Page 26 - Animals to Atlantis
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Through their early experimenta on they hit upon a chemical x, a way to calm the feelings of anxiety or melancholy that have tormented them. Thus of the several hundred seventh and eighth grade students tracked for two years, it was those who reported higher levels of emo onal distress who subsequently went on to have the highest rates of substance abuse.
It is not necessary that you or your children must experience emo onal distress or drug abuse before learning to deal more e ec vely with life. Unfortunately, all too o en the small behavior problems in our children, caused by their immature S nky Thinking, are ignored in the hope that they will outgrow these problems. The passage of me however, is no guarantee that their thinking will change and these small problems usually must become serious issues before any help is made available.
But as noted by Daniel Goleman in his book Emo onal Intelligence, Acquiring the ability to handle those feelings, soothing anxie es, gh ng depression, calming rage, removes the impetus to use drugs or alcohol in the rst place. These basic emo onal skills are taught remedially in treatment programs for drug and alcohol abuse. It would be far be er of course, if they were learned early in life, well before the habit
became established.
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