Jim Rauth

I am the kind of person who should not be an author or even be allowed to walk on this planet. In high school, I was escorted out the door on my eighteenth birthday for poor attendance, weak performance and behavioral problems. I also had another problem I was secretly dealing with--the disease of addiction. No one knew that though because I was so good at wearing a mask for the outside world to see. I was always running from who my god wanted me to be.

When I was a sophomore in high school, two brave souls from Alcoholics Anonymous ventured into my fifth hour social problems class. They were brave because this was a different time. It was the late 1970s and we did not have "Mothers Against Drunk Driving" or MTV yet with shows like Celebrity Rehab. These two strangers buried their souls in the truth. They had a check list for people to self-evaluate to see if they were an alcoholic. If somebody answered yes to three or more questions out of the 20, then they were possibly an alcoholic. At the age of 15, I could affirm to the majority of questions. I wanted to go with these two people from Alcoholics Anonymous right then and there that day. However, I did not have the courage to ask for help at an early age like 15; I thought I was going to miss something.

I did not miss much though. My use of alcohol started at age 12, the average age of first use for substances in the United States. I would have run-ins with the law, multiple car crashes where people were hurt, but fortunately no one was killed, blackouts and more. I was the lucky one though. Growing up in a little suburban life, I would lose four friends to alcoholism by age 28, including my best friend who left a wife and two children behind.

While we struggled with alcoholism, we did not use drugs like the opiates and heroin; however, drug abuse is another addiction that is just as serious in the U.S. In the last three years in the United States, more people have died from overdose than traffic fatalities. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2013, 81% of the 43,982 drug overdose deaths in the United States were unintentional. 12% were with the intentions of suicide. A further 6% were with an undetermined intent.

Yet, #weednation, #weed and #stonednation are the hashtags that can be found on Twitter with the majority of posters being for, not against the use of marijuana. Now, I counsel in group therapies as an AODA counselor (Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse) in the inner city of Milwaukee. The facility I work at services the state of Wisconsin's poorest residents. The facility attendees have real life problems such as being victims of shootings or losing siblings and friends to gun violence. However, their biggest problem may be an addiction to marijuana. 80% of the people I counsel are at the institution for various marijuana violations.

Drug addictions and alcohol addictions can have the same effects. Marijuana addicts are the most challenging to counsel because with the wave of states legalizing the drug, the myth is that it is not addictive. Besides marijuana, young heroin addicts can become stuck and the physical, emotional and financial toll is the same as an alcoholic's. While doing my work, I have seen grown men cry because they cannot stop using marijuana and they have to leave their families for a couple months to stay in the county jail. In my groups and individual counseling sessions, I also try to point out a five dollar-a-day habit adds up to several pairs of baby shoes by the end of the month. I also show how stepping on a vehicle's brake pedal one tenth of a second too late can have dire consequences for everyone involved.

Now, there is an epidemic going through the United States. Statistically, 1 out 10 Americans deals with a drug addiction, not to mention food and other negative habits like gambling. Out of Upper Iowa's student body population of 5,900, there are possibly 590 students with some form of the disease.

I advise for anybody struggling with an addiction to get help from a therapist and a 12 step program. The help is there if it is asked for. With the help I received, I don't need to wear a mask anymore. That changed when my wife told everyone I was late for my child's baseball game because I was at a meeting.

#news #studentlife #upperiowa #matc #addiction #recovery #kids #uw #uiu #aoda