A Santa Clarita drug expert is stressing the importance of talking to kids about drugs and alcohol, but when the kids have questions, is honesty the best policy when it comes to talking to them about your past drug abuse?
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“There are two ways to talk to your kids about drugs,” explains Cary Quashen from Action Family Counseling in Santa Clarita. “If you talk about your past drug use in a way that glamorizes it, it could backfire and encourage drug use.”
The fear of encouraging drug abuse or looking like a hypocrite can hold many parents back from being honest, but it’s all about presentation, according to Quashen.
“If you talk about it in a way that is honest about your past drug use, emphasizing that fact that they were mistakes,” Quashen said, “and you don’t want your kids to make the same ones, they might not.”
Some parents think that they experimented with drugs and they were fine and that their kids can do the same, according to Quashen.
“It’s a different age now, drugs are very different in this generation,” Quashen said. “No one may even really know what is in the synthetic drugs on the street now.”
It may be even more important to be honest with kids that they come from a family that has battled drug abuse or alcoholism — and stress the importance of being cognizant of how there can be a genetic predisposition to the disease.
“I’m an open book with my kids when it comes to the mistakes I’ve made with drugs and alcohol,” Quashen said. “I explain to them that I really got lucky, and that my life could have been a lot different.”
Parents should start having a conversation with their kids about drugs and alcohol at a young age, Quashen said. The conversation will change and evolve as they get older.
“To keep our kids off of drugs, we have to seriously educate our kids about drugs and alcohol,” Quashen said, “and that conversation should start at home.”
To see a video with more information, watch it here.
CNN contributed to this story.
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what is a good age to tell your son about your past? My son is nine. I asked him what an alcoholic is and he didn’t know. So should I wait till he is older or is now a good time?