The Road Out Blog

Caleb is a young teen living in an affluent area of a major California city. Although he is quite young, Caleb, (not his real name), has shown himself to have unusual talent in acting and singing and has starred in plays in middle school, high school and the local community college. He’s even acted in a few television commercials.

I first heard of this young man from his aunt who attended a parent seminar I gave at a high school in another part of town. The aunt told of her increasing worries over drugs and alcohol abuse among the crowd that Caleb was hanging with. She said that although he was talented and quite handsome, his judgment was poor and he had more courage than sense. I tried to reach the family but got no response.

Addiction to drugs or alcohol hasn't an on-off switch. There is not really a point at which you can say, "Wow, yesterday I was just a drug abuser, but today I am a drug addict."

Most of the drug abusers do not become addicted. They abuse drugs for a certain period and then just sort of graduate out of it; or they become interested in life and realize that drug use is getting in the way of their goals and simply stop.