It's A Fact

Those who begin drinking alcohol as a teen are four times more likely to become alcoholics than those who begin drinking after 21.   (NIAAA, 2006)

Discussion: What family members, friends or celebrities do you know who have messed up their lives with alcohol and drugs?  What problems have they and their families had to deal with because of their addiction?

37% of 8^th graders have tried alcohol

17% have been drunk

A True Story of Addiction

Written by an Aim For Success Speaker

It's amazing my brother is still alive! He just turned 35. Ten years ago he was told IF he lived to be 35, it would be a miracle.  You see, my brother is a drug addict. It started one night when he was a curious 13-year-old. He and some of his buddies decided to try drinking some beer. He never dreamed that evening would begin a life-long battle of addiction, but it did.

I can't remember life before my brother got into drugs, but I have vivid memories of the pain my family has endured because of his choice to use drugs. Perhaps the worst part was the constant fear. My brother had become extremely volatile, and I never knew when he might explode in a fit of rage. I can remember many nights around the dinner table when light discussion would unpredictably erupt into a fiery fight between my dad and brother.

I spent many nights locked in a room of the house crying out of fear, not only for my own safety, but much more, a fear that my brother would kill my dad. Over the next five to ten years, my fear changed from a fear of what my brother might do to one of us to what he might do to himself.

As time went on, he had made many attempts to overcome his addiction. He got help from many different sources, but nothing worked. He lived many years in deep depression, and the only thing that seemed to give temporary relief was more drugs. After each increasing high, the fall that followed seemed to take him lower and lower. I feared he would try to take his own life if the drugs didn't take him first. Nausea would take over as I climbed the stairs that led to our bedrooms. Would he be lying there dead this time? Would I be the first to see him? There was always fear.

But it wasn't just fear, there were the many other ways my brother's choices affected our lives. There was the complete lack of trust from the many times he would lie to and steal from all of us. Despite the fact my father was a doctor, there were times when finances were tight due to the tremendous expense of different treatments my brother went through. And any time something special was going on, it always seemed my brother would go off on one of his binges leaving all of the worry and focus on him and taking away the happiness of the moment. The list could go on and on.

Who would have dreamed a few good kids experiencing their first buzz with a little beer at 13 would be the start of a lifelong addiction that would shatter hopes and dreams and destroy a happy family. I hope you understand that when you choose to do drugs, it's not a choice that just affects you. This can affect all those around you. And you will never know if you are the type to become addicted and lose your ability to stop until it is too late. My brother never thought he would be the one that would become addicted to drugs, but he did.

Please, don't make the same mistake he made by thinking you can drink a couple of beers and smoke a few cigarettes and then give it all up. For many people it doesn't work that way, and it's not worth the risk.

It's your choice as to whether you will use drugs,

but you don't have a choice as to what the drugs will do to you.

Addiction is like driving a car without breaks. It destroys your stopping mechanism.

Addiction is YOU giving up your power to be in control.