6A NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY OF HARRY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2008
ALCOHOL (CONTINUED FROM 1A)
Katharine is among the one in three Americans who battle alcohol abuse or alcohol dependence at some point in their lives, according to a 2007 study by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). The same study reported that most alcoholics first received treatment at about age 30, despite their dependence on or abuse of alcohol beginning; on average, at age 22.
Drug and alcohol counselor Rick Ostrander, director of Alpha Recovery Center, 1611 St. Andrew's Drive, said this eight year gap between the onset of the problem and receiving treatment for the problem likely existed because alcoholism was a progressive disease. In its early stages, it can lie undetected without any obvious toll on the mind or body.
"Young people don't understand or know that they're developing a serious disease until it progresses to a point that it causes significant pain in their lives," Ostrander said. "And it takes a period of time for that to happen."
According to a September 2008 report by the NIAAA, 83 percent of college students drink alcohol, and 41 percent of students surveyed reported they drank five or more drinks on at least one occasion within a two-week period.
Ostrander said about half the clients at his Lawrence center are college students, and he said young people with alcoholism often do not seek help because they see their drinking habits — no matter how excessive — as hardly unusual compared with those of other people in their age group.
Alcohol is a sedative-hypnotic drug, so it targets the pleasure center of the brain, inducing calmness
and reducing anxiety, Ostrander said. For college students, many of whom are away from home for the first time and struggling to make new friends and establish an identity, Ostrander said the desire to have alcohol-induced high has an even greater app
even greater appeal.
The experiences of Katharine and other students like her show the unique difficulties young people face in trying to get sober and
remain sober while in college.
"It's definitely harder for young people to get sober," said Beth Bernasek, a drug and alcohol counselor at Valley Hope Treatment Center in Atchison. "They tend not to have lost as much in their lives as someone who has been drinking for 30 years."
--drinking in the dorms, drinking at Coyote's Night Club on Thursday nights and drinking at KU sporting events.
When he was a KU student, Joshua, a 2005 graduate, would go to The Wheel after his morning class to unwind with a couple of beers before heading back up the hill for his afternoon classes. Many of his college memories are tied to
David Ambler, emeritus vice chancellor of student affairs, said college students are also drawn to alcohol because of the role it plays in university culture. With slogans such as "Win or lose, we still booze" and a social scene saturated with kegs, jungle juice and beer pong, Ambler said college students can perceive having a social life free of alcohol as difficult or uncool.
But for Joshua, it was never enough to have just one beer at the
"I realized that a lot of the people I was around, I didn't like that much. I just hung out with them because we drank together."
football game or a glass of wine with dinner. Every time he started drinking, he kept drinking, often waking up back at his apartment the next morning with no knowledge of how he had made it home.
"There's no off switch, and that's tough to come to grips with, because I don't want to feel like I'm different from other people."
"I enjoyed that out-of-control feeling," Joshua said. "Most people don't like that, but that's what I would always go for. I used to drink whether I was happy or sad, if I was bored or if there was a celebration, in a room full of people or alone. Any reason was a good enough reason to drink."
Joshua's reckless behavior led
JENNY O'MALLEY Lawrence resident
s behavior led to two DUI convictions. In Kansas, a third DUI charge is a felony.
Although he never received another DUI conviction, Joshua's record threw a wrench into his plans. After receiving his law degree from KU, he applied to take the bar examination in
Kansas. The application required that he disclose his run-ins with the law. At seeing his record, the Board of Law Examiners refused to let Joshua take the exam.
always being a driven person, and though his drive propelled him to shine in academics; it also never let him be satisfied with having just one drink.
"Kids in college don't realize that the decisions they make now — the trouble they get in now — will affect them for a while afterward," Joshua said. "It can prevent you from excelling in your career."
Joshua remembers drinking for the first time in junior high school, passing a bottle of alcohol back and forth on the playground with friends. He describes himself as
"There's no off switch, and that's tough to come to grips with, because I don't want to feel like I'm different from other people," Joshua said.
Joshua has been sober for 19 months and was allowed to take the bar examination a year after he first applied. He completed an intensive outpatient treatment program through a substance-abuse treatment center in Lawrence, and he began attending alcoholism support meetings, which he still
JOSHUA 2005 graduate
does.
For Joshua, a significant part of learning to live his life sober meant learning to no longer rely on what he and his friends called "liquid courage," the fearlessness and lack of
inhibition they experienced after having a few drinks.
"A large part of it was I had to get over myself," Joshua said. "Inhibitions are good to a certain degree, and if I'm a bad dancer, thenI'm a bad dancer.Am I really that self-centered?"
When he reflects on his time at the University, Joshua said he feels sadness and emptiness. He doesn't keep in touch with a single friend he had during his days at the University, as he said no common bond existed that would bring them back together, other than drinking. Joshua said he also wished he had taken advantage of his college years by getting involved in organizations on campus and in activities such as study abroad.
"I really limited myself. I didn't try as hard as I could have," Joshua said. "I don't regret any of the good times, any of the parties. But to some degree, it's like I drank all the fun out of it. I feel like I missed the opportunity to really enjoy the experience."
--felony offenses, and was facing jail time. Before his trial, however, he was remanded to the youth wing of the Alcohol Treatment Unit of Arlington Hospital.
For years, Jenny O'Malley relied on a sanctuary of excuses to close herself off from the reality of her alcohol problem.
"My justification was always that I'm young. People my age drink and party and that's just what we do," said O'Malley, 24, who lives in Lawrence and is a nursing student at Neosho County Community College in Ottawa. "But then I started seeing that not everyone drank like I did."
A native of Port Washington, Wis., O'Malley remembers having her first drink at age 14 — gin that she and friends stole from a boat docked on nearby Lake Michigan. From then on, O'Malley's life was a blur of shot glasses, cheap liquor and driving home with double vision.
Ryan McGeeney/KANSAT
Paul Sneed, assistant professor of Portuguese, began drinking at age 13 and got sober at 18. After a series of arrests and 28 days in an alcoholism treatment facility, Sneed completed his GED and began attending college. He earned his Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin and spent five years in Brazil, where he founded the Two Brothers Foundation, a nonprofit organization that promotes education and community service in the shantytown of Rocinha, Brazil.
A professor's story
Paul Sneed spends Thursday afternoons in his office on the first floor of Wescoe Hall. Students pop in and out, and each time, Snead, an assistant professor of Portuguese language and Brazilian literature and culture, greets them in energetic, fluid Portuguese.
His students often respond timidly in broken phrases, tentative snips of this and that. Sneed always responds with warmth and patience.
Patience has a different meaning for Sneed than it does for many people. After nearly 22 years of sobriety, Sneed has learned that, to stay vigilant against alcoholism, he must focus on and trust only the moment he is in.
Sneed, who had his first drink at age 13 and his last at 18, admits the living-in-the-moment approach can be a daunting way to look at life, especially for a young person struggling to be sober who faces years of temptation ahead.
"You really just can't count on anything." Sneed said. "So I try to never count on being sober."
"But it doesn't have to be such a bummer." Sneed said. "It helps me stay in the present. I want to be aware of what's happening right now. It helps me be spontaneous."
Sneed grew up in Arlington, Va., a suburb of Washington, D.C. He remembers being drawn to alcohol because it helped him relax, stop feeling empty and connect with others.
At age 16, Sneed ran away from home and lived in the woods near a railroad in Burke, Va. At 18, he was arrested for a series of crimes, including
"At the time, it was hard for me to imagine my life without drinking or drugs," Sneed said of his first days in treatment. "It's really a miracle that someone as down-and-out as me was able to get sober."
"I didn't realize why it was fun for me — why I wasn't comfortable in my own skin," O'Malley said of her early years of drinking. "I realize now that I had really low self-esteem. You can't feel bad about yourself and be happy."
Sneed never served time in jail. Instead, he spent 28 days in treatment. He remembers being prescribed Antabuse, a drug that interferes with the body's ability to metabolize alcohol, in order to keep him from drinking. And he remembers the eclectic group of people on the unit with him — people from all walks of life who, if alcoholism discriminated, would likely never be found in a room together.
"I was afraid of dying, but I just didn't like living." Sneed said of his mindset at the beginning of treatment. "I may have been depressed, but I didn't know because I was drinking and doing drugs all the time."
After leaving treatment, Sneed earned his GED and soon after began taking classes at Northern Virginia Community College. It was there that he discovered his passion for music, philosophy, foreign languages and learning itself.
O'Malley moved to Lawrence in 2004, gave birth to a daughter and was accepted to nursing school — a goal she had long had for herself. But, drunk or hungover all the time, O'Malley found it difficult to focus on classes or to even attend classes at all.
Sneed said he considers himself to have an addictive personality, so despite his strong resolve to remain sober after leaving treatment in early 1986, he has since struggled with other addictions, such as cigarettes, coffee and co-
dependence in relationships.
"It turns out I was a pretty good student." Sneed said.
"When you get sober at 18, you find other ways to mess up," Sneed said. "But I knew if I ever started drinking again, I want to drink all the time."
Through it all, Sneed continued to focus on academics. He earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Virginia and earned both his master's degree and his Ph.D. in Portuguese from the University of Wisconsin. He spent five years in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where he founded a nonprofit organization known as the Two Brothers Foundation, which promotes education, community service and international exchange in Rocinha, a shantytown south of Rio de Janeiro that has been torn by gang violence.
Sneed is in his second year teaching at the University of Kansas, and previously taught at the University of Oklahoma and San Diego State University. He and his wife, Jeyla, welcomed their first child, a son named Cael, in July.
where to go for help
Sneed said people who struggle with alcoholism are not bad people, but rather just people stuck in a bad cycle. Sneed remains involved in local alcoholism support groups, and said he learned during his own college years that alcohol isn't necessary to have a social life in college and to feel like a part of the college community.
"Drinking can never give you a deep-down happiness," Sneed said. "Whether it's through a church or a social justice organization, in a town like Lawrence, there should be a lot of other things you can get involved in. You don't have to go through college unthinking."
Even when she made a commitment to herself to make it through
Alcoholics Anonymous (on-campus meetings)
Watkins Memorial Health Center
Second floor conference room
Tuesdays, 1 p.m. to 2 p.m.
Wednesdays, noon to 1 p.m.
Alpha Recovery Center 1611 St. Andrew's Drive (785) 842-6300 www.alpharecoverycenter.com
KU Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS)
Watkins Memorial Health Center
(785) 864-2277
www.caps.ku.edu
DCCCA, Inc.
3312 Clinton Parkway
(785) 841-4138
www.dccca.org
a day without a drink, O'Malley always found herself coming back to alcohol for comfort or recreation. She described her cravings for alcohol during that time as all-encompassing. It prevented her from thinking logically, as her only concern was how to get her next drink.
According to Ostrander, it often takes an extreme event like a scrape with the law, such as a DUI, for many young people to address or be forced to address their drinking problems. For O'Malley, the change arose from far less dramatic circumstances.
"For me it was how I felt about myself. In my heart, I knew I was better than that," O'Malley said. "I never went to jail. I never lost my kid. I was never evicted. There's no external thing that I can point to as the reason I got sober. You don't have to lose everything to get help."
O'Malley began attending alcoholism support meetings every day, and she still attends five sessions a week, 17 months after her last drink. In the early stages of sobriety, O'Malley steered clear of anything that would remind her of her old habits. She wouldn't go downtown, where she had spent
so many nights of drunken revelry, and she even avoided driving by her former favorite haunts, such as the Gaslight Tavern.
"Sometimes I miss that level of excitement," O'Malley said of her days on the bar circuit. "It was fun, but it was always a nervous, manic happy. My life now has a much calmer joy."
These days, dressed in royal blue scrub pants and a red polo shirt with her wavy brown hair tied back in a ponytail, O'Malley heads to work as a medication aide at a Lawrence retirement home. She now takes great joy in things others take for granted: making it to her nursing classes on time, having
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