'BROKEN LITTLE SOULS'

Support Group Teens Share Stories of Addiction

For Kathleen, life had reached a point where living was a chore.

The 19-year-old southwestern Ontario teen struggled each morning just to
wake up. She'd drink what alcohol she could find and plot how to get more
drugs. She stole from her parents, driven by the fear of not having drugs.

"I had to do a lot of things that I'm not proud of to get that money," she
said. "Things I said I'd never do. I basically used my body to get money
from friends. I didn't care about myself. I would do whatever I had to to
get it."

Thoughts of quitting were common, but only instilled fear in her. That
would take away the only thing she had: Numbness.

"It was a comfort thing to me, even though I didn't like it and could see
what it was doing to me."

Kathleen was her own last concern -- a common theme at the Alwood Treatment
Centre for Youth near Carleton Place.

Hard Lessons

"I didn't care where I ended up -- if I lived or died," said Shane, 17, a
resident who's spent the past four years doing weed, cocaine and alcohol.

The teens sitting in the circle of chairs and couches don't look like
hardened addicts. They have the faces of clean-cut youths -- faces that
hide hard lessons.

"They've hit rock bottom and they're ready to make a change," said social
worker Heather Kendall. "They're exhausted, they're tired. They're broken
little souls."

Alwood's six-month residential program is voluntary and one of the few of
its kind in Ontario for addicts aged 16-22.

The teens in the group all started using young.

At 12, Kathleen was smoking pot. She progressed to booze, acid and
anti-anxiety pills she stole from her stepfather. For two years, she
snorted Ritalin.

At 13, Davie's brother got him drunk and stoned. By 17, he was on the street.

At 16, Robert dropped out of school and left his parents' house only to get
high.

All thought they could control it -- until they tried.

"It creeps up on you," said Katy, who's used Gravol and booze to get
through each day since she was 15. "One day it's fine and the next you have
all these problems you can't fix. I'm 21 and I have nothing I've done that
I'm proud of. There have been a lot of missed opportunities."

No Choice

You don't experience life when you're using, said Heather, 20. And, having
had the best life growing up, she said addiction can happen to anyone.

It's much like a cancer, said Dylan, 17: "You don't have a choice if you're
going to get it. You just have to live with it."

They've come a long way and now they're sharing their frank message with
Grade 9 students in local schools -- fitting, as Ontario's Drug Awareness
Week approaches.