The Talk Sooner Campaign - The Muskegon Health Project of Mercy Health

The "talks" we have to have with our kids.  The big talks, scary for any parent.  How do you approach the talk about sex?  When's a good time to start talking to kids about drugs and alcohol?  Well, I don't know that there is a 100%
"good time" for this kind of talk...but...if it's an ongoing conversation it might be a little easier.  Thus...the beginning of Talk Sooner.

The Health Project Online

Talk Sooner is a product of multiple county coalitions in West Michigan who are working together to send out a common message to parents of kids 10-18 about alcohol, tobacco and other substances according to their website.  Talk Sooner will help give you the tools you need to discuss the use of substances and the impact it can have on young minds.  Their site goes on to say that focus groups prove that kids want their parents to talk to them about these subjects.  They are difficult but utterly important conversations.

Visit Talk Sooner Online

I am open about my past as an alcoholic.  I have never shied away from what alcohol did to me and how early I started.  I was 12.  I couldn't sleep at night due to Hyperactivity Disorder which was the former name for ADHD.  I was given Ritalin for that which had a very powerful insomnia side effect on me.  I also had 3 seizures when I was 13 from a Ritalin overdose.  The combination of the two, the booze and the prescription abuse were a clear sign that I was facing a life long battle with being an addict.  My parents did all they could to help.  Don't fault them at all, but...back then the tools were not as readily available to find ways to talk to kids.  I will say this too, parents can make all the right moves....say all the right things and still....have a kid that has a problem.  I believe fully that an addict will be an addict until they bottom out and have to find their way.  There's no one to blame in these cases and that's the really hard part.  I hate to look back over my years as an alcoholic and know the worry and strife I caused my parents and family.  The disaster of a first marriage I thought I was ready for....the hospital stays, calling in sick...it all adds up to a big fat hairy mess.

Today, The Health Project of Mercy Health is offering the Talk Sooner Campaign.  I met up with Missy Gallegos who's a public health educator at Public Health Muskegon and Rachel McCoy from The Health Project to talk a little about how to begin the conversation with your kids....kids young as 10 about the dangers of substance abuse.  Take a listen to our talk below.

It's important.  It's scary but....it's up to you to talk to your kids about substance abuse.  Let them hear it from you and let them know you care enough to not allow their education on this matter be from the street.  The Health Project of Mercy Health is a sponsor of this blog and they truly work to make Muskegon a better place for all of us.

Here's the message from DJ Hilson about the program take a listen