Conversation DOES Play a Role in Shaping Teen Attitudes Toward Drugs, Alcohol

When I was invited to become a member of the Hatboro-Horsham School District task force to combat drug and alcohol abuse, I hadn’t thought much about the role that simple conversation can play in prevention efforts. But the more I listened to my fellow task force members discuss the real need to get parents and kids talking about substance abuse instead of ignoring it, the more I began to think about what experiences from my youth shaped my own attitudes toward drug and alcohol use. The common demoninator? Being a part of conversations with friends and family about addiction.

One of the first catalysts was my involvement as a freshman in my high school’s annual theater production. When I first began going to rehearsals, I knew that the director was going to be different. A professional actor from New York who was also an alumnus of my high school, he was not interested in producing typical, mainstream fare. He helped us to create an original work of art, which focused on the subject of alcoholism and was called “Happy Hour.” For hours each night of rehearsal, we would improvise scenes based on subject matter he gave to us – much of it focusing on the various members of a family coping with an alcoholic father. I remember having eye-opening discussions with my fellow cast members and with our director about how different people respond when someone in their family is an addict. We took the best aspects of the scenes we had improvised and turned them into a script. Eventually, we had a full-length production about what it is like for a family to struggle with alcoholism on a daily basis. It was a dark play, rich with symbolism. I think many of those who went to see it in our small high school auditorium probably left confused and maybe even depressed by our work. But to this day, I am so proud of what we did. We created something meaningful and maybe, just maybe, it generated some conversation about addiction among those who saw it.

I know it did in my own family. We frequently talked about alcoholism, not just because of my theater experience, but because my maternal grandparents both struggled with it. My grandmother died when I was young, so I can’t recall the effects that the disease had on her. But I did see how the disease affected my grandfather, who passed away shortly before I left for college. I remember asking my mother why Pop-Pop was acting funny on the occasions we would visit him. My mother was always straight with me about what was going on. We talked about his illness and why he did what he did, and how she and her siblings coped with it. When she saw “Happy Hour,” she told me that she was proud of me and that the play was truthful and relevant.

Both the play and my own personal experiences intertwined to help me determine that I didn’t want to use drugs or alcohol in high school. Based on what I had seen in my own family and what I had learned through being a part of “Happy Hour,” I knew that simple genetics make me more susceptible to becoming an addict. I also knew that I didn’t want to become one based on what I had seen my grandfather experience. My decision not to get involved in drug or alcohol abuse was made easier by the fact that my core group of friends didn’t place a heavy emphasis on drinking or doing drugs, either.

Shortly before I went to college, my “just say no” stance softened and I did give in to peer pressure to try alcohol. I remember thinking, “What was I so worried about? Drinking is just harmless fun.” During the following years at Penn State, I certainly drank more than I should have. I wonder to this day what kept me from becoming an addict like my grandfather. Perhaps it was the fact that I had discussions about the dangers of addiction with my peers and family back in high school. Perhaps it was because the images of my grandfather and his living conditions when he hit rock bottom never left my mind, even though he eventually overcame his dependence on alcohol. Perhaps it was the fact that I didn’t have a predisposition for depression like my grandfather did. Perhaps it was because I was a bit older and wiser when I decided to try alcohol. Then again, maybe I was just fortunate that the various influences on my life were ultimately more positive than negative.

The reasons why certain people become addicts or don’t are among the many topics that I hope the Hatboro-Horsham School District will explore as it begins its new “Be a Part of the Conversation” campaign. The more people talk about their own experiences and what shaped their decisions to try or not try drugs or alcohol, the more we will know about what we can do to prevent self-destructive behaviors. To keep the “conversation” going, the members of the “Be a Part of the Conversation” task force will be periodically posting blogs like this one on Hatboro-Horsham Patch  about substance abuse issues.

We encourage anyone in the Hatboro and Horsham communities to contact us if they are interested in submitting something for consideration. What were (or are) your experiences with drugs and alcohol as a student? How do you resist peer pressure to abuse drugs or alcohol? What do you do as a parent to educate your children about substance abuse? How do you talk to someone you think has a substance abuse problem? What do you think Hatboro-Horsham should be doing to help parents and kids talk about drugs and alcohol? Any and all topics will be reviewed by our task force and considered for publication here. Reach me at jesstet@comsolutionsgroup.com with your ideas.