Recommended for you

What I Learned in Rehab

A look into my unique experience as an Intern in a juvenile addiction rehabilitation facility.

Sep 17, 2018

c1.staticflickr.com

Now I know how this title sounds, but I did not go through a rehabilitation treatment program. I worked in a Juvenile residential treatment facility for young women struggling with addiction and other criminal behaviors. I volunteered for three months and then interned for another four with the company. It was an incredible, educational, and, at times, saddening experience. The clients were learning how to live a sober lifestyle, how to utilize independent living skills, and so much more. Yet, at the same time, they were teaching me right back.

Here is a little inside on what the young women within treatment taught me:

Love Deeply, Selflessly, and Unconditionally

Not one of the clients I met came from a "normal home." They showed me the harmful effects of coming from an unloving familial environment. I have been blessed with a loving family and fairly stable life thus far. It broke my heart to hear that so many had been abused by parents, grandparents, siblings, significant others, or whoever it may be. This wasn't limited to abuse; they simply weren't getting the support they needed. This taught me to love my friends and little harder, my family a little deeper, and to treat anyone i come across with the respect those young women struggled to find. I see the people around me in a new light; no matter the mistakes they made or the obstacles I face in my life, I cannot love them any less than they deserve.

Never Judge due to an Addiction

Addiction can happen to anyone, and it is often out of their control. There are biological, familial, personal, and environmental factors that can cause one to become depend on a substance or behavior. In my time working in rehabilitation I learned about so many factors that can influence addiction. Many clients were exposed to drug use in their homes at young ages, some as young as 9 or 10. Such conditions make addictive substances accessible, normative, and even acceptable within their households. To me, after my experience, addiction in adolescents in households such as these are never the teen's fault; it is their environment that is to blame. This accounts for for many other factors as well, and other age groups, and addictions outside of the substance realm. I can never judge someone due to an addiction again.

I'm a Big Softy

I used to be the kind of person to show few emotions. Not much used to phase me. This changed after hearing the pasts of these young women, and their determination to change their lives from the better. The compassion and drive I saw often brought me to tears when I waked out the door at the end of my shifts. Additionally, those tears fell at every graduation, discharge, or hardship in clients lives, i felt an empathy for them that I had not always expressed before. I feel like a big teddy bear when I think about those girls. My experiences around them showed me just how emotional I can be.

Girls can Create Drama out of Anything

I lived in a sorority house of 60 women. I have seen the drama that can come out of so many girls living together, but sometimes the young ladies in treatment took it to a new level. Girls can little things HUGE, and nothing at all even HUGER. For example, one day a client walked around the dining room with only socks on her feet. The other girls wanted her to have shoes on like everyone else; it ended in tears and just about ended in a fist fight. Needless to say more; girls can make a big deal out of literally anything. There was never a dull moment at this job.

Someone Always has it Worse

I know this sounds cliche, but it's so true. Life may be hard, but someone always has it harder. The young women I met in treatment taught me a humility I had never had before. I gained an appreciation for my family, my friends, my education, my caring boyfriend, my physical health, my mental health, and so much more.

Everything about my rehab experience was eye opening. Those girls and that facility did so much more for me than these things listed. On a surface level, they helped me narrow down my career goals and fulfill a graduation requirement. On a deeper level, they touched my heart and made memories that will forever alter my outlook on life and addiction.

The 5 Phases Of Finals

May the odds be ever in your favor.

Essex County, NJ

1459

Gurl.com

It’s here; that time of year when college students turn into preschoolers again. We cry for our mothers, eat everything in sight, and whine when we don’t get our way. It’s finals, the dreaded time of the semester when we all realize we should have been paying attention in class instead of literally doing anything else but that. Everyone has to take them, and yes, unfortunately, they are inevitable. But just because they are here and inevitable does not mean they’re peaches and cream and full of rainbows. Surviving them is a must, and the following five phases are a reality for all majors from business to art, nursing to history.

Keep Reading...Show less

finals

Student Life

How To Prepare For The Library: Finals Edition

10 ways to prepare for finals week—beginning with getting to the library.

University of Dayton

2845

How To Prepare For The Library: Finals Edition

Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash

It’s that time of year again when college students live at the library all week, cramming for tests that they should have started studying for last month. Preparing to spend all day at the library takes much consideration and planning. Use these tips to help get you through the week while spending an excessive amount of time in a building that no one wants to be in.

Keep Reading...Show less

library

Student Life

26 Things to Thank Our Roommates For

Who knows where we would be without them.

Michigan State University

1949

StableDiffusion

Where do we begin when we start talking about our roommates? You practically spend every moment with them, they become your second family and they deal with you at your best and at your absolute worst. They are there to make you laugh just a little harder, cry a little less and make each day a little better. We often forget to thank them for the little things that they do to make college even a tiny bit easier and more fun. This list of 26 things are what you should thank your roommates for right this minute and every day that you live with them.