JUSTAKIGBE

For some drug-addicted Maryland youths, treatment is the way to a new life

Seth Walters was 16 when he first smoked marijuana in his high school bathroom. Amid the high, his family problems and bouts with anxiety linked to his sister's murder disappeared.

"It made me feel really good," he said. "It pretty much numbed all of the pain that I was feeling."

Like many teenage addicts, Walter's road to dependence started with smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol socially. Then a friend convinced him to smoke weed. But that high wore off quickly and he turned to drinking large doses of cough syrup.
Walters, now 17, is among thousands of youths across the country who become addicted to drugs, using them to cope with life problems and mental illness.

Young people suffering from depression are more likely than others to begin using marijuana, hallucinogens and other drugs, according to the federal National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Some young addicts start using before they reach puberty. Recognizing the strong connection between mental health and substance abuse, many mental health and rehabilitation programs have begun jointly treating the two conditions.

Walters recently graduated from a residential mental health treatment program at Sheppard Pratt Health, which began offering a substance abuse component four years ago. The Berkeley and Eleanor Mann Residential Treatment Center treats 12- to 21-year-olds with severe emotional and behavioral problems. About a third of them have substance abuse as well as mental health issues, reflecting the results of the national drug use survey, which found the number of adolescents who suffered with substance abuse problems as well as long bouts of depression made up 28.4 percent, or 340,000, of the 1.3 million youths who abuse alcohol and drugs.