“The thing that I have learned from working with kids, since I was one myself and now as a mental health specialist and a mother, is that their behavior is their form of communication that expresses what they are feeling on the inside rather than being a reflection of their actual attitude towards life. Those two things are not one and the same and can change or not depending on what they are going through as well as the type of support they receive as they face those moments. If they are using substances, behaving in ways that are not in their best interest or even having mental health issues, they are still more than the challenges that have been and or are currently being shared to the outside. So rather than punish the whole, they need help breaking down what they are feeling into manageable pieces that will allow them to cope better. In other words we need to address the root cause of their actions rather than focusing on and responding to the resulting behavior which actually more often than not continues the facilitation of the very thing we want changed. As the daughter and sister of addicts, I have noticed that what their behavior is expressing is also the need for us to be centered on all the aspects of addiction rather than just the conduct that is merely one part of the whole. What both of those groups are living is effecting and limiting who they are and we need to work to understand that and then continue to improve our own coping skills if we hope to help them bring about change.”