Harmful use of substances, known as substance misuse, includes substance use where the young person may not be fully dependent on the substance (e.g. they may not crave it or develop tolerance), but where they show a clear pattern of using substances that is causing damage to their health. Teenagers may be at greater risk of harm because their brains are still developing. This damage can be physical (e.g. catching hepatitis from injecting drugs, developing a pattern of hangovers, breathing or heart conditions, organ failure, sexually transmitted infections, and/or child pregnancy) or mental (e.g. having episodes of depression due to frequent and heavy use of alcohol). Substance misuse typically starts in adolescence or young adulthood and some young people will go on to develop an addiction in adulthood depending on the substance.
For pre-adolescents or younger teenagers, there is no safe level of substance use and all use is harmful.
Associated crises Suicide thoughts or behaviour , self-harm , severe effects from substance misuse , traumatic events , aggressive behaviour Although aggressive behaviour is rare, sometimes a young person may threaten violence if alcohol or drug use is involved.
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