For young adults, staying clean and sober, especially in college, has special challenges, and, in response, Texas Tech’s “Collegiate Recovery Community (CRC)” program is now spreading rapidly to other colleges. To date, 44 have signed on.
In 2011, the 2nd annual Collegiate Recovery and Relapse Prevention Conference at Texas Tech in Lubbock attracted more than 200 visitors representing 50 colleges and universities around the nation and others who work in the addiction and recovery field.
The visitors came to see how Tech’s CRC program works, and they came to hear the speakers, among them Dr. John B. Kelly, Harvard medical school psychiatrist who is also on staff at the Center for Addiction Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Dr. Kelly said, “As a whole, colleges are dangerous places for those in recovery,” but his research on the effectiveness of AA and other 12-Step programs with adolescents suggests the potential for a resource that has been relatively under utilized.
Dr. Matt Russell and the Director of the Center for the Study of Addiction and Recovery (CSAR) at Texas Tech, Dr. Kitty S. Harris, organized the conference. Dr. Harris has been contending with teenage addictions and recovery for two decades, and at the conference she announced a new $20 million fund raising initiative to speed up the replication of the CRC using curriculum developed under her direction at the CSAR.
The problem facing teenagers and young adults is that most of the nation’s 4,000 college campuses are breeding grounds for alcoholics. Studies show that one out of three college students is at least borderline alcoholic. That’s, by far, a higher rate than on the outside.
Staying home is an option, but it has a downside too, Dr. Kelly points out. A college education has potential payoffs which would be denied.
Fellow Harvard psychiatrist, Dr. Eman Vaillant, who Dr. Kelly quotes, has said that “College education and hope for a better future trumps wealth and social prestige as a pathway to health and happiness.”
And furthermore, Dr. Kelly says, college men live longer than less educated men.
All of the students in Dr. Harris’s program are in recovery, and a major part of that involves regular participation in AA and other 12-Step programs, which are particularly effective in a school setting, Dr. Kelly says, because of the high proportion of young people at meetings.
Twelve Step groups currently meeting at Tech include Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), Narcotics Anonymous (NA), Eating Disorders Anonymous (EDA) and Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous (SLAA).
The benefits of free and effective 12- Step meetings have been documented, but research shows they are less effective for young people because on average the meetings cater to an older crowd.
Eighty nine percent of those who attend AA and NA meetings are over 30, and the disparity in age creates communication problems, a key component of recovery.
Of the 400 or so 12-Step meetings in the Little Rock, Arkansas area, there are only two listed that cater to teenage and college age kids plus a statewide organization called ARKYPAA (Arkansas Konference by Young People participating in AA) which is an outreach for young people seeking recovery.
Currently, the Center at Texas Tech serves about 80 students who are in recovery and enrolled in its program. Most of these students live off the Texas Tech campus, avoiding the typical college dorm/fraternity life that promotes drug and alcohol use. A Collegiate Recovery Learning Community dormitory is available for true freshmen who are required by Texas Tech to live on campus.
Students participating in the program spend most of their on-campus free time in the recovery-based environment provided by the Center, where they have access to 12-Step meetings, a computer lab, a den area with a big-screen television, and a recreation room complete with ping-pong, pool, and foosball.
Although students use the Center for a safe haven between classes, they attend classes with the general college population, seeking various degrees, such as liberal arts, engineering, and business.
Some of the Center’s students seek a 4-year degree in Community, Family, and Addiction Services and others attain an interdisciplinary minor in Addictive Disorders and Recovery Studies, making them eligible to become a Licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor.
The Center takes applications from those who have at least one year of sobriety as well as those already attending Texas Tech who find themselves in trouble and are looking for a place to recover where there is the opportunity to attend 12-Step meetings and to socialize informally with those of like mind who are members of the CRC.
Dr. Harris emphasizes that she intends to protect her students, but she doesn’t want them isolated.
“I want our students to have a true college experience. I don’t want them to feel separate. I don’t want them to feel apart from. I don’t want them to feel different. And I don’t want them to drink or do drugs.
The average GPA for students at the Center usually ranges from 3.4 to 3.6 and they are expected to spend time in community service. Following the 12- Step philosophy, the Center believes that service is crucial to maintaining long-term, quality sobriety.
The Center has endowed scholarship funds that are designated specifically for students in recovery from drug and/or alcohol addiction and eating disorders and provides financial assistance to all of the participants in the CRC ranging from $500 to $2,000 depending on the GPA.
In the introduction to his presentation, Dr. Kelly was clear about his support for 12-Step programs and the growing interest in them among scientists.
“There has been a significant increase in scientific interest and rigor focused on AA over the past 20 years,” Dr. Kelly said, and he highlighted some of areas of particular interest.
That included some fundamental statistics:
Alcohol, Dr. Kelly noted, is the third leading cause of death in the U.S., and it’s the leading risk factor for death among males aged 15 to 59. Five thousand people under age 21 die as a result of alcohol annually.
Opiate overdose is the leading cause of accidental death in 13 states and second overall in the United States.
In the U.S. in 2008, the latest year available for data, 22.2 million members of the population aged 12 or older were addicted to alcohol or drugs or both. Alcohol alone was close to 15 million.
The economic burden in the U.S. associated with alcohol and drug miss-use approaches $400 billion annually, far exceeding the cost associated with other medical conditions. Cancer, for example, is $107 billion and heart disease is $96 billion.
Alcohol dependence is highest in the 18-to-20 year age group at 12.5 percent, and next highest is 10.8 percent in the 21-to-24 age group. At age 65 to 69, alcohol dependence is below 1 percent.
In 2009 16 percent of those in college had used in the past 30 days. Of those not in college, 11.7 percent used.
Given these numbers, it’s no wonder scientists have been casting about for solutions and are giving 12- Step programs a serious look.
“Twelve step programs,” Dr Kelly said, “work as well as professional interventions and have the advantage of being plentiful in most communities and available at various times often when addicts need them the most. They are free, there’s no paperwork, and patients can attend as intensively and as long as they desire. Also, meetings are available at high risk times.” At the cocktail hour, for example.
AA is the single most popular recovery program of all, Dr. Kelly noted. AA attracts about 2.4 million a year, outpatient rehab 2 million, inpatient rehab 1.2 million and outpatient mental health 1 million. The rest get their treatment at hospitals, private doctor’s offices, emergency rooms and in prison or jail.
Despite the promising aspects of 12-Step mutual health groups, Dr Kelly says, young people often face barriers to AA/NA participation because of their age.
“Age differences suggest that adolescents, who typically have less severe drug use profiles, consequences and psychological concerns, find it difficult to relate to older members and their more severe withdrawal complications and recovery-related psychological challenges surrounding marriage, children and employment,” Dr. Kelly says.
And when adolescents attend meetings where at least some other young people are also present, the outlook got better. They attend more often, get more involved and have better post-treatment substance abuse outcomes compared to those attending adult-only meetings.
Another key finding about adolescents, Dr. Kelly says, is that “the more meetings they attend the better.”
Kelly’s study of one group with a year’s sobriety showed that 57.8 percent of those who attended one meeting a week were still sober and 69.1 percent who attended more than one were still sober. Of those who attended no meetings 39.4 percent were still sober.”
When you ask young people what they like best about the meetings, Dr. Kelly says, they say, “Not feeling alone,” “getting support from others,” “knowing that recovery is possible” “a place to talk,” “advice from others,” “one day at a time” and “provides structure.”
“Given developmental state and Zeitgeist, college environment confers high relapse risk,” Dr. Kelly says, “and unlike adult relapse, the majority of youth relapse events occur as a result of exposure in social situations where alcohol and drugs are present.” Such as dorms and fraternity houses.
This is why the CRC program provides a healthy alternative and this is why, its students say, the program works:
• “When I was addicted,” Brian said, “pretty much my whole life revolved around getting and using drugs. I didn’t have a goal. Now I have ambition, my life has momentum, and I have things to look forward to.”
• “Now I have a lot of different goals,” Alana said. “I want to be a doctor, a mother. I want to be a good sister, a good daughter, a friend. I have gained more happiness and contentment in everything I do.”
• “My life was like a tree that was wilted and dead,” Sara said. “Since I’ve been in recovery, the tree has been nourished, and it’s growing. I’m happier and a lot brighter. My life has totally changed.”
Dr. Harris believes that Americans are heavily into feeling good, the quick fix and immediate gratification. “One idea I’ve always believed in is that the reason we have a problem with alcohol and drugs is because the substances work.
“For the kids at the center the substance did meet a need. It was exciting, or it made them feel not so bad, or it made mom and dad’s divorce not seem so tragic or it made that last breakup with that girl not so overwhelming.
“These kids get into substance abuse, and the sad part is that because they are so young, and they have such poor judgment, they’re sucked in and sucked under before they realize it.”
Dr. Harris continues, “The most satisfying part of the Center to me is that we love these students. We help them re-socialize. We re-parent them if they’ve lacked family support. We try to give them an unconditional, loving environment in which to grow and flourish.
“We are able to return these individuals to the community, to the society they hid from during their active dependency and addiction and allow them to come back to those places where they can become who they are.”
