SUBSTANCE ABUSE LEADS TO CHILD, OTHER ABUSES

OGDEN -- Drug abuse is not only strongly linked to child abuse, its effects
get passed on and compounded with every generation if left unchecked, a
national expert on substance abuse told a statewide audience of abuse
treatment providers.

Speaking to the 24th annual fall conference on substance abuse meeting in
Ogden this week, Anna Marsh, deputy director for the U.S. Health and Human
Services Center for Substance Abuse Treatment, said the cycle usually
surfaces with alcohol and drug abuse factoring into 50 percent to 75
percent of child neglect and abuse cases.

In cases of child sexual abuse, alcohol or some other drug is involved in
more than 80 percent of the cases, Marsh said, adding that a study by the
3rd District Court in Utah last year showed that 60 percent of abuse cases
involve drug abuse by a parent.

But substance abuse has been rippling through a child's life long before
child protection or police have intervened, Marsh said. Parents who abuse
alcohol and other drugs discipline children less well as a rule, they don't
attend to their children's emotional needs and overreact with harsh
discipline that often turns into abuse, she said.

The tragic pattern then gets passed down: Not only are substance-abusing
parents poor role models, children who have been abused, particularly those
who have been sexually abused, more often than not turn to abusing
substances to help them deal with their past abuse.

"Substance abuse ignites an intergenerational fire," Marsh said. "The
abused often become the abusers and it repeats one generation to the next."

National studies by Marsh's center show that 8.3 million children are
living with a parent who is either dependent on alcohol or needs treatment
for illicit drugs. That translates to 11 percent of children under age 15,
or about three children per school classroom.

When an abuse situation becomes so bad that children are taken into state
custody, trauma for the child becomes acute, she said. But as traumatic as
removing a child can be, "it's better for a child to see a parent in
recovery than to be with the parent who is abusing," Marsh said. "That is
the only way we can turn abuse into healing and an abusing family into a
place for sustenance and growth."

Abusing parents are a big contributor to the dramatic increase in the use
of methamphetamine among teenage girls in Utah, said Michelle Wilcox, a
drug treatment counselor with the state Division of Substance Abuse and
Mental Health.

Most girls who are recovering from meth, "which seems to be becoming the
drug of choice among girls," have been using with or witnessing a parent
use it, Wilcox said.

Meth, which works much like speed on the brain, is particularly difficult
for young girls to give up because they use it either as part of a
relationship with a parent or with a boyfriend.

"In fact, when they talk about giving up the drug, they talk about their
addiction as if it were a boyfriend," Wilcox said. "That's how closely
linked the drug is to their relationships. Giving it up to many of these
girls is like giving up someone they love, or think they do."

The other complicating factor for girls is the message they get from the
media that they must be thin, she said. Because meth increases metabolism,
girls often start using it as a diet pill to look like fashion models on TV
or in magazines.

"Girls haven't learned yet not to believe those portrayals, and they think
the thinner they are the prettier they are," Wilcox said. "The problem is
once someone starts using regularly, their self-perception gets warped, and
even though they are drastically underweight, their hair is brittle, their
skin has sores and they have bags under their eyes, they think they look
great."

Signs of use that parents can watch for are dilated pupils, elevated
respiration, uncontrollable movements and noticeable increases in activity.
More use can induce anxiousness and nervousness, paranoia, mood swings and
aggressive behavior. The drug can also lead to sudden death through heart
attack and stroke.