Full Transcript:
Why Do Kids Use Drugs and Alcohol?
Welcome to this week's You Are Destined For Greatness, coming to you this week from the tack room because it's so windy outside just like a hurricane around here today so anyway a lot of times you may have had this thought most of us do why do kids use drugs and alcohol I mean what's that all about because if you look at it from a logical common sensical point of view there'd be no real good reason to go ahead and do that just because of all the high risks and so on and so forth.
And really at the root of it, okay, at the root of it, you can say it's peer pressure to experiment. You can say that, you can say there's so many things that lead up to it. But at the core, okay, of all those things is in an effort to feel different, to avoid discomfort, to feel better, okay, to fit in because it doesn't feel good if you're making fun of me because I'm not doing what you're doing because I feel so sad because I feel so rejected because I don't feel good and that's a way to feel better.
What We Can Learn from Horses
Horses are such a good example if we can look at them in this way because what horses do is when they face a challenge or any discomfort, they feel it and go through it in the moment. Then they let it go. They don't try to cover it up. They don't try to suppress it or hide it or mask it or do all the activities that have a long-term negative impact. They just feel life as it happens and they go through it.
The Answer: Embracing Discomfort
And that's really the message today, is that for us ourselves, if we can come to embrace discomfort, just know that it's going to be there. You know what I'm saying? Know that insecurity is a part of life. Know that fear is a part of life. Know that sadness is going to be there. And when it happens, rather than having our brain is going to default and letting our brain default, our default is going to be our natural man to instinct. Our brain is going to guide us to feel better, avoid pain and, you know, conserve energy. Our brain is going to, and drugs and alcohol and all the things that we do to feel better, a lot oft hem, all these negative things that have negative consequences can be an easy answer if we're not intentional about it.
So, what's the answer? The answer is, first of all, to know discomfort as part of life in all the ways that it is. And to help, to know ourselves and then to help our kids know that, hey, it's alright to feel bad. To feel terrible. It's going to be that way sometimes. And to allow that to be there to process it.
What It Means to Process Emotions
What the hell does process it mean Shane? What I mean by that is just to sit with it, to feel it and to let it be there. And if you need to, because it's not passing, then share your experience, share how you feel with somebody that you can really trust. That is the key, okay? Takes a little bit of strength todo that, but that's the key is to feel life and the more that we can help our kids do that and be with them and put their arm around them and make sure that they have a mentor that is a good mentor that they can trust that they can share with if it's not going to be us all the time.
Helping Our Kids Navigate Tough Moments
Those things are what really makes a difference because those moments that start addiction and abuse are just little moments. They're moments of avoiding discomfort so the more that we embrace it and we can help our kids do the same. The better odds that we're gonna have are having more joy and success in our lives.
More on this in our podcast, and these are, again, things that we talk about on a daily basis with our clients at Stable Living.
Thank you for joining us, and remember, You Are Destined For Greatness.
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