Misreading Your Child’s Substance Use: What Parents Get Wrong with Brenda Zane

About this episode

Brenda Zane discusses the misconceptions parents have about their child's substance use and introduces a framework for understanding the stages of substance use.

Episode 322 I have sat with hundreds of moms who came to me at completely different points in their child's substance use, and the gap between them has always struck me. One mom is barely breathing, convinced the worst is already happening. Another is quietly telling herself it might just be a phase. Neither one is wrong, exactly. What they both share is that they are navigating one of the most consequential situations of their lives without a real map. That gap, between what parents fear and what is actually happening, is exactly what this episode is about. Medicine has always used staging to give patients and families a language for urgency, for appropriate response, for what comes next. Parents of kids with substance use issues have never been handed anything like that. We are expected to assess, decide, and respond without the framework that clinicians spend years building. So in this episode, I am borrowing that idea because staging is one of the most useful concepts in medicine. It tells you where you are, how serious things actually are, and what kind of response fits the moment. I walk through four stages of substance use, what you might see on the surface, what is…

People in this episode

Host: Brenda Zane

Topics covered

• substance use
• parenting
• mental health
• communication
• staging in medicine

Keywords

• substance use
• parenting
• mental health
• staging
• communication
• addiction
• children

More episodes of Hopestream for parenting kids through drug use and addiction

• The Thing Your Kid Can’t Tell You When They’re Struggling, with Enzo Narciso · June 11, 2026
• 10 Self Coaching Questions for Parents of Kids Who Struggle With Mental Health and Substances, with Brenda Zane · June 4, 2026
• Letting Your Child Struggle and Choosing Love Over Fear, with Dr. Wes Robins · May 28, 2026
• Connect Before You Correct: Breaking Generational Patterns, with Lacey Tezino · May 21, 2026
• Inside Your Kid’s Mind: Hidden Pain Behind Substance Use, with Brad McLeod · May 14, 2026
• Co-Dependency Isn’t What You Think, with Rawly Glass, LCSW · May 7, 2026