Addicts Speak to Students About Drug Abuse Students receive advice on how to avoid drug use, addiction

Addicts Speak to Students About Drug Abuse
Students receive advice on how to avoid drug use, addiction

Students received a lesson in abuse and addiction Thursday at the Chatham Middle School auditorium as adolescent patients from a drug treatment center spoke to them about the negative, life-changing effects of drug use.

The "Family to Family" event, which was open to middle and high school students, brought in recovering patients from Daytop-New Jersey, a drug and alcohol treatment center for adolescents with various facilities throughout the state, to tell their stories.

To begin the assembly, Linda Wolk, Daytop's director of education, offered a challenge.

"Can you tell who next to you is a drug addict?" she asked the audience.

She then called the Daytop teens, who had been sitting among the audience in the half-filled auditorium, to come up to the stage, where they sat at a string of tables that was already occupied by many of the patients' parents and siblings.

Wolk then handed the microphone to each of the people sitting at the table, letting each tell his or her story.

Getting into Drug Use

Each of the teens on stage identified a different impetus for usage.

For Frank, 17, of Bergenfield, who has dabbled in marijuana, cocaine, acid and ecstasy and had been a drug dealer, it started off with "something as simple as curiosity."

"I was interested in trying drugs the same as people are interested in trying sports or playing video games," Frank said. "I've only been doing drugs for nine months. But, in that time, my life has gotten blown out of proportion."

Many of the teens pointed to their parents' divorce or a broken marriage as an emotional challenge that pushed them into drug use, although a few admitted that they did not truly recognize it as a factor leading to their drug use until recently.

Frances, 17, of Hunterdon County, said she didn't realize until later how much her parents' divorce had really affected her. She also identified being in love at 15 years old to a guy who introduced her to marijuana and the "artificial happy daze" it led to, as well as being bored.

"Before I started using, I was second in my class at school, and all of my friends were smart kids," Frances said. "Then I got bored with them."

A similar shift in friends was also prevalent among the teens' stories.

Amanda, 19, who has been using since she was 14 and named heroin as her drug of choice, said she used to hang out with the cheerleaders. However, as her usage increased, so did her friendship with other users.

Although Frank said he often hung out with other users, he also said he was lucky enough to already have a good group of friends who were willing to inform his parents when he started trying different drugs.

One of the mothers, Chris Mooney, of Moorestown, told a story of when her daughter, Alexis, who started using in seventh grade, came home with a big spot on her arm from where a friend had put a cigarette out.

"She didn't tell anyone," Mooney said, fighting back tears. "She didn't know how to react to it."

Alexis responded by putting her arm around her mother, who had threatened to kick her out of the house in January of this year if she didn't clean up her act, and was quick to say, "I have a great mom."

Downfall of Drug Abuse

Although Alexis and Frank identified good relationships with their family, this was not the same with some of the other teens.

Frances, who had trouble communicating with her parents while using, only now has a good relationship with them that she has gone through rehabilitation, saying she can now laugh and joke with them.

In Amanda's case, however, she has lost the support of her entire family, with the exception of her sister, who took her into her house after appearing at her doorstep and sat next to her at the table.

"At one point, I remember thinking, 'What casket will my sister be laying in?'" her sister said.

Although many of the stories were highlighted by steady recovery, Pam, of Sussex County, spoke about her son, Cory, who had problems with stealing in addition to heroin. She explained that after what seemed like a successful Daytop stay and a semester at community college, Cory relapsed and is trying to rehabilitate again.

The audience was silent as Jack Elsmore, who works for Prevention Is Key in Rockaway, told the story of his son, who died of an overdose in 1998 at the age of 17 after a failed stay at Daytop.

"You have to think of your kids and drug use like a village," Elsmore said. "You have to protect your village. You have to protect from any outsiders."

Elsmore said that "these kids have gone through hell." But both he and the teens on stage were quick to point out that all of the negative outcomes were the result of their own bad choices.

"I have been my own worst enemy," Frances said.

When asked by a young female audience member whether they thought they would ever consider doing drugs again, some of the patients explained that resistance is and will remain a constant challenge. Frank answered that, now that he is an addict, he "will probably want to take [drugs] for the rest of my life."

"I think about getting high every day, but I know I don't want to go through that anymore," Tyler, one of the teens, said. "Thinking about using again makes me feel guilty."

Combating Drug Use

In addition to explaining their stories, the patients and their family members offered experiential advice on how kids can avoid mistakes similar to those presented, as well as steps parents can take to prevent drug use or stop it in its tracks.

Frank advised the students in the audience to get involved in an extracurricular activity, pointing out that most school-affiliated sports require drug tests.

All of the teens warned the students in the audience not to assume that the same thing could never happen to them.

"I was 14 once," Alexis said. "Well, I was using when I was 14."

Frances encouraged parents not to ignore the warning signs and simply think their child would never be caught up in a bad situation.

"If your child is acting strange, confront them on it," she said.

Both mothers on stage said it can be difficult at first to admit that one's child has a problem but that action has to be taken immediately.

"Call the police instantly," Pam said. "You have to stop the process from going any further."

After the event, Jill Gallagher, of Chatham Township, and a group of other mothers who had come with their children, said she came because she had heard how great the program was.

"It was definitely scary to hear some of the stories," Gallagher said. "We were just discussing about how these kids get the drugs. How do these kids get heroin?"

Sandy Smith, student assistance coordinator for the School District of the Chathams, has run the "Family to Family" program every few years for almost a decade and a half and said people shouldn't assume that drug use only happens in urban communities.

"It can happen here," Smith said. "It can happen anywhere."

Smith said the event always feels new each time since there are always different patients with different stories who come in, since they are usually current patients and have to have completed a certain level of treatment to be allowed to leave the facility.

Chatham Middle School children who attended with a parent received extra credit for health class.

This comes from ChathamPatch and the original link is

http://chatham.patch.com/articles/addiction-patients-speak-to-students-about-drug-abuse