In 2024, AIR reached over 52,000 individuals through turn-key youth substance use prevention programs and via our online tools, including substance use prevention presentations, the Parent Toolkit, the Hidden in Plain View Mobile Exhibit, the Virtual Bedroom, the film "Don’t Wait," and The Parent Pact.
The (Preventable) Problem
Substance use and abuse in children and young adults result from one or more reasons, including but not limited to
- Seeking ways to manage their anxiety, depression, stress, underlying mental illness, or other emotional/intellectual challenges related to typical growth and development.
- Seeking ways to mitigate feelings of isolation and social alienation and cope with low self-esteem.
- Experimentation and risk-taking.
- Impulsiveness and the desire to manage feelings of frustration or experience instant gratification.
- To cope with trauma.
- Seeing adults use drugs and alcohol to manage their stress.
Among individuals aged 18 to 30 admitted to treatment facilities, 74 percent began substance use at age 17 or younger. It is the persistent silence and pervasive stigma around topics of mental health and drug use that sets children up to experiment with and become addicted to drugs and alcohol. Knowing this and having studied the research as well as the lived experiences of those with substance abuse, their families, and communities, AIR is focused on helping adults recognize the triggers for substance abuse and prepare them to promote prevention and interrupt patterns of use and abuse for children.
Addiction is Inheritable: Research shows that genetics have somewhere between 40% and 70% influence on addiction. About half of a person’s susceptibility to developing a substance use disorder (SUD) can be hereditary. Genetics can mark you as more prone to use alcohol, tobacco products, or drugs such as cocaine, heroin, and opioids. We clarify that children at greater risk MUST be given refusal skills and educated on their family history. Genetics indicate a predisposition, not a destiny.
Regardless of the trigger for drug or alcohol use, studies show that it can often be prevented when parents, guardians, and other adults have the information they need to share evidence-based information with the children in their lives, recognize and interrupt the signs and symptoms of experimentation, and set norms for talking about feelings and managing emotions that don’t include drugs or alcohol.
For Adult/Parent intervention to be successful, they need to be equipped with
- Evidence-based information that debunks dangerous myths and allows them to spot misinformation from other sources about substance abuse.
- The ability to critically evaluate the source and validity of mental health and substance abuse information, including information shared by government agencies, as it is sometimes outdated or is simply misinformation.
- Skills for identifying the signs of mental and emotional health issues as well as indicators of substance use and abuse that often hide in plain view.
- The ability to model healthy behaviors, acknowledge and discuss substance abuse in their family history, and create trusting relationships with children.
- A community of similarly educated and engaged adults who reinforce the sharing of information that explains the underlying triggers for substance abuse and actively promote alternate coping strategies.
- The training to help children refuse alcohol and drugs when they are available or offered.
- To develop a plan with the children in their lives so if/when they choose to experiment with drugs or alcohol, they have a trusted person to turn to for a plan and for how to make other choices.
AIR is the only program in Missouri, Illinois, and Kansas that provides community-based programs and resources designed to be delivered to adults by adults with lived experience (having lost or almost lost a child or loved one to the effects of addiction). It also provides the training, information, resources, and support a parent – or any adult who works with or loves kids - needs to interrupt and prevent substance use and abuse among children. The demand for these services and lack of like/similar programs results in requests for our programs from all over the United States.
For more information about Addiction is Real, please visit https://bit.ly/m/Addiction-Is-Real