TEENS' ESCAPE FROM REALITY IS A BAD TRIP

The temptation of drugs and alcohol can start at an early age.

According to a University of Michigan study, more than half of high school students will use illicit drugs by the time they graduate.

Rachel and Chris are two teens who felt the allure of drugs and alcohol in high school. Now in treatment, they are overcoming their addictions with the help of their families and the Pathway Family Center on the city's Northside.

They recently spoke with Y-Press.

RACHEL, 17: I had an OK home life. I was kind of shy. I had friends, but I wasn't really popular. I didn't ever feel like I was accepted. I felt like I was misplaced, I wasn't normal.

I started using (drugs) when I was 15, the very end of my freshman year. I wanted to feel popular. I thought that all the pretty girls that everyone liked -- that all the boys liked -- they went out and partied.

At first it was fun. I went to all the parties I had imagined with a lot of people. Then it started to become more of a need and a habit.

A lot of the reason I used was because I couldn't deal with what was going on in life. I was in a really unhealthy relationship. I thought that I couldn't survive one day if I didn't have him with me.

I (became) a real big snot to everyone. All I cared about was what I wanted, and if you couldn't give that to me, then screw you.

Anyone that I was around, I'd try to get them to use. I tried to get my brother, who is 15, to use. I gave my 7-year-old sister cigarettes. I wanted other people to participate in what I was doing so I didn't feel so alone.

I stole from everyone I knew. I stole from stores. I stole from my friends who had drugs. I stole from my parents, from my sisters and brothers. I had a job, but I usually spent all that.

My grades went down quite a bit. I ended my freshman year with a 3.7 (grade point average), and I eventually dropped down to a 2.6. I was planning on dropping out my senior year.

The first time my mom caught me, I came home drunk and I could barely make it up the stairs. But I convinced her it was a one-time thing.

The next time they found out was when I got arrested for minor intoxication. After that I had to go to substance abuse classes. I failed the urine drug screen (test).

Then my family life went all to hell. I didn't talk to my parents.

Then I moved out of my house. I disobeyed so many rules, they said, "You can't live here anymore." But I still continued to do (drugs).

Finally, in a last-ditch attempt, my parents took me to this program. As a newcomer (at Pathway), you're basically stripped of every privilege you could dream of -- I mean, down to like plucking your eyebrows. . . . Basically, I came to the building and we had group (therapy) and then we had school time, then lunch, then we had three groups in the afternoon.

Second level is when you can start going home and being with your family. Then like on the third, you can gain the privileges of reading magazines, watching TV, listening to music.

I'm just starting to go back to school, so I go to school 'til 2 o'clock, then I come back to the building.

I used for two years. I went through a lot of bad things to get where I am, but I believe that they give me a better character. They make me a better person.

CHRIS, 16: When I was 5, I guess my life was actually all right. At that point, my parents were actually together. As I got older, things changed in my family situation. My parents ended up getting a separation. I guess from then on things were a little rougher for me.

I think marijuana was the first drug I used. I was 13. At school, I had this kid who I looked up to. I thought he was the coolest kid, and he was doing drugs. He was pretty deep into drugs, and I wanted to be like him, be accepted by him. He sold me some marijuana and I tried it.

The whole purpose of my using drugs was to escape reality, to avoid situations. When I was high, I was off in my own little world.

My brother was using at the same time I was using. I thought it was a cool thing, my way of bonding with my brother. Like we would get high with each other; we would talk about drugs. (But) like when I was using drugs, we pushed each other away. I just wouldn't talk. I'd get in fights with him, physical fights.

I used for like a little over a year. . . . As time went by, I just quit caring whether my mom knew I used drugs. After a while, she found out, and I just quit trying to put up a front. I just went off and did my own thing.

A big part of it was stealing, mostly from my mom. Like even if she was in the room, I'd try to snatch $20 here, $50 there, when her purse was lying out. It became so clear and obvious that I had an addiction. Like with school -- I wasn't doing good in that and I had a truancy problem. I lost all those other (interests), like sports. I quit caring about myself.

I dropped every single one of my friends and I went with my drug-using friends instead. I tried to influence other people, non-users, clean people, to use drugs like I was.

I flunked my entire freshman year because of drugs.

My mom was looking up a lot of different places to help me with my drug use and my behavioral problems. She came across Pathway Family Center when she was at a meeting called Tough Love.

Pathway Family Center has helped me tremendously. Now I go to school and get back to the (Pathway Family Center) building around 3:30. I'm just starting to go out and do things. Sometimes I'll go to Castleton mall or go out and hang with my friends. I can pretty much do anything. I can go out and do stuff now, whereas (when I first started getting help) I had to be at the (center) or at school.

I could use drugs if I wanted to. I go to school and I have probably a million chances to talk to people who use drugs also, but I choose not to because I want something better of my life.

There are times when I just wish I could take back all those (days) -- I did a lot of bad things to people and to myself that I wish I had never done. But if I hadn't done those things, I wouldn't be the person I am today.

It has made me stronger. I like the person I am today.

REPORTERS: Lisa O'Conner, 13; Kimberly Heron, 12; and Christine Beyer, 11.