T he Reality of Written by Alyse Messmer Illustrations by Hannah Siefkes
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or adults and students, addiction can be a subtle and fast fall. Things that start as innocent “onetime” occurrences, such as over-eating, binge watching, gossip, pornography, alcohol, drugs and more can become a habitual problem for those who form a reliance on it. By the time individuals are in their senior year of high school, 70 percent have tried alcohol, 50 percent have abused an illicit drug, 40 percent have smoked a cigarette and 20 percent have used a prescription drug recreationally according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. In the United States alone, there are more than 7,800 new drug users every day. But for college students and high schoolers, picking up addictions to substances is easier than at other ages. NIDA also reports that “Adolescents are ‘biologically wired’ to seek new experiences and take risks, as well as to carve out their own identity. Trying drugs may fulfill all of these normal developmental drives, but in an unhealthy way that can have very serious long-term consequences.” Dr. Robert Pate, California Baptist University director of clinical training and PsyD Program and associate professor of psychology, says addiction can hold a weight over its victims and cause major harm in other places in their lives. “When people get addicted to something it’s always at the expense of something else. They are choosing to have a relationship with a thing, a substance, a phone, - something else other than people and maybe ultimately with God,” Pate says. “People who are addicted can go through a handle of vodka a day or even two, and they’re fine. They’ll go to class and they’ll do OK and no one will know except those who are close to them who they have chosen alcohol over.” For Kristin Thoroddsen, junior studio production major, addiction affected her own family, as her half brother
30 | Pursuit
Healing in the Wake
