A Parents’ Guide for Teen Slang on Drugs, Drinking, and Mental Health Issues

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Decoding Teen Terms for Alcohol, Substance Use, and Mental Illness

Our parents’ guide for teen slang is going to take a close look at the terms teens use for important topics like drug and alcohol use. As a parent, it’s important to keep up on drug slang and other types of slang terms so you can understand what your child is talking about and intervene, if necessary.

In addition to teen drug and alcohol slang, we’ll also cover some terms that might be used to describe mental health challenges.

At Artemis Adolescent Healing Center, we specialize in providing customized, professional care to young people struggling with drug or alcohol addiction, as well as mental health challenges. If you are a concerned parent, feel free to reach out to our Tucson, Arizona, location right away to learn more about the services we provide. It would be an honor to serve you and your family.

Why Teen Slang Matters When it Comes to Mental Health

Teen slang has always evolved quickly, in an effort to stay one step ahead of the adults. Today, however, it moves faster than ever. The speed of evolving language, whether an innocent inside joke or something more serious related to drugs or alcohol, has increased thanks to social media, text messages, and other forms of technology.

The use of teen slang typically involves trying to avoid adults figuring out what the young people are up to. Those adults could be their parents, of course, but that group could also include teachers, cops, and others.

Rather than stating the names of specific drugs, which could easily be understood by anyone, slang is used by many teens who hope to stay out of trouble. Unfortunately, what might sound like a playful term at first could actually be referring to something very serious and even life-threatening.

How Teen Slang Develops and Changes

One of the tricky things about tracking teen drug use and the slang terms they use is that these terms come from so many different places. Most parents simply aren’t going to be able to recognize everything the young people are saying, as it will emerge from music, social media platforms like Instagram or TikTok, online gaming communities, and beyond.

Not only will the slang terms come from countless different places, but they will also shift quickly and intentionally. As soon as teenagers notice that the adults are catching on, they’ll replace a term and start to use another one. In other words, a common slang term will be seen as out-of-date and useless to teens once adults generally know what it is.

Teen Slang Related to Alcohol Use

Alcohol is often the first substance teens are exposed to socially. In many circles, drinking alcohol as a teen isn’t seen as a big deal, despite the inherent risks. It’s often an open secret that certain teens are drinking at parties or in other settings, and this is especially common as teens move toward high school graduation and get ready to move out on their own.

Teens may start out drinking beer, and some will move on to hard stuff soon after. As an adult, you may already understand some of the slang terms that are used to talk about drinking, so this is probably the easiest category to decode.

Take note of how often your teen is using slang terms to talk about drinking, and how secretive they are about their habits. If the use of slang terms for drinking comes along with changes in behaviors that you find concerning, it will be important to dig deeper and see what’s going on.

Teen Alcohol Slang Examples

There’s no way that we’ll be able to list all of the possible slang terms your child might use to describe alcohol use. That’s also true for the drug slang and mental health slang that we will examine below. However, we can touch on a few of the terms that you might hear in this context.

• Buzzed – Refers to being mildly intoxicated, and can be used as a way to downplay not being drunk
• Lit – Being intoxicated or partying, often used positively from a teen’s perspective
• Turnt – Heavily intoxicated due to alcohol use, could also refer to drug use
• Blacked out – Drinking to the point of short-term memory loss
• Shotgunning – Drinking alcohol very quickly, usually refers to beer
• Pre-gaming – Drinking alcohol before going to a party or other event
• Handle – A large bottle of liquor, often meant to be shared at a party

Teenager Drug Slang Terms and What They Mean

There’s no question that teen alcohol use can be scary and very dangerous on its own. However, the risks are amplified even further when drug use is involved. Whether it’s marijuana, crack cocaine, cough syrups, or any other kind of drug, there is a lot here for parents to be concerned about.

You may also not have much experience with the world of illegal drugs and the terms used to describe them. Therefore, it can be harder to understand what your kid is talking about, and harder to know if there is something to be worried about.

Of course, with drug use often comes more notable physical and mental side effects, so you may have a sense that something is wrong just from how your child is acting and behaving.

Teen Drug Slang Examples

The world of drug slang is much harder to navigate than with alcohol slang, but we can give you a head start by providing a basic list of examples below.

• Mary Jane, weed, pot, grass – These are all common terms used to describe marijuana
• Cart – This word has become commonly used to refer to a THC vape cartridge
• Dab – A highly concentrated form of THC
• Plug – This term doesn’t refer to a specific drug, but rather a person who sells drugs
• Bars – Xanax tablets
• Molly – MDMA or ecstasy
• Shrooms – One of the easier ones to understand, this term references psychedelic mushrooms
• Lean – Cough syrups mixed with soda, often containing codeine
• Popping – Taking illicit pills
• Geeking – Being high or under the influence of stimulant drugs

Mental Health Slang for Teenagers

Given the increased awareness in recent years around mental health, more and more teens are talking about their mental state with friends. Unfortunately, they might not be so willing to share their mental health concerns with their parents, so you might have to listen for slang in this part of life, as well.

If you hear words or sayings that you think are referring to a mental breakdown or mental health problems more generally, don’t hesitate to act. Often, mental health challenges are associated with a developing addiction to drugs or alcohol, so all of these things may be connected in the end.

Teen Slang Terms Related to Mental Health and Self-Harm

In cases of mental health challenges, it’s common for teens, or even adults, to talk around the issue in coded language. This is a way to start to draw attention to their problems without calling them out directly. The list below includes some of the ways your child might start to talk about their mental health.

• Checked out – This means they are feeling emotionally numb or disengaged
• Spiraling – Feeling overwhelmed or out of control emotionally
• Not okay – A somewhat vague expression, it has come to mean a generally deep state of distress
• Triggered – Emotionally affected by a situation or memory
• Unalive – A concerning reference to death or suicidal thoughts

Sometimes, the slang around mental health might be used in a somewhat light or even joking manner. That can still be cause for concern, however. If these words keep coming up, and you get the feeling that they aren’t really a joke, take a closer look at what’s going on.

The Role of Social Media in Teen Slang Terminology

It would be a mistake to overlook the role of social media in the spread of slang terms that refer to alcohol and other substances. The best way to think about what social media does in this context is to consider it as a megaphone. It has the ability to broadcast information quickly to a wide range of young people. When a teen has unrestricted access to social media platforms, there is no limit to what they might discover on those apps or sites.

There is also the nature of how social media platforms work to be concerned about in this equation. The algorithms that present content to users are based on what users are already interested in, so things like mental health content or content that is substance use-related in some way may wind up pushed to the top.

And, when this type of content is all that a young person sees on social media, that may serve to normalize it and not properly represent the high risk that does exist.

Are There Warning Signs Beyond Words?

For a parent worried about the recreational use of drugs or alcohol in their teen’s life, paying attention to slang terms is a good idea. While it is hard to keep up with these street names, it’s worth trying to figure out what they mean so you can step in and provide extra support to get your child’s life back on track.

With that said, there are plenty of warning signs beyond words that can be used for early detection of a drug or alcohol problem that is developing. Beyond listening to slang terms that your teen might be using, you will also want to watch for any other concerning signs that point to real-life troubles. Those signs can include the following points –

• Sudden increase in secrecy around phone use or online activity
• Notable changes in habits or patterns, especially around sleep and appetite
• Declining grades or overall struggles with academic performance
• Loss of interest in activities that used to be favored
• Dramatic mood swings, irritability, or general withdrawal
• New peer groups with little transparency about who the new friends are, or a new best friend that is mysterious
• Physical signs or symptoms, including unexplained fatigue, frequent illness, or red, watery eyes

Seeing any of these changes in your child will be scary and cause for concern. However, you should resist the temptation to ignore these signs or just write them off. You know your child better than anyone, and if you think something is wrong, there’s a good chance that you are right.

How to Talk to Your Teen About Serious Issues

It’s one thing to suspect that your child may be using stimulant drugs like powder cocaine, alcohol, or any other type of substance. It’s another thing entirely, however, to talk to them about your concerns and have that conversation be successful.

Teens are notoriously difficult to talk to in a productive manner, and you risk having them shut down completely if this conversation isn’t approached properly.

First, be sure that you approach the topic with love. If your teen feels that you are coming at them with aggression or anger, the conversation will not be productive. Instead, position yourself as an ally, wanting to know what is going on so you can help. Even if you do feel some degree of anger over the situation, set that to the side so you can remain calm and engage with the conversation honestly and openly.

Also, avoid immediately moving into a lecture and don’t start to threaten consequences. There may come a time when consequences are appropriate, or even necessary, but don’t start there. For now, you just want to understand what is going on and get your teen to open up to you about their life situation. If they feel like you are a safe person to talk to, everything will become a little easier moving forward.

Help Your Teenager Overcome Challenges at Artemis

Facing the reality that your child is dealing with a substance use problem or is in the middle of a mental health battle can be extremely difficult. Fortunately, you don’t have to be alone in this situation.

The expert team at Artemis Adolescent Healing Center knows how to confront teen drug use, treat anxiety, and provide whatever services are necessary to turn this young life in a new direction. Call us today to learn more. All calls are confidential, so please reach out to our compassionate staff for supportive options now.

REFERENCES

1. Drug Enforcement Administration. (2017). Drug slang code words (DIR-020-17) [PDF]. U.S. Department of Justice.
2. MedlinePlus. (n.d.). Alcohol. U.S. National Library of Medicine.