Group of Recovering California Teens Share Their Stories of Addiction

A group of teen graduates from the Positive Action Center, a substance-abuse program at Chapman Medical Center in Orange County, California, have been sharing their past struggles with their peers at area high schools.

The Center, with 18 beds for adolescents and 10 for adults, is the county's only acute-care, hospital-based substance abuse treatment center.

Leading these presentations and helping the teens stay sober is the Center's manager of community relations, Mike Darnold, 61, who is a "friend in sobriety" as well as the president of the local chapter of the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence and president of the Capistrano Unified School District Board of Trustees.

"These kids have got more integrity and character than many of the grown-ups I know," said Darnold, who has been in recovery for 24 years from alcoholism. "It's an honor for me to work with them. What they do takes a lot of humility."

Darnold has brought the teens' stories to 27 high schools and middle schools, insisting that helping them also keeps him sober.

"He tells us that we are making a difference, and that's comforting" said Hannah, 17, a graduate of the Positive Action Center who started drinking in the eighth grade and later used speed, ecstasy, and cocaine. "The more I'm told that I'm helping people out, the more I want to do it."

(5/27/2005)