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effects that sensitize are also becoming
hyper-sensitive if you will."
As she spoke, Paige recalled how her
drinking escalated. She remembers when
she had her first blackout - where she was
and the less-than-pleasant conditions in
an unknown place when she woke up. She
sees the times when she tried to control
her drinking by limiting her consumption
to only one type of alcohol and she knows
when she reached the point where nearly
every drinking occasion meant blacking
out.
"In Greek life, you just assume blacking
out was normal and drinking alot was nor-
mal," Paige said. "It's kind of interesting
to look back because it's like, 'What was I
thinking?"'
While at school, Paige would compare
her drinking habits to her friends and
believed she was not addicted to alcohol
because they were drinking more than her.
"People tried to confront me about it and
I would just be like 'No, I don't have a prob-
lem, I'm just drinking like everyone else
does,"' Paige said.
Jake, continued to drink while watching
his relationship with his parents deterio-
rate.
"Early in my senior year of high school,
I had a major blow up with them, and I left
home," Jake said. "Then about two days
later I said to my mom, 'I think I need to
go to treatment.' That was December 2 of
2010, and that was the first time I entered
treatment."
After he ended treatment in April, he
relapsed in June. He said he started to
build resentment towards peers who didn't
have to worry about sobriety.
When he started using drugs and alcohol
again, his parents offered an ultimatum:
He couldn't attend school at the University
in the fall if he continued using.
"I didn't care, and I kept using," Jake
said.
Because he continued using, he went to
treatment again, this time at a wilderness
program in North Carolina.
"It was enjoyable in a sense, but at the
same time it kind of got me centered and
realize what I needed to do," Jake said.
Jake then came to Ann Arbor and spent
his first semester at Washtenaw Commu-
nity College before enrolling at the Univer-
sity for the winter semester.
In Ann Arbor, Jake lived in two different
three-quarter houses - houses for people
transitioning from treatment back to "nor-
mal" life.
After his first semester at the University
was over, Jake briefly encountered drugs
again - a relapse that put his life at risk.
"About three weeks after the semester
ended, I took this deep sigh of relief (feel-
ing) like I got through the school year
clean and sober," Jake said. "I had about
11 months sober and then I kind of forgot
what I was doing and forgot that recovery

and staying sober is a 24/7, 365-type deal,
and I went back out and used."
He drove to Detroit to buy drugs and
woke up after overdosing surrounded in
vomit with a bruised face.
"That was a very scary time because it
seemed like a good idea, and-for that to
seem like a good idea seems ludicrous.to
anybody but an alcoholic and an addict,"
Jake said. "The amount I used should kill
any human being. A lot of people were
shocked that I didn't die."
Paige reached her breaking point last
summer when she left a party in nearby
Saline and crashed her car.
But she doesn't remember this.
She can't tell me how her car crashed
and at the time she didn't know where she

interventions ... and those are all effective
if one continues with them," Zucker said.
"They may not be one's particular cup of
tea (and it) doesn't seem to fit, but if one
sees that one of these resolutions is not
working, one needs to look for something
else because there are other options avail-
able. When one is significantly addicted,
self-help often does not work."
After going back and forth between
drug use and treatment, Jake said that
his most recent time using drugs caused a
major change in his mindset and that has
made him recommitted to stay clean and
sober.
"That was a huge realization for me,"
Jake said. "I came to a point where I, for
the first time in my life, really felt like I

"We know a couple things, that one
thing won't work so you have to do a series
of interventions" with evidence-based
strategies, Desprez said.
Zucker added that because college offers
a more "at-risk" environment for drinking,
universities offer different options to com-
bat drinking issues, with some programs
working better than others.
"If you look at the data, there's a tre-
mendous amount of variation with some
schools still very clearly being party
schools, where it's likely also that the,
alumni and the administration don't
take a heavy stance about controlling it,"
Zucker said. "Then there's schools who
take it more seriously, who have alternative
activities on football nights that don't involve
drinking or arrange transportation and gen-
erally raise awareness of the risk that's asso-
ciated with this."
The student life survey, which is compiled
from a random sample of students at the
University every two years, shows that every
year since 2005 - a year when binge drink-
ing at the University hit its all-time high of
53.2 percent - it has decreased.
One effort to decease drinking at the Uni-
versity is the "Stay in the Blue" harm-preven-
tion campaign started in the fall of 2006.
"(The Stay in the Blue campaign) helps
people attach a (blood alcohol content) level
to a level of low risk," Desprez said.
Marsha Benz, health educator for alcohol
and other drugs, was one of the primary peo-
ple involved with initiating the campaign.
Last spring, she said a big factor in making
the campaign successful was including stu-
dents in the process.
This year's data, which was released with
the 2011 student life survey results, shows
the binge drinking prevalence number is the
lowest it has been in over 10 years, at 44.7
percent. The lowest percentage previously
reported was 45 percent in 1999.
Like Paige, Jake seldom mentioned
being scared while using drugs. The only
time Jake explicitly referred to his experi-
ences as being scary was when he traveled
to Detroit and overdosed. He said usually
he wasn't scared about using drugs.
"The two favorable options were to
finally realize I can finally live a life clean
or to not have to be in that misery any-
more," Jake said. "So it didn't seem so
bad in the moment to use those drugs and
alcohol and think 'Well, maybe if I wasn't
here anymore, it'd be better than being
miserable.' But you realize after the haze'
clears, that that's a crazy thought and that
you shouldn't think like that, but in the
moment you're not really afraid of it. At
least I wasn't."
To say it was easy to listen to the things
they've already gone through in their still-
young lives would be a lie. Paige and Jake,
both sober and clean now, kept saying they
were lucky - lucky to have the resources to
already be in recovery - and that was the
most hopeful outlook I could find for the .
problem of underage addiction and addic-
tion in general.

outtakes photo by ruby wallau/daily
a -on the recor
"They came out and beat us up a bit. We have to know
how to control the pressure and play better."

- TIM HARDAWAY JR.,juniorforwardfor Michigan basketball,
on Sunday'sfirst loss of the season to the Ohio State Buckeyes
"I will discover things there. I will certainly purchase
things there. I will hang out there. I only hope they won't
have to ask me to leave."
- KEITH TAYLOR, coordinator of the University's creative writing
program, on what he will do at the new Literati Bookstore on Wash-
ington and Fourth streets, set to open in the spring
"Nobody (in the film) goes to a protest march. You can
assume that they're taking drugs, but you don't really see
that. Nobody's seeing flowers or anything like that."
- DAVID CHASE, director ofthefeaturefilm "Not Fade Away," on
how his directorial debut breaksfrom the typical depiction ofthe '60s

"Ever since my presentation two days ago, I haven't been
able to stop picturing people in their underwear..."
-LSA sophomore Samantha Arnold
Submit your own photo caption on The Michigan Daily's Facebook page for next week's outtake.

;
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f
,Vr

The flu season
this year is
reaching
epidemic
proportions.
Seriously. It's
been reported
that shots are
in short supply.
Find a clinic, get
your shot and
don't get (us)
sick.

The official portrait of Kate Middleton
was released to mixed reviews, some
citing it didn't capture her true beauty.
They should have used the Lo-Fi filter.



was. The details of that night have been
relayed back to her fronher mother/and
she only can repeat what she's been told.
The next day after the incident; though
she resisted, Paige's mom took her to an
Alcoholics Anonymous meeting.
"She took me to a meeting, and she
actually was crying to her friends which
I've really never seen her do," Paige said.
"I've never seen her vulnerable in public
ever, and she just couldn't help it. And this
woman came up and said, 'welcome to the
family."'
Both Paige and Jake used different types
of treatment for their recovery. Prof. Zuck-
er said finding the right treatment for each
person is important.
"There are a variety of different kinds of

was dedicated to staying sober. You really
have to give all of yourself to that end if you
want to accomplish it."
Environment, however, can also serve as
a gateway to recovery. Last year, both Paige
and Jake participated in CRP, and both
said it's a significant contributor to their
recovery success.
Paige, nine months sober in April when
I spoke with her, was the vice president of
CRP. She joined after being introduced to it
by her AA sponsor. -
"I know that if I didn't have this commu-
nity, if I just tried to stay sober by myself, it
wouldn't have worked," Paige said.
Desprez said the University combats
dangerous drinking and drug use ina vari-
ety of ways.y

A
Destiny's Child - reunited! - and Justin
Timberlake are back with new singles. We're
hoping matching, triplet camo ensembles and
frosted tips also makea return.

The newest dating
app, Tinder, let's
you select your next
hookup via mutual
selection and location
services. Like him?
Click the heart.
He likes you back?
An instant chat
communication starts
on the app. Darwin
would be proud.

}