Drug use can lead to a host of significant health, social, learning and behavioral problems at a crucial time in a young person’s development. Getting high also impairs judgment, leading to risky decision making on issues like sex, criminal activity or riding with someone who is driving high.

If you believe that your child may be using alcohol or drugs, don’t overreact. Some of warning signs listed above may be normal for your teen and some signs may have other causes. One cannot ignore reality of teenage drug and alcohol abuse, however, so presence of three or more of these warning signs should prompt a discussion with your teen and an evaluation of whether professional help is needed. For more advice, or to locate right treatment facility for you, contact your pediatrician or call Center for Substance Abuse Referral Help line at 1-800-662-HELP.

Another creative game for a group uses a specific technique, called "concept combination." Simply combine random concepts or things in interesting ways, and see who has best idea. A chair and a microwave? Maybe an easy-chair with a built-in cooler, microwave and television, or microwavable "couch potatoes" - a potato snack in shape of a couch.

More Mind Games

Some lateral-thinking puzzles use a scenario, real or imagined, with a selection of things you have to use to accomplish something. Imagine a ping-pong ball in an iron pipe that's set in cement. The pipe sticks up two-feet high, and has almost same diameter as ball. With only a box of frosted-flakes, and a t-shirt, how many ways can you find to get ball out of pipe? You could also set this up for real, to know if a proposed solution will really work.

Riddles are just mind games or lateral-thinking puzzles. You move laterally in your mind, away from your usual line of thought, to solve a riddle. What did his friends do when canibal was late for dinner? Gave him cold shoulder. Keeping your brain in shape doesn't have to be a matter of serious study, does it?