Written by Stephanie Praill, Intake Counselor at Portage Ontario. Published on October 29, 2020.

Canadians have become more open to talking about addiction and mental health, but there is still a substantial stigma that exists.

Common stereotypes include criminality, and “bad apples”. For a lot of parents, they may think that they’ve done something wrong and they put a lot of guilt on themselves when they find out that their child has been using substances.

Individuals who use substances are not criminals and your family isn’t bad.

It is a very unfortunate situation, but it is something that you can work through. It’s not something that every parent experiences, and it’s certainly not something that they teach you when you’re pregnant. You’re trying to navigate a complicated system, and you’re dealing with a situation that not everyone goes through. 

I’m usually the first person a parent talks to when they are looking to access services through Portage. Sometimes parents are in a crisis because they just found out their child is using drugs, other times parents have been struggling to help their child for years, and are feeling hopeless.

I wanted to share with you four things that I think are important for everyone to know about youth addiction: