A recent study done by the National Center for Drug Abuse Statistics found that teenagers in Washington are 33.36% more likely to have used drugs in the last month than the average American teen. With drug usage on the rise we interviewed Eastlake students last week to see how drugs were impacting our community. This week, we checked in with those same students asking about their new road to recovery.
The first student we spoke to stated that “I’ve been sober for about 8 months now. I was able to recover by doing things like hanging out with friends, and just finding someone to talk to. Like the counselors, they were really supportive. Also just sports and working out, the general Eastlake sports community.”
With another student explaining how their sobriety journey was going. “Well, recently I decided to stop doing crack, the reason for that was because it just made life really stressful. I am still using substances like weed and nicotine but in moderation, and my goal is to just not be dependent on it anymore because honestly it just really uses up a lot of my time and it’s really expensive.”
We asked this student if they are aware of any of the supportive resources at school.
“Well actually I heard about the YES counselor and I was like hesitant about talking to them at first but apparently like they don’t tell your parents anything which is like really nice so like I might actually visit them when I feel ready.”
We would like to thank our interviewees for talking with us, it’s given us a perspective as to what students at our school are experiencing and struggling with, allowing us to know more about what we need to focus on to support kids in our student body.
We encourage people who know or who are struggling with drug abuse and addiction to reach out to friends, family, and or a YES counselor.
