SLIPPING INTO DARKNESS

The teenage years are years of growth and exploration finding one's
self and qualities. Venturing out into the world; experiencing new
things, and engaging in new activities.

The world is filled with joyful adventures and yes, also filled with
demons from the dark side. Teens are faced with choices on a daily
basis. They do not make bad choices, but they make choices out of lack
of experience and lack of education.

Most young people don't set out in their early years to be drug
addicts or alcoholics. I sure know when I was growing up I didn't want
to be either of those kinds of people. Somewhere along the path
though, out of all those experiments as I liked to call them, I found
myself caged and chained to a heavy and tormenting burden. It was the
imprisonment of my very existence to a powerful force called
"addiction" to heavy drugs and alcohol.

Ninety-five per cent of all teens are subjected to drug and alcohol
before they are seniors in high school. The peer pressures can
sometimes be overwhelming, not wanting to be the outcast or being
alienated from certain groups.

For most youth partying is a way of life, waiting for Friday and
spring/summer break to enjoy the sun and carefree life that teenage
years offer. But when does the fun stop? When is the line crossed when
fun becomes addiction? When the demons take hold. You catch yourself
slipping into darkness deeper and deeper, when you realize everything
is gone. Everybody you used to hang out with is gone, and it's just
you and the demons.

It's not about the popularity anymore or about who has the coolest
car, or who has the hottest date. Now every thought and action is
consumed by the focus on your next fix. Feelings of low self-worth and
hopelessness, depression, anger, frustration take over every cell of
your body.

When nothing else matters and no one seems to understand, just know
there are many people suffering from this self-destructive one-way
street to the golden gates.

I'm 25 and I have been on this one-way road. As a community we can
educate and bring awareness of the dangers that hide in the lie about
getting high to youth and also adults.

Together we can fight these demons that lie silent and dormant in all
of us waiting for an unfortunate event to occur, to unleash its
destructive and life wrecking power.

Tibor Bencsik

Nelson