Adolescence is one of the most important life stages when it comes to setting habits and personality patterns, for better or for worse.

In terms of the good, we can highlight the opportunities to develop skills in a vocational way (thanks to free time and a way of life in which we are exposed to a greater variety of stimuli), but in terms of the bad, it is obligatory to talk about something that can annul the previous: addictions .

While adolescent addictions are not usually based on “hard drugs” such as heroin or cocaine, they are exposed to others that are more socially acceptable or are not even seen as addiction disorders because they do not involve substance use. In addition, trends in addictive behaviors are constantly changing, making it difficult for parents to protect their children.

In order to know the characteristics of the world of addictions in adolescence we talked to Antonio Molina Serrano, Founder and Director of Fromm Bienestar, a therapy centre specialized in people who have developed dependence on the consumption of substances or on the performance of harmful actions such as constant gambling.

Interview with Antonio Molina: addictions and adolescents

Antonio Molina is part of the team of Fromm Bienestar , therapy center located in Mairena del Aljarafe (Sevilla)

What are the types of addictions to which the Spanish adolescent population is most exposed?

In recent times we are experiencing a rather worrying boom in behavioral addictions, also called addictive behaviors. Among them are pathological gambling, addiction to mobile phones and nomaphobia, closely related to the use of social networks and the Internet. And some already known as video game addiction.

Among the addictions that involve the use of some substance, alcoholism or addiction to alcohol, tobacco addiction, which is now changing the format to the bong, is even more harmful than tobacco. And of course the use of THC present in cannabis and hashish joints, sometimes mixed with other opioid substances that increase the risk of serious mental illness. Much research is also being done on the risks of electronic and vape cigarettes, which camouflage their addictive potential in electronic devices based on resistors and lights.

In recent years, online bookmakers have proliferated. Given that the current generation of teenagers is made up of digital natives, are they especially vulnerable to this format of gambling?

The exponential increase in cases of pathological gambling among young people and adolescents has set off all the alarms among families, experts and now, it seems, public administrations as well.

In the digital era, where everything revolves around the latest generation of mobiles and smartphones, large corporations are already adapting their products to the profile of future consumers who sometimes do not even come of age. And not only by favouring the accessibility of such gaming platforms, but also by projecting on this type of practical icons and models of success for young people and adolescents through the advertising that bombards children in our country every day.

Among young people, the use of some drugs has long been seen as an element of popularity. What can be done to fight this?

We could start by questioning some references among young people and also among adults, who often contribute without realizing it to extolling and highlighting some figures from the world of sports, song and also television with a scale of values very based on the superficial and material.

These icons and models of reference for the young people of our country introduce in a very sibylline way the idea of having in front of the being, and that obviously translates into consumption of anything, also of substances and drugs.

Teenagers in the U.S. are switching massively from tobacco to electronic cigarettes, to the point that smoking cigarettes in this age group is seen as relatively rare. Are there signs that the same thing will soon happen here?

I had already pointed out this change in the forms of consumption that, nevertheless, do not stop putting at risk the health and development of addictive behaviors among our young people and adolescents.

Now the cool, the millennial, smoking in bongos or vape, when it is known that the risks are equal or very similar to those of other substances such as tobacco. It’s as if some economic interests want us to get high by being more beautiful, with lights, smoke and color.

How do psychologists work to intervene in cases of adolescents who have developed addictions?

The methodology of each professional is very personal. In our center, Fromm Bienestar, specialized in the treatment of adolescents, families and addictions, we put into practice our own methodology that focuses on listening and self-knowledge as the basis for personal improvement and growth.

We think that telling a teenager not to smoke pot, for example, doesn’t do much good. We prefer to let the teenager himself or herself come to the conclusion that smoking joints limits his or her abilities and well-being.

How does collaboration with your family members take place?

Working with the young patient’s emotional and family environment is a priority. However, there is no treatment without trust, and that is why we are scrupulous about confidentiality in therapeutic practice.

In this sense, we limit ourselves to working on the difficulty encountered individually and independently with each member of the family, generating an introspective look that allows us to identify the co-responsibility in each of the elements that make up the nucleus of coexistence. The interventions and family therapies are a fundamental part of the process, and the families are very grateful, because they perceive our encouragement and support at every moment

What else is needed for us to culturally create barriers to prevent teens from becoming addicted?

It is a complex and very broad topic, because we think that addiction is present in one’s cultural and belief system as a permanent symbiosis. In a capitalist system, where the consumer society is in turn consumed by this idea of having in front of being or being as much as one has, any form of consumption is licit and legitimate.

We have exhausted a large part of the planet’s natural resources as well as destroyed the habitat of millions of living beings with whom we share a home. And in this absurd and destructive idea of predation we are even allowing some forms of consumption of people. How could we not consume ourselves?