Pursuing addiction recovery is harrowing under the best of circumstances. As a college student, it felt damn near impossible. As I disclosed in my 2022 J. Med. Chem. editorial, I developed a substance addiction during my freshman year in response to the symptoms of my then-undiagnosed bipolar disorder. I used my drug of choice for long enough to lose most of what I valued in life─all before my 21st birthday. I had reached out to my university counseling center for help but was asked to endure a waitlist despite the undeniable urgency of my situation. While working toward a PhD in medicinal chemistry, my cravings resurfaced due to the isolation of the COVID pandemic. I reached out for services at my university and, again, was promptly waitlisted. While certainly not enough to threaten the fortress of support I had constructed around me during my 7 years in recovery, this experience served as a frustrating reminder of my similarly unsuccessful attempts to get support as an undergrad. Although access to collegiate recovery services clearly had not improved, I was now in a position to develop the service my community lacked. I resolved to launch a local weekly peer support group exclusively for college students like myself. I based my vision for how this new meeting would function on my own experiences in similar peer support groups. The most effective group facilitators I knew had both relevant lived experience and mastery of evidence-based recovery tools. Although I had the former in spades, to lead effectively I needed to develop the latter. Thankfully, the facilitator training course taught by the nonprofit SMART Recovery helped me acquire these skills. With the proper training in hand, I anxiously anticipated the launch of my local meeting. Fully expecting to spend the first few meetings alone, I was pleasantly surprised to have attendees from week one. We quickly blossomed into a cozy group. Together, we supported one young man developing a healthier relationship with alcohol while living in a fraternity house. Another regular, a young woman with over 2 years of abstinence, bolstered her motivation by listening to the stories of group members earlier on in their recovery journeys. The successes of its inaugural members highlighted the group’s effectiveness, making me eager to share this resource with as many students as possible. However, despite my earnest efforts to advertise, group attendance eventually stagnated. I mentioned this to others involved with collegiate recovery support groups and they corroborated my story. On campuses across the country, recovery efforts were not growing. My own difficulties finding recovery support groups on campus had convinced me of their necessity, but now I began to wonder. Perhaps I was wrong. The only way to find out for sure was to ask college students themselves about their reluctance to seek peer support. Speaking with both students and recovery specialists exposed an issue. Students expressed a need for social cohesion and validation, presenting both weaknesses and strengths to their recovery. They deeply desired recovery services which emphasized connection, while simultaneously fearing being recognized by their peers or discriminated against by facilitators. I felt renewed hope that if I could only mitigate the social anxieties and inclusivity concerns preventing young adults from seeking peer support, I could then capitalize on the strengths of this demographic to build a tightknit community. National online meetings seemed like a promising solution. n, running into an acquaintance would be very unlikely. The option to turn your camera off in a Zoom meeting also allowed participants to be anonymous if desired. Despite their almost bewildering simplicity, these changes increased meeting attendance dramatically. In the first meeting alone, I connected with 80 young recovery-seekers from across the country. Attendance continued to grow, eventually allowing the group to provide science-based recovery support to 200 students from across the country each week. Encouraged by this success, I helped train other facilitators to start their own national young adult meetings, including one specifically for people of color. My motivation for starting these groups was admittedly somewhat self-centered─I wanted to vindicate the desperate, isolated person I was in early recovery. I knew, of course, that I couldn’t reach back through time and help my younger self, but perhaps I could do something even more meaningful by standing up for other students who currently struggle. As a group facilitator, I use my personal experience to guide others through the quagmire of maintaining abstinence in the complex environment of a college campus. And each time I do so, I gain deep satisfaction in knowing my story has come full circle. If you have an addictive behavior you would like to change, click here to access SMART Recovery’s peer support meetings and evidence-based tools. This article has not yet been cited by other publications.

中文翻译：

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伸出援手并继续前进


即使在最好的情况下，追求毒瘾康复也是一件痛苦的事。作为一名大学生，这感觉几乎是不可能的。正如我在 2022 年《医学杂志》中所披露的那样。化学。社论中，我在大一的时候就对当时尚未确诊的双相情感障碍的症状产生了药物成瘾。我使用所选药物的时间足够长，以至于失去了我生命中所珍视的大部分东西——这一切都是在我 21 岁生日之前发生的。我向大学咨询中心寻求帮助，但尽管我的情况无可否认地紧迫，但还是被要求忍受等候名单。在攻读药物化学博士学位时，由于新冠疫情的隔离，我的渴望重新出现。我向大学寻求服务，但很快又被列入候补名单。虽然这肯定不足以威胁到我在康复的 7 年里所建立的支持堡垒，但这段经历令人沮丧地提醒我，在本科生时期，我也曾尝试过同样失败的获得支持的经历。尽管获得大学康复服务的机会显然没有改善，但我现在能够开发我的社区所缺乏的服务。我决定专门为像我这样的大学生成立一个当地的每周同伴支持小组。我对这次新会议如何运作的愿景是基于我自己在类似同伴支持小组中的经验。我认识的最有效的团体辅导员既拥有相关的生活经验，又掌握基于证据的恢复工具。尽管我确实拥有前者，但为了有效领导，我需要发展后者。值得庆幸的是，非营利组织 SMART Recovery 教授的辅导员培训课程帮助我获得了这些技能。有了适当的培训，我焦急地期待着本地会议的启动。 我完全期待着独自度过前几次会议，但我很惊喜地发现从第一周开始就有与会者参加。我们很快就发展成了一个温馨的团体。我们共同支持一名住在兄弟会之家的年轻人与酒精建立更健康的关系。另一位常客是一位禁欲两年多的年轻女性，她通过聆听团体成员早期康复之旅的故事来增强她的动力。其首任成员的成功凸显了该小组的有效性，使我渴望与尽可能多的学生分享这一资源。然而，尽管我竭尽全力做广告，团体出席率最终还是停滞不前。我向参与大学康复支持小组的其他人提到了这一点，他们证实了我的故事。在全国各地的校园里，恢复工作并没有加强。我自己在校园里找到康复支持小组的困难让我相信他们的必要性，但现在我开始怀疑。也许我错了。确定答案的唯一方法是询问大学生自己是否不愿意寻求同伴支持。与学生和康复专家的交谈暴露了一个问题。学生们表达了社会凝聚力和认可的需要，展示了他们康复过程中的弱点和优势。他们深切渴望强调联系的康复服务，同时又担心被同龄人认可或受到辅导员的歧视。我重新燃起了希望，如果我能够减轻阻碍年轻人寻求同伴支持的社会焦虑和包容性担忧，那么我就可以利用这一群体的优势来建立一个紧密的社区。全国在线会议似乎是一个很有前途的解决方案。 n，遇到熟人的可能性很小。如果需要，在 Zoom 会议中关闭摄像头的选项还允许参与者匿名。尽管这些变化简单得令人眼花缭乱，但会议出席人数却大幅增加。仅在第一次会议中，我就与来自全国各地的 80 名年轻寻求康复的人建立了联系。出席人数持续增加，最终使该小组能够每周为来自全国各地的 200 名学生提供基于科学的康复支持。受到这一成功的鼓舞，我帮助培训其他协调员开始他们自己的全国青少年会议，其中包括专门针对有色人种的会议。诚然，我创办这些团体的动机有些以自我为中心──我想为我这个处于早期康复阶段的绝望、孤立的人辩护。当然，我知道我无法穿越过去帮助年轻的自己，但也许我可以通过为其他目前陷入困境的学生挺身而出，做一些更有意义的事情。作为一名团体辅导员，我用自己的个人经验引导其他人走出在大学校园复杂环境中保持禁欲的泥潭。每次我这样做时，我都会感到深深的满足，因为我知道我的故事已经圆满结束了。如果您有想要改变的成瘾行为，请单击此处访问 SMART Recovery 的同伴支持会议和基于证据的工具。这篇文章尚未被其他出版物引用。