teen gasolineIf you knew your teen was struggling with a life-threatening addiction, you would do everything in your power to get her help, right? Probably the first step would be to throw out or lock up any and all of the substance in question -- the alcohol or prescription drugs or whatever else. Especially if that substance was highly toxic even in small doses, like, say ... gasoline.

That's the first thing that jumped out at me about Shannon, the girl hooked on drinking gasoline who recently made an appearance on TLC's My Strange Addiction. She's addicted to something that's not even intended for human consumption, an addiction her mother is aware of, and still it seems no one is stopping Shannon from keeping gallons of gasoline under her bathroom sink for convenient daily access.

WHY?

This girl is the definition of "danger to herself." I'm guessing what she really needs is a stint in a treatment facility where trained professionals do things like check under patients' bathroom sinks for secret stashes of booze or crack or flammable fuel. But if that's not an option, for some reason, aren't there any other measures to be taken?

It doesn't seem like Shannon goes to great lengths to hide her habit. Swilling gasoline from a big red jug is about as obvious as you can get. I mean, if that's not a cry for help, I don't know what is.

So why isn't anyone helping Shannon? Her mother made the effort to go on TV and talk about the problem -- why can't she make the effort to actually get her daughter a therapist?

What would you do if Shannon was your daughter?


Image via msnbc