As a parent of a teenage kid, it often concerns you to think your child may be abusing drugs and disregarding their health and life. All your advice and rebukes go down the drain when you see your teen suffering from drug addiction. Approaching a rebellious kid seems intimidating, especially when they are misleading you. Thinking of drug testing your kid can be rather challenging and should not be done without professional help.
What could go wrong in discreetly drug testing your teen?
Testing your child for any kind of addiction without their knowledge is risky. The consequences of a discreet drug test are:-
- Breach of trust between parent and child: If you test your child for drug abuse without their prior understanding and trust, it might break their trust in you as a parent.
- Possibility of misinterpreting the results: Home drug tests often result in misinterpretation of the reports. These personal drug test kits are unreliable so getting a false-positive or a false-negative is quite possible.
- Manipulation of drug test results: Teens are aware that there are easy ways to tamper with a drug test (consuming a lot of water, purchasing someone else’s urine, using other products for manipulating the tests).
Types of drug testing for teens
There are different kinds of drug tests a parent may opt for to test their kid’s drug abuse.
- Blood tests: Blood tests are invasive and sometimes produce inaccurate results. This drug and alcohol testing technique is not always performed.
- Urine test: Drug urine testing is the most reliable and less invasive method of testing narcotic elements in the body.
- Saliva test: Swab tests are done to collect the saliva for testing the number of drugs present in it. But, these tests are done to get recent drug abuse results.
- Hair test: Hair samples retain the drug residues long after the drug is consumed. Hair testing is not as common.
The best way to test your teen for drug abuse
Testing for your kid’s drug abuse should not be performed at home as personal drug test kits can produce defective results. Consulting a doctor or an addiction specialist is the best way to help your child fight off their addiction. Start by confirming the state of their addiction and then book an appointment with a counselor. Due to addiction being deemed as a mental illness, a parent must accompany their child throughout the journey of healing. While knowing your kid is a drug addict disheartens you, it must not hinder you from showing them affection.
How to approach your child about drug testing
It is important to know how to approach your little one to not make them feel cornered:
- Sit with them to have a calm and heart-to-heart conversation.
- Ask them politely the reasons for their drug abuse. You must know if their drug addiction is a result of peer pressure, trauma, depression, etc.
- Contain your reactions to yourself. Do not engage in heated arguments or accusations.
- Be reassuring and encouraging.
- Try to get them to tell you their whereabouts, and their circle of friends, and hinder them from getting close to harmful people.
- Show interest in their passion or life.
Get regular drug tests done at Affordable Rapid Testing, Phoenix
Drug tests are painless ways of detecting the presence of illegal substances in the body. Get your child tested at Affordable Rapid Testing for expertly handled tests and precise results at affordable rates. These cost-effective tests are conducted by dedicated lab professionals in centers located in Scottsdale and Phoenix, AZ. To know more about their excellent services, please visit their website.
