Greetings everyone, I am battling with a teenager's wellbeing.

This guy is 17years this year will be going to 18 by January 13th. An only son. Whose father is late. His mother is aged because she had him 18 years after her last daughter. Though he was adopted. After the fathers death 2018.

This boy was around 12 years then. He lost interest in school. He was sent to different schools yet same story. Every one tried to pull him close. He becomes more aggressive. Prayers, sacrifices for his well-being were made. Yet no solutions. Along the line he was told about his life. Because other children were already murmuring it even to his hearing.

Any where he goes to stay he causes trouble and ran away. Then he came back home and started smoking weed, no body can tell if he smoked ice. Last year November he was sent to a rehabilitation.

He spent 6 months there. He came early may this year. He was sent to another place different from where he was. After 1 month of recovery because he took ill as soon as as he came out. He was enrolled to learn a skill in computer repair.

He was doing it all of a sudden he started noticing some strange characters like eating too much. Fighting anyone. Stealing too. We took his small android phone away from him and gave him a smaller phone.

He became more aggressive and stupid. He stole someone's one. The daughter of the woman he was staying with. The moment he was asked he denied it when the woman threatened to call police on him.

He absconded with few of his things with the phone. He was taking calls and never told us where he was. One day his boss caught him with another colleague of his somewhere he ran away. The worst now is that he has resumed the work and we noticed he could possibly has started smoking again.

We have asked him he kept denying it but his boss saw his eyes and noticed that he is taking something. I don't know what to do nor how to do it. I have spent virtually all of my earnings to make him better. Both prayers and otherwise.

How do I handle this issue. I need help, it's affecting me mentally, and psychologically, he is my only brother.

Give him sacks of weed wholesale to sell and remit.
It usually makes them a bit more responsible with it.

Make sure the supplier is a rough tout that can/has killed. Just arrange with the tout to threaten and give him hell over the sales and watch your boy rethink his steps.


Telling humans to stop doing something just makes it more appealing to them.

Hmmmm....I really join you in prayers for him. I don't know what the rehabilitation was about though. But if after six months he still fell back to his habits, then maybe the main underlying course has not been solved.

Smoking weed could be one of the manifestations of the character defect which he has. I don't know if we have many of such in Nigeria, but he needs to talk to a Behavioural Therapist. Or you guys need to sit him down and really ask him what he wants to do with his life.

If he's not finding any meaning about his life (even with the obvious concern of people around him), then it will be hard for any form of rehabilitation of side effects to be solved. Also, you guys should really show concern (by this I don't mean just sending him off to rehab - he should feel a sense of care and then see a need to appreciate the care he's receiving) about helping him not destroy himself, cos he's on that path already.

Also, for someone who just came out of rehab, I think he has too much unsupervised freedom. If he needs to learn a skill, it should be in the same area where eyes can be on him....and it should be a skill that he wants to learn - irrespective of wether you guys find it lucrative or not - it will help him find a distraction from his bad habits.

Who are his friends? Weaning one off an habit is difficult if they're still within reach of their triggers/enablers.

When he's ready, he'll stop. Rehab can only show them the joys of being drug-free. Most don't do well during the stint because life becomes boring. It's honestly weed, he can function with the drug. It's not even expensive past the problem of always running into the law.

Let him continue

Since nothing u do could make him stop

No need making it more difficult for him, just keep him at the job

Turn a blind eye to his habit

Don't deprive him of money or food, he will steal

People often outgrow some habits, I did

This morning I got a call from the woman he's staying in her house that he refused to go to work. Since Saturday because someone gave him money to give to his boss ₦2000. He hurriedly closed the shop and left. Spent the money and couldn't give any account for the money till date. Asking me to give him his ogas money so that he can return to work. They said He didn't sleep in the house and when the woman went to look for him that night. He found him somewhere in the street and after scolding him. He followed her home. They spotted a guy who stays around water side who he smokes with. They have warned him not to continue else SARs would come pick him. The same woman complained about her fowl missing and suspects he could be the one who stole it. I have asked the woman to send him out of her house let him roam the street and be caught. When he spents his useful age behind bars or in jai would know that he had bleeped himself up