{"id":10799,"date":"2015-03-24T20:23:42","date_gmt":"2015-03-24T20:23:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/?p=10799"},"modified":"2017-10-18T13:25:06","modified_gmt":"2017-10-18T13:25:06","slug":"not-the-usual-college-party-this-ones-sober","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/2015\/03\/not-the-usual-college-party-this-ones-sober\/","title":{"rendered":"Not the Usual College Party (This One\u2019s Sober)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

It started with a wine cooler, said Paige\u00a0Cederna, describing that first sweet, easy-to-down drink she experienced as a \u201cmagic elixir.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\u201cI had no inhibitions with alcohol,\u201d said Ms.\u00a0Cederna, 24. \u201cI could talk to guys and not worry about anyone judging me. I remember being really proud the day I learned to chug a beer. I couldn\u2019t get that feeling fast enough.\u201d But before long, to get over \u201cthat feeling,\u201d she was taking Adderall to get through the days.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

But it was now more than three years since she drank her last drop of alcohol and used a drug for nonmedical reasons. Her \u201csober date,\u201d she told the group, many nodding their heads encouragingly, was July 8, 2011.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Ms.\u00a0Cederna\u2019s\u00a0story of addiction and recovery, told in a clear, strong voice, was not being shared at a 12-step meeting or in a treatment\u00a0center. Instead, it was presented on a cool autumn day, in a classroom on the campus of the\u202fUniversity of Michigan<\/a>\u202fin Ann\u00a0Arbor, to a group of 30 undergraduate students in their teens and early 20s.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

On the panel with Ms.\u00a0Cederna\u00a0were two other Michigan graduate students. Hannah Miller, 27, declared her \u201csober date\u201d as Oct. 5, 2010, while Ariel Britt, 29, announced hers as Nov. 6, 2011. Like Ms.\u00a0Cederna\u2019s, Ms. Britt\u2019s problems with drugs and alcohol started in her freshman year at Michigan, while Ms. Miller\u2019s began in high school. All three are participants in a university initiative, now two years old, called the Collegiate Recovery Program.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Staying sober in college is no easy feat. \u201cPregaming,\u201d as it is called on campus (drinking before social or sporting events), is rampant, and at Michigan it can start as early as 8 a.m. on a football Saturday. The parties take place on the porches and lawns of fraternities, the roofs and balconies of student houses, and clandestinely in dormitories \u2014 everywhere but inside the academic buildings.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

For this reason \u2014 because the culture of college and drinking are so synonymous \u2014 in September 2012 the University of Michigan joined what are now 135 Collegiate Recovery communities on campuses all over the country. While they vary in size from small student-run organizations to large embedded university programs, the aim is the same: to help students stay sober while also thriving in college.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\u201cIt shouldn\u2019t be that a young person has to choose to either be sober or go to college,\u201d said Mary Jo\u00a0Desprez, who started Michigan\u2019s Collegiate Recovery Program as the director of Michigan\u2019s Wolverine Wellness department. \u201cThese kids, who have the courage to see their problem early on, have the right to an education, too, but need support,\u201d she said, calling it a \u201csocial justice, diversity issue.\u201d Matthew\u00a0Statman, the full-time clinical social worker who has run Michigan\u2019s program since it began in 2012, added, \u201cWe want them to feel proud, not embarrassed, by their recovery.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

At the panel presentation, Ms. Britt, who temporarily dropped out of Michigan as an undergraduate, shared with the students her anxiety when she finally sobered up and decided to return to campus. \u201cI had so many memories of throwing up in bushes here,\u201d she said. \u201cI wanted to have fun, but I also had no idea how to perform without partying.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Ms.\u00a0Cederna\u00a0also remembers what it felt like to return to Michigan sober her senior year. Not only did she lose most of her friends (\u201cEveryone I knew on campus drank,\u201d she said), but she also dropped out of her sorority (\u201cI was only in it to drink,\u201d she said). \u201cI ended up alone in the library a lot watching Netflix,\u201d she said. Molly Payton, 24 (now a senior who once fell off an eight-foot ledge, drunk and high at a party), said, \u201cI read all the\u202fHarry Potter<\/a>\u202fbooks alone in my room my first months clean.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Everything changed, however, when these students learned there were other students facing the same issues. Ms.\u00a0Cederna\u00a0first found Students for Recovery, a small student-run organization that, until the Collegiate Recovery Program began, was the only available support group on Michigan\u2019s campus besides local 12-step meetings, most of which tend toward an older demographic.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\u201cThrough S.F.R., I ended up having five new friends,\u201d she said of the organization, which still exists but is now run by the 25 to 30 Collegiate Recovery Program students; both groups meet every other week in the health\u00a0center. The main difference between the two is that students in the Collegiate Recovery Program have to already be sober and sign a \u201ccommitment contract\u201d that they will stay clean throughout college through a well-outlined plan of structure. Students for Recovery is aimed at those who are still seeking recovery, may be further into their recovery or want to support others in recovery.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

When a young student incredulously asked the panel, \u201cHow do you possibly socialize in college without alcohol?\u201d Ms. Britt, Collegiate Recovery Program\u2019s social chairwoman, rattled off a list of its activities \u2014 sober tailgates, a pumpkin-carving night, volleyball games, dance parties, study groups, community service projects and even a film screening of \u201cThe Anonymous People\u201d that attracted some 600 students. \u201cBut we also just hang out together a lot,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Indeed, looking around the organization\u2019s lounge just before the holidays (a small, cordoned-off corner on the fourth floor of the health\u00a0center, minimally decorated with ratty couches, a table and a small bookshelf stocking titles like \u201cWishful Drinking\u201d and \u201cSmashed\u201d), it was hard to believe some of these young adults were once heroin addicts who had spent time in jail. On the contrary, they looked like model students, socializing over soft drinks and snacks as they celebrated one student who had earned back his suspended license.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\u201cBy far the biggest benefit to our students in the recovery program is the social component,\u201d said Mr.\u00a0Statman, who is hoping a current development campaign may provide more funding. (The program is currently supported by a mandatory student health tuition fee.) \u201cLet\u2019s just say, we all wish we could be\u202fTexas Tech<\/a>,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

The Collegiate Recovery Program was established at Texas Tech decades ago, and it is now one of the largest, with 120 recovery students enrolled (along with Rutgers University and Augsburg College in Minneapolis). Thanks to a $3 million endowment, the Texas Tech program now offers scholarships as well as substance-free trips abroad. The students there have access to an exclusive lounge outfitted with flat-screen TVs, a pool table and a Ping-Pong table, kitchen, study carrels and a seminar room. Entering freshmen in recovery even have their own dormitory.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\u201cWe found that simply putting them on the substance-free halls didn\u2019t work,\u201d said Kitty Harris, who, until recently, was the director for more than a decade of Texas Tech\u2019s program (she remains on the faculty). \u201cMost of the kids on substance-free floors are just there to make their parents happy.\u201d (The Michigan students in the recovery program mostly live off campus for the same reason; they do not have their own housing.)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\u201cMost students begin experimenting innocently in college with drugs and alcohol,\u201d said Mr.\u00a0Statman, who just celebrated his 13th year in recovery. \u201cThen there are the ones who react differently. They are not immoral, pleasure-seeking hedonists, they are simply vulnerable, and for their whole life.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Rates of substance-use disorders triple from 5.2 percent in adolescence to 17.3 percent in early adulthood, according to 2013 data from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. It thus makes this developmental stage critical to young people\u2019s future.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

It is at the drop-in Students for Recovery meetings where one often sees nervous new faces. At the beginning of one meeting at Michigan last semester, a young woman introduced herself as, \u201cOne day sober.\u201d Shortly afterward, a young man spoke up, \u201cI am five days sober.\u201d Danny (who asked that his last name not be published), a graduating recovery program senior applying to medical schools, later explained an important tenet all of them know from their various 12-step programs. \u201cThe most important person in the room is the new person,\u201d he said, adding that after the Students for Recovery meetings, members try to approach any new participants, directing them to the\u202fC.R.P. website<\/a>\u202fand to Mr.\u00a0Statman, who is always on call for worried students.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\u201cIn the same way a diabetic might not always get their sugar levels right, part of addiction is relapsing, and we really don\u2019t want our students to see that as a failure if it happens,\u201d said Mr.\u00a0Statman, adding that it is often the other students in the program who tell him if they suspect a student is using again.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Jake Goldberg, 22, now a junior, arrived at Michigan three years ago as a freshman already in recovery. \u201cI did really well the first five months,\u201d he said. \u201cI was sober. I was loud and proud on panels, but I had internal reservations. I had few friends and felt like I wanted to be more a part of the school.\u201d He recalled that in the spring of his freshman year, he suddenly found himself trying heroin for the first time. \u201cI should have died,\u201d he said, remembering how he woke up 14 hours later, dazed and bruised.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

After straightening up, Mr. Goldberg relapsed again his sophomore year when he thought he might be able to have just one drink. \u201cThat drink led to drugs and to more drinking,\u201d he said, remembering how Mr.\u00a0Statman\u00a0and Ms.\u00a0Desprez\u00a0called him into their office one day. \u201cThey told me this is not going to end well,\u201d he said. Now sober two years, Mr. Goldberg said: \u201cI now live recovery with all the structure, but I also am in a prelaw fraternity. When they drink a beer, I drink a Red Bull.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Ms. Miller echoed Mr. Goldberg\u2019s feelings over coffee one day on the Michigan campus. \u201cMost of us did not get sober just to go to meetings all the time,\u201d she said. \u201cWe want to live life too.\u201d She also said that socializing with\u00a0nonrecovery\u00a0students is still challenging. \u201cI went to a small party recently where everyone was eating pot edibles and drinking top-shelf liquor,\u201d she said. \u201cI got a bit squirrely in my head and had to leave.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

But now students in the Collegiate Recovery Program have a new place in Ann\u00a0Arbor\u00a0they can frequent:\u00a0Brillig\u00a0Dry Bar, a pop-up, alcohol-free spot that serves up spiced pear sodas and cranberry sours and features live jazz. And in March, four of the students in the program are joining dozens of recovery students from other colleges on a six-day, five-night, \u201cClean Break\u201d in Florida, arranged by\u202fBlue Community<\/a>, an organization that hosts events and vacations for young adults in recovery. (The vacation package includes music, guest speakers, beach sports and daily transport to local 12-step meetings.)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\u201cMy hope is that we continue to get more students who need a safe zone to our social events,\u201d said Ms. Britt, who is about to publicize a \u201csober skating night\u201d in March at the university ice rink. \u201cThey would see you can have a lot of fun in college without drinking.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\u201cAnd honestly, we really do have fun.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\u00a0\u00a0source: http:\/\/mobile.nytimes.com\/2015\/03\/01\/style\/not-the-usual-college-party-<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It started with a wine cooler, said Paige\u00a0Cederna, describing that first sweet, easy-to-down drink she experienced as a \u201cmagic elixir.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cI had no inhibitions with alcohol,\u201d said Ms.\u00a0Cederna, 24. \u201cI could talk to guys and not worry about anyone judging me. I remember being really proud the day I learned to chug a beer. I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,41,10,36,19,61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alcohol","category-drug-use-effects-on-foetus","category-education-sector","category-treatment-addiction","category-usa","category-youth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10799\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}