Addiction

For schools

Schools are often the first place to detect changes that may be caused by an addiction. Addiction prevention uses health promotion strategies to help prevent or minimise the harms associated with substance misuse among students. Substance use in school will be the only addiction listed in this section although it is acknowledged that there are several other teenage addictions.

Common features include unexplainable anxiety and agitation, irritability, withdrawal, mood swings, irrational or aggressive behaviour as well as changes in the student’s usual application to their work. Teachers, depending on their relationship with a young person, are also more likely to be a first port of call either by the young person concerned or, more often, by their friends.