Background: Parents of teenagers who use illicit drugs experience a high degree of family burden and mental health issues but have received little attention in research. the aim of this study was to gain new knowledge of the situation of parents of teenage children with drug use.

Method: Fifteen semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with parents who received support or treatment with their teenagers at outpatient treatment clinics in sweden. the data was analyzed with thematic textual analysis.

Results: Based on scheff ’s theory of emotions, four central themes were identified in the parents’ experiences: parental strategies, shame, coping with stress, and communication as a protective factor. Parents had a heavy family burden and reported problem-focused and emotion-focused behaviors which created shame, impaired communication between parent and child, and a lack of trust. shame may shape the parents’ discomfort in seeking help from relatives and professional support.

Conclusions: clinical practice should pay attention to the impact of shame, behavior patterns as vulnerabilities and protective factors, and how communication and understanding can be developed. We argue that scheff ’s theory of emotions is useful to understand parents in crisis and that its concepts may be of use if applied in family support.