Wednesday, September 20, 2017 // The Statement
4B
Wednesday, September 20, 2017 // The Statement
5B
BEHIND THE LIE:
“It’s not alcoholism until you graduate”
b y A l e x a S t . J o h n, Managing News Editor
I
f I hadn’t already known that graduate
student Ary — who requested her last
name not be published — was recover-
ing from several years of alcohol and
drug abuse, I wouldn’t have guessed it from
her appearance. As we talked last Wednes-
day in my most comforting setting (the Daily
newsroom) I quickly caught onto her dedi-
cation to her studies and noticed the bright
smile on her face, much like that of any other
student.
No matter the substance, college students
in recovery look and act as any other: walk-
ing the halls in a backpack and jeans, a pony-
tail or baseball cap, a cell phone in one hand
and a textbook or coffee in the other. With
my own perception of those in recovery
inundated by dramatized depictions in the
media, I realized I would have no idea if the
person sitting next to me in my 10 a.m. was
going through the same challenges as Ary.
As I spoke with her, I was quickly remind-
ed those in recovery are just like anybody
else — and the negative stereotypes and mis-
conceptions that plague these students are
keeping them from seeking help.
The stigmas attached to addiction are
harmful to the recovery process. Ary said
when her recovery began in the winter of
2015, she sought help with University of
Michigan Counseling and Psychological Ser-
vices — but getting there first was difficult.
*****
Ary began drinking in high school and
experimenting with various pills and other
substances to overcome anxiety and depres-
sion upon entering the University, where her
substance abuse spiraled out of control.
“The big thing for me most of my time
here was Adderall,” she said, adding that she
felt her depleting mental health and drug
abuse were tied.
A therapist at CAPS recommended she try
attending Contemplators, a student group
for those interested in talking about issues
of alcohol and drug abuse. Though Contem-
plators is no longer a student organization,
it has been replaced by other resources on
campus.
Ary recalls it was during one of these ses-
sions that she first admitted to herself she
was an addict.
“What became really obvious to me after
a few sessions of that is that, many of these
people looked like they would be able to
use the tools from the group to control or
limit their drinking and using and for me, it
became really clear that that just wasn’t pos-
sible,” she said.
She became afraid and stopped going to
the group.
“That was scary. It was, ‘Fuck, I have this
thing that is only going to get worse and it’s
already pretty bad,’ and then also the stig-
ma of, ‘Now, if I ever want to treat it, that’s
acknowledging it and therefore I get that
label of being an addict,” Ary said. “At this
point, I would just go on big benders of three,
four, five, six days of not sleeping and then I’d
be drinking around the clock to counterbal-
ance all the stimulants.”
Even still, she was able to graduate on
time, with honors in her program. But her
recovery journey continues even today.
*****
Alcohol abuse on college campuses has
become
increasingly
commonplace.
To
many, substance abuse looks like extreme
cases of fatality or assault. But for others
it’s an everyday, binge-drinking session that
results in months or years of hiding liquor
bottles and trying to piece together count-
less forgotten nights.
Roughly one in four college students
report academic consequences — ranging
from decreases in grades to missing classes
— from drinking, according to the National
Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism,
and 20 percent of college students meet the
criteria for an alcohol use disorder. Within
the University of Michigan, a 2007 survey
notes52 percent of undergraduates engaged
in binge drinking within two weeks of being
surveyed, as compared to 44 percent nation-
ally.
The abuse of opioids, opiates and prescrip-
tion medication has become more silent —
yet is growing, and subsequently, becomes
more dangerous. Opioids are synthetic
drugs, while opiates are derived from the
poppy plant.
Pill-sharing parties and a widespread
opioid epidemic can quickly lead some to a
vicious cycle of paying dealers and needing
a fix, debt and overdose.
In August, President Donald Trump
declared the opioid crisis a national state
of emergency due to numbers stating the
epidemic kills about 100 Americans daily.
Even within Washtenaw County, opiate and
opioid use has spiked, ultimately leading to
the introduction of Naloxone — a life-saving
drug capable of reversing the effects of an
overdose — in police departments locally
and nationwide.
Social Work student David Awadalla told
me how he first attended the University of
Georgia, where he played on the lacrosse
team until sustaining a sports-related injury.
Awadalla was prescribed opioid painkill-
ers, and at first, took them as prescribed.
“It made me comfortable in my own skin
and I could study, or talk to my parents, or
go out with friends and I felt confident,”
Awadalla said. “Over time, my dependence
on them grew and I started doing illegal
things to obtain more pills.”
After two suspensions from the Universi-
ty of Georgia and spending time incarcerat-
ed, he was given another chance to graduate
and then was accepted into the University
of Michigan’s School of Social Work in fall
of 2016. Last year, he interned with the Sub-
stance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration within the U.S. Department
of Health and Human Services. Awadalla
has been helping others with similar issues
ever since.
*****
The more alcohol Ary consumed and the
more drugs she took, the less she showed up
to her post-graduation lab position on time, if
at all. Her system stoked from so many stim-
ulants, Ary kept a bottle of gin next to her
bed, slamming cupful after cupful every two
hours to counterbalance the rush until 6 a.m.
After one final night abusing several sub-
stances, she sought an assessment from Uni-
versity Treatment Services — a division of
Michigan Medicine’s psychiatric services.
“They had told me: ‘You’re definitely an
addict and you’re definitely an alcoholic,’
and I was like, ‘Alcoholic? Everyone in col-
lege drinks like this, everyone’s grades suffer
because of drinking, I only drink this much
because I do too many drugs,’ ” Ary said.
She soon attended her first Alcoholics
Anonymous meeting but suffered a relapse
just 17 days later. Finally, a woman in one
meeting told her about the Collegiate Recov-
ery Program, which aims to reduce the stig-
ma behind addiction and provides students
with a supportive community in the recov-
ery process. Ary attended a meeting and has
been sober for two and a half years since.
My first impression of LSA senior Mandy
— who requested her last name remain anon-
ymous — was that she, too, was motivated in
her school work and dedicated to helping
others. Mandy had a similar experience,
though she only seriously started drinking
during Welcome Week her freshman year.
For her, it rapidly became a bigger problem.
“I was nervous about being in a new place
and insecure — I just felt more confident and
it became this cure-all solution to every-
thing,” Mandy said. “I wasn’t 21 yet, but if I
had been, it would have been literally all the
time.”
Toward the end of her freshman year,
Mandy went to meetings for AA and Stu-
dents for Recovery (a group similar to Con-
templators) in an attempt to curtail her habit.
She found temporary relief, but she relapsed
the following fall as academic and peer pres-
sures constantly loomed.
“I was trying so hard and was not able
to do as well as I wanted, and of course the
drinking didn’t help either,” Mandy said.
“If I’m drinking before classes or missing
class because I’m hungover, then I’d be upset
about my grades so I would drink more or
drink after an exam.”
Though she didn’t want to, Mandy with-
drew from the semester to take time off.
“I hated that I wouldn’t be graduating
in four years and that I had to take time off
and I thought I was a failure and all these
things, but now, looking back, it was the best
thing I could have done,” Mandy said. “I also
thought I was better at hiding it than I was,
but I definitely worried especially about my
family finding out.”
“I just felt very lonely and isolated and
I didn’t know how I would get through it
or how I would turn 21 and stay sober,” she
added.
This cycle of abuse continued until she met
Matt Statman from the Collegiate Recovery
Program when she returned to campus. The
program changed everything regarding her
recovery process.
*****
CRP was founded with the help of Wolver-
ine Wellness Director Mary Jo Desprez and a
student in recovery, along with funding from
UHS, CAPS and private donors. The CRP has
introduced opportunities for sober events
and recovery support to the University com-
munity. The CRP evolved from the Students
for Recovery organization and has since
become more accessible to the student body.
Over the past year, for example, the group
has held sober tailgates, birthday parties and
a graduation for outgoing seniors.
Statman, director of the CRP, said the pro-
gram has helped hundreds of students cope
with addiction. While alcohol and marijuana
are the most commonly abused substances
on the University of Michigan’s campus, the
program has also seen students seeking help
for opioid recovery.
One of Statman’s central goals is to ensure
those in recovery feel comfortable with their
environment — and through abstinence-
based programs, meetings and personalized
recovery efforts — he believes recovery is a
realistic goal.
“Primarily, what we’re designed to do is
support students who are already embrac-
ing a recovery identity on campus,” Stat-
man said. “When you start to have a more
visible recovery community, it’s attractive
to people, especially people who are miser-
able with the status quo. If their relationship
with substances is causing pain and misery,
and they’re unable to change it on their own,
being part of a community of students in
recovery is attractive.”
Statman sees about 25 students regularly
each semester, in addition to dozens who
come for help on a less formal basis and gen-
erally need more direction as to where to
start with their recovery process.
“My goal isn’t to get students sober, it’s
to support those who are already sober and
those who are highly motivated to make
those changes that are required to get sober,”
Statman said. “(It’s) really designed to sup-
port this very specific group of students who
have this identity that is marginalized and
often forgotten about.”
The peer support group within the CRP
helps those in recovery cope with a campus
culture that isn’t particularly conducive to
recovery. Statman specifically singled out
the high-pressure academic environment
and unhealthy student behavior as drivers of
this.
“For people in recovery, wellness might be
especially important, because if they’re not
taking care of their wellness, they are vul-
nerable to relapse. A culture like ours that
places a value on being out of balance, not
sleeping … that culture is also threatening,”
Statman said. “We’re seeing huge numbers
of students who are having a lot of emotional
and mental health issues resulting from the
culture on college campuses, and I think the
idea that all that matters is academic success
is harmful.”
Mandy — who was first enrolled in several
demanding engineering courses — echoed
Statman.
She added the stigma she first experienced
while in recovery about a year ago has been
somewhat removed as awareness has grown
on campus. But she said she still believes
there is a long way to go in terms of changing
the negative misconceptions of those with
addiction to spreading awareness about sub-
stance use and misuse.
“Hearing people talking about drinking
and being like, ‘I’m such an alcoholic,’ and
making light of it can be tough sometimes,
and I’m just sitting there like — you have no
idea,” Mandy said. “The saying, ‘It’s not alco-
holism until you graduate’ … it prevents peo-
ple from getting help sooner when they could
use it or before things get more serious.”
*****
There are additional resources available
on campus and locally for those struggling
with a substance, or who just want informa-
tion on how to better manage their use.
Aside from individual wellness coaching
made available through UHS, there’s the
Alcohol and Other Drug Prevention Pro-
gram, Brief Alcohol Screening and Inter-
vention for College Students, the Individual
Marijuana Education Program and the Ann
Arbor Campus-Community Coalition, a
resource for both students and Ann Arbor
residents in recovery.
BASICS and IMEP interventions are
shorter-term interventions — a two-session
alcohol and two-session marijuana screen-
ing and education discussions, respectively
— sometimes mandated by the Office of
Student Conflict Resolution to those who
committed a related offense on campus, but
many also attend of their own accord.
And though the University has no specific
housing for those in recovery, substance-
free housing is available upon request. These
environments host additional support for
students choosing not to engage in substance
use, a step further from traditional on-cam-
pus housing.
At an event last November that promot-
ed an open dialogue on opioid addiction in
Washtenaw County, Mark Albulov, a residen-
tial therapist at Dawn Farm — an Ypsilanti-
based nonprofit with an outpatient center in
Ann Arbor geared toward long-term drug
and alcohol recovery — discussed the signifi-
cance of labeling addiction as a serious medi-
cal concern.
“We want to … educate people that it is a
medical disease,” Albulov said. “It’s not a
moral failure, it’s not a criminal behavior, it’s
a medical disease that has treatment.”
Despite the different options, to many
students on campus, the CRP has steadily
remained the best avenue through which to
recover.
LSA senior Sophie — who requested her
last name remain anonymous — first got into
recovery one year ago. This in itself wasn’t
easy.
“I hit my bottom, dropped out of classes
and dug a little deeper until I ended up going
to treatment,” Sophie said. “When I dropped
out, I really didn’t imagine coming back. I
couldn’t imagine very far ahead at that point
in my life.”
It was a challenge not only to reach out,
but also to find a place to fit.
“You’re stuck between these two sides —
where you’re in treatment, and everyone is
just focused on getting a part-time job, and
one day at a time, and then there’s the other
side where there’s Michigan students where
their resume is five pages long and I felt stuck
in the middle,” she said.
At the CRP, however, Sophie said she
found a home.
“It was totally acceptable and understand-
able and even an act of courage to have taken
time off of school to get your head straight,”
Sophie said. “I don’t think I found any other
community at Michigan where that was the
perception, because as an outsider, there is
stigma and even before I went to treatment
and didn’t think I had a problem, I thought
that that was going to be the low point of my
life.”
Awadalla, also an intern with the CRP,
says it the program has been the most impor-
tant part of his recovery.
“It’s cool to be able to come into a room
with a bunch of other students who all
are trying to accomplish the same thing,”
Awadalla said. “Whenever we start doubting
ourselves, someone else picks us up.”
Awadalla said he embraces his experi-
ences to help others, noting addiction’s non-
discriminatory nature.
“It’s such a big part of my story that I can’t
even try to hide it,” Awadalla said. “It doesn’t
discriminate — it doesn’t matter what race
you are, what gender you are, what sex you
are, what orientation you are, what your
socioeconomic status it, it affects every-
body.”
Many of those interviewed brought to
light the question of using the word “addict.”
“The term ‘drug addict’ — yes, I’m a drug
addict, but sometimes now even still there’s
a part of my brain that justifies it,” Ary
said. “There’s something in that term that’s
uncomfortable to be associated with.”
Destigmatizing the word “addict” is
important, and Statman offered up the
option of saying an individual “has addic-
tion.” On the other hand, however, Statman
noted the importance of allowing those in
recovery to accept the identities they want to
best recover.
LSA senior Heather Martin watched her
sister’s health and well-being decline as her
addiction to opiates spanned seven years,
something that came to a rapid halt one day
with a fatal overdose.
Martin first opened up to the Daily about
her family’s story last October. Now, more
than three years after her sister Angie’s
death, Martin and her family continue to
maintain the organization Angel Wings for
Angie, created in her sister’s honor, to pro-
vide local support for those in recovery.
“How can we expect these people (to
recover),” Martin said last year, “if everyone
just keeps looking at them and telling them
that they’re not going to be anything, that
that is all they’re going to be labeled with?”
*****
Statman believes providing these recovery
resources on campus is a necessity.
“We owe it to our students who have this
disorder to provide support for them when
they come to campus or return to campus.
It’s an indispensable piece of the alcohol and
drug puzzle,” he said.
And for these students, receiving these
recovery
resources
largely
determines
whether they will relapse.
“The quality of my life is completely dif-
ferent now,” Ary said. “There’s a lot I need
to do every day to maintain my sobriety, and
now that’s just a part of my life, but just see-
ing how much things can and have improved
for me in two and a half years makes me real-
ly excited about what’s going to happen.”
ALEXIS RANKIN/Daily
ALEXIS RANKIN/Daily