Youth and Substance Abuse
By V.
I’m a 16 year old living in North Vancouver in 2022, and there’s no shame in me admitting that I’ve had my fair share of struggling with addiction and substance abuse.
Chances are, if you’re reading this, you’ve probably felt the same way before or you know someone who has. Youth drug abuse is a high-profile public health concern.
“In Canada, approximately 21% of the population (about 6 million people) will experience a substance use disorder or addiction at some point in their lifetime” (1).
The thing is, addiction and substance dependence are so much more common than we think, especially amongst teens in BC, Canada.
From the legalization of selling and buying weed, to the decriminalization of psychedelic mushrooms, to the alarming number of overdoses per day; we live in a province where a lot of this stuff is completely normalized, and it shouldn’t be. In 2021, 186 people on average died of an overdose each month in B.C.(2).
It’s important to know that substance abuse amongst teens and dependency on anything is not normal, nor healthy.
In this blog, I am going to be sharing some ideas and things that helped me along my journey with substance dependency and addiction, in hopes that it will inspire you and help you along your way as well.
Not comparing my experiences with others
You might be comparing your habits to the people around you.
You might be debating on quitting and thinking that you’re addicted or dependent, but when you compare your life to the lives of others around you, you feel that what you’re doing is normal.
I want you to know that normal doesn’t always mean correct.
There are lots of other things in many other communities that are normalized, but that doesn’t mean that they’re correct.
Let me give you something to think about: would you be practicing the habits that you are right now if you lived in another city that has far different beliefs from where you live now? Probably not. Environment matters.
Sometimes you get to choose the people you surround yourself with, but sometimes you don’t.
Perhaps, if you were living in another part of the world, in a more strict or religious community, many normalized substances that you see others using in school and in your community would be very taboo.
Listening to other people's stories who have overcome their addiction
Representation in our media matters. By seeing others go through similar experiences, you feel less alone and isolated. If you’re still feeling alone in this, here’s a list of some celebrities and their stories about how they’ve handled addiction and substance abuse:
Kendall Gender
Kendall Gender A.K.A Kenneth Wyse is a local Drag Queen here in BC who made it to the top three on Canada’s Drag Race Season 2. She is an icon in the Vancouver LGBTQ2S+ community and has toured all over Canada to perform the art of drag. Aside from the fierce persona she puts on, she has also battled with addiction and alcohol abuse in the past and is proudly 3 years sober. She posted her story on her Instagram in 2020.
She also did an interview with National Observer in December of 2021, where she opened up more about her past experiences.
Sam Levinson
Sam Levinson is an aspiring actor and director based in Los Angeles, California.
Some of his most well-known work is Malcolm & Marie, Assassination Nation, and HBO’s original series “Euphoria”. While in rehab, he came across a book and found a quote that changed his life: “In the end, we are nothing more than an amalgamation of our actions and that’s ultimately what defines us.”
He said, “I spent the majority of my teenage years in hospitals, rehabs and halfway houses,”
Levinson told the audience “Sometime around the age of 16, I resigned myself to the idea that eventually drugs would kill me and there was no reason to fight it. I would let it take me over, and I had made peace with that.”.
His commitment to raising awareness for addiction in youth resulted in him creating the show “Euphoria”. The episode “Trouble don’t last always”, shows a deep conversation between a rehab sponsor and a struggling teen. Here’s a little inspiring clip from that episode.
Another notable scene that speaks to the importance and intensity of addiction in teens is the beginning scene in Season 2 Episode 5 called “Stand Still like a Hummingbird” which was nominated for an Emmy in 2022.
This scene is after the teen addict, Rue gets caught and is going through stages of withdrawal.
Lindsay Lohan
Lindsay Lohan is an actress who’s been acting from a very young age.
She is most known for her role in the movie Mean Girls and Parent Trap. She was working with Disney at an early age and has quite a few Disney movies like Freaky Friday. In the early 2000s, she became a global sensation of the paparazzi and her struggles with addiction first started.
After many years of rehab and therapy, she is 35 years old and happily married to Bader Shammas, meditating every day and living a healthy lifestyle.
Here is an interview she had with Oprah Winfrey in 2013 where she opened up about her struggles with addiction.
Feeling less alone now?
Admitting that I have a problem
From my experience, one of the biggest steps in recovering from an addiction is admitting that there is a problem.
It’s hard to have perspective when you’re not looking at yourself from an outside perspective. But when I found myself not being able to eat or sleep without substance use, that’s when I knew to take a step back and re-evaluate my choices.
When you’re addicted or dependent on a substance, you are not in control of your own life. I didn’t have the freedom to go on about my day, without having to take a smoke break every few hours. I just couldn’t handle having a sober mind.
When I was addicted, I would go to any lengths to feed that addiction even more because it was easier for me to just ignore that I have a problem.
But nothing in life comes easy, and the road to recovery is no exception.
Committing to positive change and being honest with myself
In my experience, 90% of recovery was making the decision to get better and holding myself accountable for it.
Being willing to commit to changing my habits and lifestyle made it possible for me to recover. It’s not easy to self-monitor but I owe it to myself to stick to becoming a better, healthier version of myself.
I had to have enough motivation in me to hold myself accountable for every mistake along the way. I told myself that I’m doing this for myself and not for the good of anyone else. But nobody’s perfect.
Making the decision to finally be sober is not easy, and it won’t happen over time. Not being 100% committed to change makes recovering harder.
Doing research and looking at academic studies on Cannabis and its effects of it on youth really helped me to have a better perspective. It helped me stay motivated and reminded me that all of my efforts in staying sober are worth it in the end.
Recovering is just as much about the journey as the destination
Recovery is a journey. It’s a constant battle and for me, every day, it will get easier and easier. I’m not pretending that my journey to recovery was perfect.
I definitely made some mistakes along the way.
I had a few relapses, but I learned to recover from them and focus on what’s really important my health and sobriety. There were days when I thought I had it all figured out. But there were also some days when my cravings were so bad and persistent that I cursed myself for ever committing to be sober.
Perseverance is key.
One must be persistent in wanting to get better. I woke up every day as a healthy individual who doesn’t need other substances to be happy, relaxed, or just simply by myself. I was patient with myself and learnt so much about myself on this journey.
Encouraging myself to keep going and setting myself up for success
When recovery seemed impossible and my cravings were skyrocketing, I had some emergency tactics to rely on.
For example, I read this book called “Badass Habits” by Jen Sincero that helped me come up with a mantra like “I don’t enjoy smoking weed, I enjoy staying sober”.
I didn’t believe it at first but the more I said it, the more real it felt. And now, I do actually enjoy staying sober.
I would say it to myself every time my cravings went crazy. I would say it out loud multiple times a day, every time I passed by my bedroom, or every morning before brushing my teeth.
Another helpful tip for me was to take a deep breath and think about how happy, healthy, and pink my lungs are every time I felt like relapsing. I would think about how much of a favour I’m doing myself by staying healthy and sober and how proud my parents, siblings, and friends are of me for doing so.
I rewarded myself with an episode of my favourite TV show, or a bite of my favourite snacks every day that I didn’t smoke.
Finally, another thing I tried that really helped me is journaling. Other than my daily entries and recording my thoughts, I bought a pack of some cute stickers and would put one down for every day that I stayed sober.
Even though a sticker is just a piece of plastic and it doesn’t mean anything, I found myself looking forward to putting on that sticker next to the day that was a little extra difficult for me to stay sober.
If stickers aren’t your thing, try drawing something next to the date, every day that you stay sober with your favourite pen. Make it special, and make it meaningful to you.
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