My niece is snorting Claritin?

[Anonymous]

Is this normal? She’s 13 and smokes and drinks and now snorting her allergy medication? What is this about?

[SnowedIn]

This is about addiction. Not everyone who smokes, drinks, or takes Claritin is addicted to those substances. Some/many are. Please get her help. On the one hand it doesn't matter why she started. Maybe friends, maybe peer pressure, maybe stress about school or sports or boys. Maybe there's something very dark at home. She needs help to physically overcome the addiction and help to work through the underlying mental reason she started. Which may have been just plain curiosity and it spiraled from there. But get her help. And, to your question, no not normal but probably more common than we thought.

[Anonymous]

You need to be there for her in these dark times. Due to covid 19, a lot of people have mental illnesses. Even standard, which had nothing wrong with it, is starting to feel it too.

Teen suicide and overdose rate has been very high even before covid. Try to talk and listen to her. Let her know you're there for her. Ask her if there is anything you can do for her. Just give her a call from time to time, letting her know you're thinking of her and wondering what she is up to.

You were lucky not to grow up before the time of the smartphone, and you know how to have a grounded conversation in the present in perpetuity.

Unfortunately, these things have become normal among the youth. You have to be soft-spoken and empathetic.

[Guy13]

Too much free time and access to Media.

[Agape93]

She's just an idiot

[MannMitAntworten]

Not remotely normal.