Oklahoma Poison Center Sees Spike In Teens Self-Harming With Pain Meds

Oklahoma’s Center for Poison & Drug Information has seen a spike in the number of Oklahoma teens poisoning themselves with prescription drugs. 

The state’s numbers show that 51 teen girls have attempted to self-harm with pain medication. Oklahoma is not the only state seeing numbers grow, it is a trend nationwide. 

"Typically, the numbers that we see historically have always been that males have a higher rate of self-harm or suicide than females," explained Meg Cannon, the Prevention Program Manager for Suicide with the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services. 

The spike in the use of over-the-counter pain medicines for self-harm has mental health professionals scrambling to find a common thread. 

"It's running the ages between 11 and 18. I thought maybe we could look at something geographical, see if it was more urban versus rural, and it just seems to be scattered across the entire state and across the entire spectrum," explained Cannon. 

Suicide is Oklahoma's second most common cause of death for people ages 5 to 34. Cannon said teens who think about self-harm will often say it beforehand. 

"[They say things like] I'm thinking about hurting myself or I just don't know that I want to live anymore, or I wish there was a way out." Cannon added, "But you need to go 'hey wait a minute, that could be a problem' and you need to probe further and ask questions." 

One major way experts say parents can find out if a child has an emotional struggle, just to talk to them. 

"There are psychological stressors and pain that is going on that doesn't seem to have a way out. Especially if it feels like you're trapping inside of that," explained Counseling and Recovery of Oklahoma's Clinical Director, Andre Campbell. 

"Not necessarily that I'm going to interrogate you and tell you that you're wrong. Just being curious about what's happening, how are things going," said Campbell. He suggested, "For example I could say 'Well I know we had some good things happen today, what are those things?' Then you may have some bad things happen today, what are those things?" 

It helps create a strong line of communication if parents are open to kids as well. 

"If the child is able to see the parent, do it and take that risk in communicating then they also feel it's okay to take that risk," said Campbell. 

Experts also emphasize that it doesn't have to be a parent, but make sure a child has an adult they trust to open up to. Also, look at how they're interacting with their friends.