NOT MY KID: A Family's Guide to Kids and Drugs

by Beth & Miller Newton Polson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 1984

Responsible, realistic hard-line guidance for parents of kids with drug problems (as distinct from the hard-line findings in Robert DuPont's Get Tough on Gateway Drugs, above). Newton, a ""clinical drug therapist,"" has not only treated several thousand affected children, he has a son with a serious drug dependency. Parents who delude themselves get no quarter: ""Parent Denial is the world's best drug defense mechanism. It (a) keeps you from having to face the problem, (b) keeps the family name intact, and (c) allows you to go on being 'the world's best parent.' "" After describing the various forms parental denial can take (which may include actually enabling drug use), Poison and Newton turn to ""Kid Denial"": ""drugs aren't my problem""; ""I take them because my parents, or school, or the world is so awful."" The authors insist that drugs themselves are the problem, not a symptom of other ills; and that top priority is to get the child off drugs--other problems can wait. A treatment program, they specify, should offer a drug-free environment (not substituting legal for illegal drugs), peers as counselors and as co-patients (who ""can identify the pain and hurt of drug use""), attention to repairing past damage done by drugs, ways of establishing a child's self-worth, help for family members, and new drug-free coping mechanisms for the future. A chapter on prevention emphasizes the responsibilities of parents as role models and in setting a family attitude toward drug use. The best overall family guide is still Stephen J. Levy's Managing the ""Drugs"" In Your Life (1983), which helps readers make their own decisions. But this could be just the ticket for parents suddenly confronted with a nightmarish situation and convinced that they have to get tough.

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1984

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Arbor House

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1984

Categories: NONFICTION