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BOUNCING BACK
Teens struggle with substance abuse
(feature in The Bulletin and The Progress
Enterprise, 15 Jan.,1997)
by Theresa Hawkesworth)
Laura hit rock bottom before deciding to turn
her life around. "I couldn't go any lower without committing suicide,"
says Laura, a recovering drug addict and alcoholic.
New Year's Eve, 1994 signaled the start of
Laura's new outlook. She went to a party knowing she was supposed to meet
her foster parents to bring in the new year. By the time they arrived she
had burns on her hands and was passed out on the road.
"Knowing I had hurt people who had taken me in and
didn't have to, that did it," she says. But even that wouldn't have been
enough for long. Laura, 18, says the county's youth support program saved
her life.
"It gave me goals. I have dreams. I'm going to graduate,"
she says. "It totally changed my life."
Laura started drinking about once a month
when she was ten.
"It was easy," she says. "I started hanging out
with an older crowd and they got me drunk."
Drinking became her escape from family problems
until she moved to Nova Scotia. For three years, Laura didn't drink, but
at 15 she entered a foster home. remaining distant from the family, she
started drinking again at parties, and eventually started drinking before,
during and after school. Her grades slipped and she sank lower and lower,
losing interest in everything. By 16, she was using marijuana, hashish
and acid.
"It was very easy to say yes because everyone was
doing it," she says.
Finally, a friend dragged her to youth support.
She didn't talk or listen for a few months.
Eventually she realized she had a problem. The program
saved her life.
"It's my family. It gets me through," she says.
"I got people I can call at 4 a.m. to talk."
The combination of support, education, recreation
and outreach opportunities offered by the program have given Laura new
direction. Most rewarding is being able to share her story with other teens.
"If you reach one out of 400, that's one kid you're
going to save a lot of trouble," she says. "People have come back and said
they've quit because of us."
Reg, 16, didn't drink or use drugs until he was
in grade 9. By then, he wanted to experiment and started drinking. When
he went to high school that September there were a lot of drugs around
and he started smoking marijuana and hashish.
"You could go out in the smoking section and get
baked for free. I got pretty messed up," he says.
In November, Reg smoked too much marijuana and poisoned
himself. he stopped smoking up for awhile after that, but there were too
many temptations.
"There's drug dealers everywhere and drug dealers
are exceptional salesmen," he says. "It's always in your face."
After months of smoking pot almost every day he
and a friend decided to experiment with gasoline in his garage, inhaling
it through the mouth. "When you start using drugs, you don't really care
what you do as long as it gets you high," he says. He liked the high from
gasoline and got sick when he stopped, so before long he was inhaling three
or four times a day. By the end of February the tank was empty so Reg and
his friends put their lips around the nozzle of the lawn mower to get high.
"If you don't use it, you go nuts. It's very addictive.
You just need it," he says. "It tears away at you."
One night he spilled gas all over the couch. he
woke up and friends were messing around with a lighter. High, Reg sparked
the couch, ending his serious drug use. "I sobered up in five seconds,"
says Reg. "I burnt two shirts off my back and melted my sneakers. I made
a pact with my buddies never to do it again."
Reg admits he joined the youth support program two
years ago to get out of class, but has since realized what the program
has to offer. "Everyone has to make up their own mind to stop, but
it's programs like youth support that give you the help you need to make
up your mind," he says. "It's 110 per cent support. It's family. It saved
me."
Recently Reg told his mother the truth about the
charred remains of the garage couch. "I told her and tears were shed over
it, but she stuck beside me all the way. I have to thank her as much as
anyone."
It took more than rock bottom for Rick, 15,
to change his life. He smoked his first joint when he was 12. "After my
first joint, I wanted anything I could to get high," he says. He drank
and did drugs, which he says are always available, as often as he could.
One night, Rick and his brother had a private party, drinking beer, rum,
and lemon extract. They sniffed gas and Rick took about 60 muscle relaxers.
his sister came home and found him unconscious. She punched him in the
face, trying to keep him awake, until the ambulance arrived.
"I went into a coma and woke up in a hospital in
Halifax," he says. "They were trying to put a tube down my throat. Everything
in my body was shutting down." Released from hospital three weeks later
he started detox, but even a near death experience wasn't enough to curb
his addiction. he convinced himself he would have been okay if he wouldn't
have combined the drugs.
"I didn't think I was going to get hurt," he says.
"It didn't take his parents long to figure out he
was using again. They forced him to attend a group support meeting where
he realized he wasn't alone. Other people were trying to quit so he thought
he'd give it a shot. he's been able to quit drugs, but still drinks occasionally.
He's not judged or criticized by the staff or other members of youth support
and that motivates Rick to stay clean.
Despite attempts to have a different life,
Laura, Reg and Rick know they'll have to live with the effects of their
drug abuse for a long time. Laura has occasional acid flashbacks and the
permanent brain damage caused by inhaling gasoline - daily headaches, nightmares,
sickness, memory loss, slurred speech and emotional problems such as depression
- could haunt Reg forever. "Gasoline's bad because it cooks so many brain
cells that don't come back," he says. "I find it a lot harder at school,
problem solving especially. Intellectually it's pretty tough."
The side effects aren't only physical. There's a
loss of family trust and you're labeled as a drug addict and alcoholic,
a reputation and image that's almost impossible to shake, says Reg. "If
you've done it once they expect you to do it again."
There's non-users, casual users, addicts like Reg,
Rick and Laura who are able to turn their lives around and those who have
gone too far to ever come back, says Reg. "Our path has been the most productive
because we survived to teach other people."
During outreach programs parents always ask if there's
anyway to protect their children, says laura. She tells them to love them
and communicate with them. "The best way is to let your child know you're
going to be there," she says. "They have to make their own choices." Educate
them about what's out there and teach them to make decisions for themselves,
adds Reg.
Rick, Reg and Laura agree there's too many drugs;
too many kids in trouble for youth support to end.
"I'd hate to see what would happen if they cut the
program," Says Laura. "Kids are falling apart because of drugs and need
somewhere to go," adds Reg.