My Clients are Getting Younger & Younger, and it’s Scaring the Hell Outta Me
- Brainz Magazine
- Jun 4
- 7 min read
For nearly 14 years, I've helped individuals navigate the complex landscape of addiction in order to achieve recovery. Nicknamed "The Casual Counselor", my approach is unconventional, but undeniably effective.
For the past six years in private practice, I’ve always maintained a very diverse range of clients. On my roster, you’ll always see a handful of retirees, a fairly large portion of working professionals, usually in the age range of 35 to 50, and a good chunk of youngsters, usually young men in their mid 20s. The latter are often referred to as “failure to launch” clients. They typically still live at home. Some have been to college and completed degrees, some are currently taking classes, and some just completed high school and joined the workforce, finding the typical anyone can get kind of jobs in retail, service, or contractor industries.
Reader! I implore you! Have empathy for the millennials and generation “Z” population. They are up against serious competition when it comes to landing good enough paying jobs that might afford them the opportunity to actually live independently. They’re not just competing against each other, either. They’re now competing against automation, actual robots and AI that can get a job done with lightning speed, don’t have families, don’t require health insurance since they don’t get sick, and never have to take a bathroom break or ask their employer for some time off for a mental health day or to take a vacation.
Here in America, the story used to be that every next generation did just a little bit better than the one before. That is the story no more. With the rising prices of, well, everything, the stagnant and often decreasing pay, the exorbitant cost of higher education, and the demand to aspire to very expensive advanced degrees just to have a fighting shot at a decent paying career, especially once the student loan bills start showing up in the mailbox, the irony is this: many of these young people are actually better off living in the family home, working their jobs, and trying to save as much money as they can so they aren’t forced to rent a crappy apartment in a crappy neighborhood that costs twice my mortgage.
Gone are the days when a BA or a BS was enough to build a career upon without some tremendous luck, knowing the right people, or having a family who can float you the cash to pay for your education at a college or university. See, nearly every young person I work with works, and they work full time jobs. Forty hours a week. Some more. I have some clients working upwards of 60 to 80 hours a week, and they’re still barely getting by, and certainly not at a level where they can afford to purchase a property, no matter how shabby or how small. At least, not in Greater Boston. It’s one of the most expensive places to live in our country.
Over the last few years, though, despite the diversity of clientele that I’m accustomed to working with, I’ve been noticing a shift. My clients are getting younger and younger. They’re not 24 or 25 anymore. They’re 17 or 18. They’re still teens, no matter how much they might consider themselves all grown up. And many of them have been experimenting with drugs and alcohol, like most teens, for at least a few years before they land in my office. But the landscape of that black market has radically changed since I was their age, and the progression of their use has increased. With it all added up, the danger of their substance use has climbed exponentially.
And they don’t even know it. This new landscape is all they’ve ever known.
See, here’s the thing with really young users. They’ve JUST discovered the magical world of drugs and alcohol, all-night parties, and the extraordinary fun it provides them and their friends. In short, they have absolutely no intention of stopping. And the ones who land in my office have no clue that they are likely self-medicating, regardless of how much enjoyment and excitement they’re getting from these potions, pills, powders, and pipes. They don’t want or intend to stop. And when you uphold a client’s autonomy, it’s not your job to compel them to do that. It’s your job, as a treater, to try to keep them safe. To try to keep them alive.
Here’s the crux of the problem: 99.9% of my very young users have never, not once, met their dealer. All the transactions for illicit substances are now done online, through the hive of social media. When I was a young user, the internet didn’t even exist! If you wanted to score, you had to get up and leave the house, track down your dealer, and complete the transaction with cash. The kids of today? They place orders for anything you could possibly imagine through sites like Snapchat, Instagram, or “The Dark Web,” using VPNs to hide their IP addresses and completing their transactions as if you or I might purchase a mop on Amazon, but paying with cryptocurrencies, Cash App, or Venmo.
A few days later, a package will arrive on their doorstep, stuffed with whatever they ordered and coming from God knows where, and from God knows who. Their “dealers” are anonymous avatars, essentially, and their location tracking equals whereabouts unknown. Even more frightening, the products that these young people are buying are, for the most part, almost guaranteed to be contaminated with dangerous substances disguised to look like ordinary drugs that people use for pleasure (see: the scourge of fentanyl, xylazine, and research chemicals made in clandestine labs), pressed into pills or sold as powders that are advertised as something they’re not.
The work with these young people, as a result of this 21st-century black market, has radically shifted. Again, they have zero intention of becoming sober. They might, someday. But not today. So my job as their helper is to educate them. I educate them about where to obtain testing supplies so they can test their drugs for dangerous contaminants. I teach them how to identify whether a person is overdosing, the steps and protocols they need to take to get first responders dispatched, how to administer Narcan—an overdose reversal medication that usually works (but sometimes does not), and how to administer rescue breathing before the paramedics show up.
I teach them why it’s never safe to use these substances alone, and to always have someone on standby in case they accidentally OD. I teach them the importance of always and only starting with a tiny bit of whatever the substance is, so they can get a read on its potency and purity, because you can always do more, but you can never do less. That pill they’re using to “feel good”? It might look like a Xanax or Oxycodone, but it might be Fentanyl in disguise. I’ve almost lost several young clients due to these bogus pills. They look the part: same shape, same color, same texture, same imprints.
To make matters worse, what these young people report to me is that no one, not anyone from their schools to their parents to their community leaders, is talking about any of this. They brush it all under the proverbial rug, presumably because they don’t want the “bad headlines.” They purport that “we don’t have a problem with drugs in our schools,” and just deny, deny, deny, while we are at risk of losing an entire generation of young people. So I have to ask these children, these teens, to be my ambassadors and to pass along the education and information I’m teaching them to their friends, so they can have a shot at not dying.
Listen, it’s never a safe time to be an illicit drug user, but these days it’s like playing a game of Russian roulette. And no one is talking about it. As these towns deny that there is a problem in their affluent communities, the young residents of those same communities are telling me stories in my office that keep me up at night. Not to mention, despite their young age, they are committing serious federal crimes in their procurement of these substances. Class A, federal felonies. The smuggling of controlled substances over state lines, possession with intent to distribute those substances, trafficking Fentanyl (even if by accident and done in ignorance), and using the internet for criminal acts. The criminal charges are many.
They think that their age and a lack of a serious criminal record will shield them if they ever get busted, and they might. And if their powerful parents know all the right people in all the right places, maybe they will get off with a “slap on the wrist,” some probation or community service, some fees, or the like. But what they don’t realize is that if some DA or judge wants to make an example of them, instead of going off to college, they might instead be spending the majority of their adult life in a federal penitentiary.
Who knows? I don’t want to find out. These are good kids. Every single one of them. Are they doing something dangerous? Yes. Are they making misguided choices? Have you ever met a teen who didn’t?
A plea to parents, teachers, community leaders, local politicians, whomever: please. We need to start having a dialogue about what is taking place in these communities, and it’s taking place in every community—rich, poor, urban, suburban. The problem is here, the problem is growing, and the problem is only going to get worse if we don’t shed light on the fact that we are in danger of losing our children, to the tune of hundreds of thousands annually, if we can’t start getting honest with ourselves, despite the unsightly headlines.
My clients are getting younger and younger, and it’s scaring the hell out of me.
Read more from Joshua Bennett-Johnson
Joshua Bennett-Johnson, Licensed Addictions Therapist
After working for 7 years in an amazing clinic, I launched into private practice in 2018. I love my job. I can say that without reservation. Watching people rebuild their lives is something that is worth more than any dollar amount.
