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Two years ago, ***, a real estate salesman, and his wife, *** found out their 14-year-old son had a drug problem. ***, who requested his sons name not be used, talks about how they discovered their son's drug problem. Their son, now 16, has been in a Kids of El Paso Inc. drug treatment program for two years.First of all, the problem is virtually invisible. The kids become very good at hiding from mom and dad that they have any kind of a drug problem. The kids become very secretive, very sensitive and ashamed that they have a problem. That's the first revelation we came across. He started withdrawing from the family. He didn't participate in those fun things that dad and son like to do, like scuba diving and skiing. Next, I found in his medicine cabinet different bottles of eye clearing solutions like Visine and Murine. Then when the boy would come into the house the first thing he'd do is go right past us and go take a shower. We spent years trying to get him to take showers and brush his teeth. Then, all of a sudden he's taking more showers than I can ever believe and brushing his teeth better than we had ever dreamed. He was doing this to wash off the smell a marijuana and/or alcohol. Another thing I discovered is that the druggie kid becomes a professional liar. We found him wanting to spend a lot of time in his room ... to listen to rock music. Next, we saw his straight friends kids that were goal-oriented and achievement-oriented - stop coming round the house. My son started talking about his other friends and we would ask him to invite his other friends to come by and see us. We never met his new friends. A very loving, caring child started turning into a negative person. In a confrontation, he took a swing at his mother. When I found out what was going on, I sat down and talked to him ... but there was nothing that I said that he heard. When parents discover their child has a drug problem, they start saving to themselves, 'It couldn't be *** because *** wouldn't do drugs and we've been good parents.’ They move into immediate self-denial. If my boy does not whip this problem, he's dead. I am convinced. I've seen too many of his friends where the moms and dads didn’t catch it and their kids are dead.
