what's going on with the youth in your life.

Reinforce expectations—Reinforcing expectations that drug use is not tolerated and that appropriate consequences will be implemented is also very important at this stage.

Get help!—Getting assistance from professionals like a school counselor, a workplace Employee Assistance Program, or other drug-related community organizations will create opportunities to learn more about the situation, provide more support, and help you be prepared to access other services if necessary. Click here to access Aloha United Way's 211, a searchable database to help you find more local drug-related resources in Hawai'i.

Peer support—Talk with other adults or parents you trust and support each other as you go through the tumultuous adolescent years along with the children in your lives. Hearing other people's experiences can help caring adults and parents not feel so alone in dealing with these kinds of challenges.

Abuse and Addiction—What separates addiction from abuse is that an addicted person continues to use drugs even though the person suffers strong negative consequences. This includes losing privileges at home, getting suspended at school, or getting fired from work. This is an example of the "loss of control" that is a distinguishing characteristic of addiction and it moves addiction beyond a matter of willpower to a medical condition such as heart disease.

Treatment
Professional help is needed at this stage. The addicted person will resist assistance and will often deny having a problem. Letting the addicted person suffer the consequences of their actions is one way to overcome the resistance. Ultimately, the addicted person must desire to change in order for any intervention to be successful, but its not easy to admit that you have something wrong with you. Treatment professionals can provide more information about this.

Whether the addicted person gets help or not, those who are involved in the addicted person's life should also seek help. When people have an addicted person in their life, everyone is affected by the addicted person's behavior. Learning more about the addicted person's behaviors, their effects, and having appropriate ways to deal with the challenging situations that come up is very helpful for dealing with an addicted person's behaviors.

Click here to find local treatment resources through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's (SAMHSA's) Treatment Facility Locator.