What I have learned from my son is that he is impulsive,
wants instant gratification and is over sensitive. I also think that he has limited coping skills.

I'm not comparing him to my younger son.....but. My younger son has just as severe ADD but has much better coping skills. He is much more grounded. He was such a socialite as a young boy. If there were a group of kids he would go right up to them and join in. My older son would cower and wait to be asked to join them but they never did. He was always the odd person out.

A friend that I new as a young person ( who did quite a few drugs in his youth) explained to me that some young adults use drugs to party it's a social thing. It was for him. Others use drugs to party at first but then it becomes an escape. It is just hard to know which young people are which type, not that we can stop it.

I think in my son's case because he is so sensitive he thought he could not handle reality, the pain of it so he had to numb himself in order to avoid it. He couldn't see his way through it.

My younger son feels pain too, but he works through it. Perhaps it is genetic. I knew from a young age that my older son was extremely sensitive. He could not take any type of teasing from his school friends not even in fun. He couldn't seem to distinguish what the difference was. This put him into a state and he didn't let it go easily. My younger son got teased in school too but it didn't bother him at all, when it was in fun.

I also know that kids have to fit in, they just have too. It's #1 in school. If they don't fit in with the jocks or the brainy kids or the athletic kids, there is nothing left but the bad, acting out kids. And that is where my son felt accepted. Too bad it got to the point it did.

We really have to be aware of who these loner type kids are in school. The kids that are bullied. My son was bullied constantly in elementary school. He was a prime target because he reacted when kids teased him. The more he reacted the more they teased. I actually worried that he would be one of those kids you hear about in the news that do terrible things. Thank God he didn't go that route. But how do we know which kids will snap? And drugs only exaggerate what they are feeling inside.

My son now feels totally accepted where he is at Christian half way house and that is a wonderful thing.
Kate