Temptations are everywhere for college alcoholics
College is a tough place for a young alcoholic.
Ask Maureen, 22, a December graduate of Western Michigan University and a recovering alcoholic who says she wrestled with her disease in the midst of a culture where drinking is as much a part of life as studying.
Statistics indicate more than 90 percent of college students drink and that they are twice as likely as older adults to binge drink.
Now in recovery through Alcoholics Anonymous, Maureen asked that her last name not be used. She's part of an AA young people's group that meets at 8 p.m. Thursdays at the Wesley Foundation on WMU's campus.
Six years ago when this group started, there were three or four participants. Now there are 50 to 60 who consistently take part, drawing students not only from WMU but surrounding campuses.
"Alcohol problems are moving forth in younger ages. Therefore people bring their alcohol and drug problems to college instead of developing them here," said C. Dennis Simpson, director of WMU's Specialty Program in Alcohol and Drug Abuse.
Decades ago, that wasn't the case, he said.
For Maureen, drinking wasn't just a fun way to pass the time. She believed it eased her struggles with depression and self-esteem.
"I think that from my first drink I felt like this was the answer to all my problems, and I started drinking when I was 14," Maureen said.
"I was drinking daily alone, and I would be drunk in school, and none of my friends would drink," she said.
A school social worker warned Maureen that she was flirting with alcoholism, scaring the 14-year-old from the daily drinking habit, but not from marijuana.
Once in college, she found that socializing involved house parties, fraternity parties and alcohol in the residence halls.
"I thought that since it had been so many years since I had drank, it wouldn't be a problem," she said.
But soon Maureen's drinking began to resemble her experience in high school. She was doing things her peers wouldn't or couldn't do.
"I thought the way I was drinking in college was the way all people in college drink, but it turned out normal people didn't have the issues I did," Maureen said.
"They drank and had a good time," she said. "They didn't black out the way I blacked out and they didn't get angry the way I got angry and get depressed the way I got depressed."
Friends began noticing, some refusing to drink with her. Her grades slipped; she was taking risks and eventually was convicted of drunken driving.
"My final bottom was, I got my second (drunken-driving arrest)," she said.
That was two Februarys ago, and she's since been working to overcome the addiction; her official sobriety date is Oct. 31, 2003.
"I had to learn how to live life all over again," she said. "I had to learn to live life on life's terms. I didn't know how to do that. That's something normal people instinctively know how to do.
"I had to learn how to talk about my feelings instead of putting up walls with people," she said.
Maureen plans to seek a graduate degree. She still is in the college environment but has new outlets that include hanging out with new friends who are also overcoming addiction.
She even goes to the occasional party or bar, but not if she's in a "funk" that day. With the right frame of mind and the "right spiritual condition, I can go anywhere," she said.
"Every party I go to and every bar I go to I have a good reminder why I'm sober," she said.
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