HOW TO COPE WITH A TEENAGE DRINKER

by Gary C. Forrest ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 21, 1983

A distinctly clinical tone prevails in this dry, perfunctory handling of a difficult problem--a tone recognizable from psychologist Forrest's similarly and perhaps more appropriately astringent How to Live with a Problem Drinker and Survive (1980). ""Whenever one family member manifests a serious drinking problem, the entire family system begins to have serious emotional, interactional, and communicative problems,"" Forrest notes. But it's ""absurd and ultimately self-defeating"" for parents of teenage drinkers to experience sleep disturbances and other stress symptoms. Instead, new roles and rules can be established within the family to help it function more healthily, and ultimately support the recovery of the teenage alcoholic. Before outlining these, Forrest briefly discusses teenage drinking patterns, why teens drink (family habits play a part, but so does physical make-up); and signs of abuse (a sudden decline in school performance is often first). He also takes a quick look at treatment options (""a good place to begin is in the Yellow Pages of your phone book""), and then sets out some unexceptional guidelines: ""stop taking physical or verbal abuse from your teenage drinker""; ""initiate and maintain new relationships and activities,"" etc. Some direction, few insights.

Pub Date: April 21, 1983

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Atheneum

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1983

Categories: NONFICTION