The Addiction Inoculation in My Office turns 100

I’m here in my office on a bit of a speaking gig hiatus, looking out on a snowless forest and hoping for a glimpse of our neighborhood fox family. It’s been a strange winter but a bright spot has been the overwhelming, heartfelt response to my ongoing video series, The Addiction Inoculation in My Office.

A few months ago, a friend suggested that people might be too nervous or self-conscious to go out and attend one of my live speaking events about preventing substance use in kids, and might be more amenable to learning about it privately, via video segments. I promised my friend I’d try, I’d produce thirty episodes, and see how it goes.

Next week, the 100th episode of The Addiction Inoculation in My Office will go live, and I have you to thank. I receive messages every single day from viewers and I’m so grateful you encouraged me to keep going. These videos are a massive time suck, but I have come to love the process and I’ve learned so much.

The series is available on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Twitter, my YouTube channel, and LinkedIn. To make life even easier, here’s a guide to all the episodes I’ve uploaded so far. [Edited and updated as of 2/1/2023)

• Introduction

• Who the heck am I to tell you anything about anything?

• Why do we need to worry about substance use in kids?

• Yep, I’m alcoholic and here’s my story.

• Why are addictive substances a thing?

• What’s the gateway hypothesis or initiation sequence?

• Brain development and substance use, part I

• Brain development and substance use, part II

• Brain development, substance use, and dopamine

• Brain development in adolescence and learning

• Neurodevelopment and why substances mess with it

• How the addictive substances adolescents crave can be the most damaging to the brain

• Why stress feels more stressful during adolescence

• Sleep, addictive substances, and teens

• More on sleep and why it’s so important

• Good news! Substance use is down overall and how we keep it going in that direction

• Bad news! Some substance use is up.

• Alcohol and the teenage brain, part I

• Alcohol and the teenage brain, part II

• Alcohol and the teenage brain, part III

• The tolerance effect

• The tolerance effect, part II

• A great resource: The Huberman Lab podcast episodes I love

• But WHY do kids use substances?

• Risk factors and counterbalancing protective factors

• Genetics

• Epigenetics

• Life experience and substance use disorder risk

• Scary risk factors and why we have to be able to face and talk about them

• Experiential risk factors

• ACEs, or adverse childhood experiences

• ACEs, part II

• Finishing up with ACEs and who they affect

• ACE scores and what that means for risk for substance use disorder

• Categories of ACEs, or adverse childhood experiences

• Late-breaking results of an MMWR study on ACEs

• Why do ACEs affect risk of substance use disorder? Toxic stress.

• Academic failure and risk of substance use disorder

• An interlude with Moby and the leaf blower

• Childhood aggression and substance use disorder risk

• Transitions and substance use risk

• Summer and substance use risk

• Moving on to protective factors!

• Protective factor: allies

• Protective factor: banish secrets and shame

• Protective factor: knowing (and being honest about) your family history

• [How] should we keep alcohol in the house if we have kids?

• [How] should we keep alcohol in the house if we have kids, part II

• Protective factor: self-efficacy!

• Protective factor: self-efficacy part II

• Modeling self-efficacy for kids

• Self-efficacy part IV (it’s that important)

• Self-efficacy and our belief in our children to succeed

• Goal-setting as a great way to build self-efficacy

• Self-efficacy: make failures specific and successes as general as possible

• Elaborating on making failure specific and success as general as possible

• Protective factor: optimism

• Protective factor: allies and specific people you can look to for help

• Protective factor: primary health care providers

• Risk screening for kids

• More on risk screening for kids

• Protective factors: school nurses and school counselors

• Maximizing the protective efficacy of health care providers for our kids

• To sip or not to sip? Kids and drinking at home

• False pretense: that romantic myth of raising European moderate drinkers

• False pretense: “Kids are going to drink, so why not do it at home, where they are safe?”

• Blackout Wednesday, or Drinksgiving

• Protective factor: mindfulness

• Protective factor: reframing stress for kids

• How mindfulness promotes cognitive integration and reduces risk of substance use

• Protective factor, more on reframing stress

• Sleep and substance use

• Sleep and substance use part II

• Sleep and substance use part III

• House rules and substance use

• House rules part II

• Why my 2 kids had 2 very different sets of rules around alcohol

• What we know DOES NOT WORK for substance use prevention

• Why “because I said so” does not work for kids

• What’s authoritative parenting and why does it work so well for substance use prevention?

• What’s authoritative parenting and why does it work so well for substance use prevention part II

• How culture shapes substance use rates and behaviors

• Family culture as a foundation for family behaviors around substance use

• So what do we do when kids screw up?

• The power of natural (and logical) consequences

• What if addiction runs in the family?

• What if one sibling uses addictive substances?

• Are certain personality types more susceptible to substance use/disorder?

• Divorce, separation, and substance use risk

• What role does gender play in substance use risk?

• Viewer question: Is it ever OK to drink/use in front of your kids?

• Viewer question: How do the Laheys handle having alcohol at home?

• What role does gender play in cannabis use/misuse?

• What role does gender play in stimulant use/misuse?

• Chapter 7: We Have to Talk About It. Starting the conversation

• 10 questions I asked my kids during our Hot Ones game in order to know them better

• Making kids feel heard and supported so they will talk to us about hard things

• More ways to get kids to talk to us about hard things

• Even more ways to get kids to talk to us about hard things

• Kids know when we are listening with an agenda, let’s really listen so they will keep talking

• How to pick your battles so kids will listen

• Be their parent, not their friend

• Hot take: substance use prevention starts before kindergarten

• How do I teach my kids not to use drugs/alcohol if I use(d) drugs/alcohol?

• What does substance use prevention look like for kids in pre-k and kindergarten?

• The specifics of pre-k and kindergarten substance use prevention

• Turning expectations around healthy behaviors into practices that stick

• Should you shield your kid from family members with active substance use disorder?

• Using stories and humor to start conversations with little kids about hard things

• Teaching little kids about prescription drug misuse

• Think they are too young for prevention? Kids as young as 3 can tell the difference between alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages.

• Elementary schoolers see alcohol 23x/month in the media, in 1 of 11 cartoons, and in 52-57% of PG/G movies.

• Why substance use prevention conversations can get easier as kids get older.

• What is inoculation messaging and why is it so effective in preventing all kinds of high risk behaviors?

• Okay, but HOW do I shield my child from a family member with active substance use disorder?

• What is inoculation theory and how does it work?

• How do I explain Uncle Ted’s smoking or Aunt Petunia’s drinking to my kid?

• Why booze companies work so hard to gain kids’ brand loyalty at an early age.

• Kids HATE being manipulated, so use that to teach them about how advertising works.

• Using hypothetical “what if” scenarios to have no harm no foul conversations about substances.

• How our kids’ friends affect their risk for substance use.

• Does your kid have an escape hatch?

• Nope, giving kids sips does not protect them from substance use disorder.

• Oh, you want proof that sipping as a kid increases risk for substance use disorder?

• Why are y’all SO upset that early initiation of substance use leads to higher risk of substance use disorder?

• What factors predict early initiation of drinking in kids?

• Factors that mitigate risk of early initiation of substance use.

• Time to bust the problematic myth of “those moderate European drinkers”

• The specifics of who drinks the most and the least in Europe.

• How public health initiatives are changing to align with the science of alcohol and the human body.

• High school: the most recent numbers on how many kids use drugs and alcohol.

• High school and opioid misuse: who is using them and how often?

• Because you asked: a primer on fentanyl

• What role do friends play in substance use risk?

• The changing role of friendship and its role in substance use risk.

• Okay, but WHY are kids more likely to drink/drug if their friends drink/drug?

• For those of you freaking out, friendship can work the other way, too.

• It’s not just about peer pressure, but peer presence (and binge drinking mice!)

• How can be we help kids make healthy decisions about friendships?

• How can we help kids choose healthy, positive friendships?

• We parent in collaboration with the parents of our kids’ friends.

• How do we help our kids strengthen their own sense of identity?

• Is there a book I can hand my kids about all of this? Yes, there is.

• Face-saving ways to turn down drugs and alcohol, by kids for kids (1)

• Face-saving ways to turn down drugs and alcohol, by kids for kids (2)

• Face-saving ways to turn down drugs and alcohol, by kids for kids (3)

• Face-saving ways to turn down drugs and alcohol, by kids for kids (4)

• What do I do if my (friend, kid, spouse) is struggling with substances? (1)

• What do I do if my (friend, kid, spouse) is struggling with substances? (2)

• What do I do if my (friend, kid, spouse) is struggling with substances? (3)

• What do I do if my (friend, kid, spouse) is struggling with substances? (4)

• What do I do if my (friend, kid, spouse) is struggling with substances? (5)

• What do I do if my (friend, kid, spouse) is struggling with substances? (6)

• What can schools do to prevent substance use? A lot.

• It’s time to introduce you to Georgia.

• What are the most effective school-based substance use prevention programs?

• What is social-emotional learning (SEL) and why do some people want it banned?

• What do I do if my kid ate my special medicated candy??

• What do I do if my kid ate my special medicated candy (2)

• What do I do if my kid ate my special medicated candy (3)

• What does effective substance use prevention programs look like in pre-k/k?

• What do effective elementary school substance use prevention programs look like?

• What do effective middle school substance use prevention programs look like?

• What do effective high school substance use prevention programs look like?

• Drinking in college: perception drives reality

• Why do we overestimate who drinks and how much, especially in college?

• Freudian slip, anyone?

• If perceptions of drinking shapes reality, how do we establish a reality based on truth?

• What percentage of college kids drink, and how much?

• The heaviest binge drinkers consume 72% of the alcohol consumed on campuses.

• How much do most college students drink, then?

• Time for some good news about drinking in college

• Turns out, the “why” behind the drinking matters

• More good news: even when in college, parents still matter

• How to talk to your college student about drinking

• How to talk to your college student about drinking (part 2)

• Now that we have done the HOW, let’s talk about WHAT to tell your college kid about drinking

• What to tell your college kid about drinking (part 2)

Again, thank you so much for being willing to learn about the hard stuff. Research shows prevention works, so let’s get started!