By: Amanda Surber
College is place where many students choose different paths, try different things.Addiction is a disease within the brain. “Drugs change the brain, they change its structure and how it works,” states the “Above the Influence” website. It grabs ahold of its user; they are the predator and the user is the prey.
Addiction is a prominent problem within some college students who believe that drugs and alcohol hold the key to their happiness and lives.
For some, college is a place where students let loose and have a little fun but still get the education they came there for. For others, it is a place where the pressures of drug and alcohol use prove to be stronger than the drive to succeed. Hopes are dashed and addiction takes over and sometimes becomes the most important part of a student’s life.
19-year-old Jessica Miller* had always dreamt that college would be the place where she could become something more than what people had expected of her back home. She wanted to be a nutritionist, but something else drove its way into her life.
Addiction took hold of Jessica’s dreams and her life. Drug and alcohol use caused all aspects of her life to fall into a downward spiral and the more she uses the deeper she falls.
For Jessica, each day starts out as more of a chore than a new beginning. She wakes up late on most days whether it be for work or for class, but she doesn’t have the power to care. Hungover, with a pounding headache, she grabs a glass of water and a cigarette and heads out the door.
She arrives to class late and texts the entire time, mainly about what happened last night and what she is planning to do this afternoon instead of her doing homework or working.
She gets home after going to about half of her classes and loads a bowl of marijuana into her pipe and smokes all her troubles and responsibilities away, once again pushing everything back to tomorrow.
Tomorrow in her mind provides a place and idea that things will get better, but in reality they are just getting worse. She uses drugs to hide from responsibility, but as each day passes the drugs help her to win daily battles but she is losing the war with addiction, the war for her life.
Drug use is also a problem for many other college students. They are introduced to it at a party, or by a new friend, but regardless of how they get started, some become addicted.
Drug use, especially marijuana is prevalent in college-aged students. Some students believe that using drugs such as marijuana or cocaine help them to relax or gain energy. These facts are true, but only in the short term. In the long term the effects are detrimental not only to the users physical health, but to their emotional and mental health as well.
After using drugs, users have feelings of “depression, anxiety, nausea, confusion, lack of control, paranoia, guilt, embarrassment, hangovers, loneliness, and cravings for more drugs,” according to the “Above the Influence” campaign’s website.
Her roommates bring in the mail and it contains mainly junk, but it also contains more proof that Jessica is falling behind. Her phone bill is overdue and she hasn’t even cared enough to open it to see how much she needs to pay.
She also receives a letter from the university that urges her to raise her grades. She has received many of these same types of letters over the past few semesters, but doesn’t have the energy to open them.
Why add to the stress she has already piled up a mountain high?
She lays around high and content for a few hours until the feelings of anxiety come back to her. She thinks about doing her homework or even going to exercise, but doesn’t even know where to begin.
So she grabs a bottle of Burnetts vodka and drinks until her mind quiets and she passes out on her couch watching mindless television.
Jessica uses alcohol to numb the issues she refuses to face head on, and like her, many college students choose to drink to beat back inner demons.
Alcohol is the most widely used and abused drug in the United States by young adults. According to the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, “Long-term alcohol misuse is associated with liver disease, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and neurological damage as well as psychiatric problems such as depression, anxiety, and antisocial personality disorder.”
This misuse of alcohol can result in injury, poor decision making, emotional distress and in some severe circumstances, death. According to the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence’s website, “ Studies show that about 43% of all students report drinking in a high-risk manner at some point in the college career. Twenty percent of students report drinking in a high-risk manner often.”
Jessica once had dreams, but she has fallen into a cycle that is very hard to break. Students around the country face these issues in college and many end up like Jessica or worse off, dead.
Many students choose a path similar to Jessica’s for a variety of reasons but regardless of how they start, the hardest part is realizing that they are plagued by addiction.
At Colorado State University, where Jessica is a student, there are many diverse programs available to students relating to issues that deal with drugs and alcohol.
The CSU Health Network provides services both online and in person. It has resources that pertain to counseling, getting help, rehabilitation and offer answers to any questions a student may have.
When I asked Jessica if she had known about this, she said, “I heard about them freshmen year, but I didn’t really ever think about using them.”
“I thought that they would tell my parents and I also didn’t really think I had that much of a problem until recently,” said Miller.
The CSU Health Network provides a free online quiz any student can take to help them assess the problems that they face with drugs and/or alcohol. The quiz also gives them statistics and further information about the degree of their problem.
“The Blue Sky assessments allow for students to gauge their dependency on drugs and alcohol and they can do so in a confidential and anonymous environment,” said Colorado State professor Dr. Larry Denmark.
“If the students wish to get help with the problem they are facing, at the end of the quiz a number is referred to them and they ultimately have the choice to take advantage of the resources given to them or not,” said Denmark.
By allowing students to take this test, it gives them a safe outlet to check how bad their problems are without worrying about directly talking to a person.
But some students facing issues with drugs and alcohol dependency would like to speak directly with a counselor about their problems. These services are also available at CSU in the Aylesworth Building.
Some students prefer to take a different route to get the help that they need.
Other available resources are accessible to students facing drug and alcohol problems in Fort Collins. One helpful organization is Team Fort Collins.
Team Fort Collins is dedicated to preventing and helping fight back drug and alcohol abuse when it comes to teenagers. They are a unique program because they offer different activities for teens to partake in, instead of using drugs and alcohol.
Like the CSU Health Network, Team Fort Collins provides both online and in person help to those who are struggling with addiction and gives them different outlets to choose from.
“It is Team Fort Collins’ philosophy that prevention is the job of the entire community and we enjoy the responsibility for coordinating these efforts,” declares the mission statement of the Team Fort Collins website.
Team Fort Collins looks into stopping the behaviors that lead young adults like Jessica into a downward spiral of addiction. They provide feelings and ideas of hope to those who are struggling and looking to better themselves. The goal is to provide hope for the future.
Team Fort Collins and the CSU Health Network are in place to help students struggling with addiction. They, along with many other organizations are put into place to help those in need.
“I think I am going to try and take advantage of the resources provided to me because I have a problem and it needs to be solved,” said Miller. Jessica needs these programs and she finally wants to take a step in life that will lead her in the right direction.
Other resources available to students:
1. Al-Anon
2. Alcoholics Anonymous of Northern Colorado
3. Alcohol and Drug Abuse Division of the Colorado Department of Human Services
4. CSU Alcohol Work Group
5. These and others can be found on the Colorado State University Health Network
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