She took her first drink at the age of 12.

By her senior year in high school, the teen (whose name will not be used for privacy reasons) had tried nearly every drug out there. From the outside, she seemed like the average high school student – good grades, close friends, outgoing personality.

She managed to keep her addiction mostly to herself by keeping her grades up so her parents wouldn’t suspect anything was amiss.

Today, April 17, marks six months of sobriety for the teen.

She said she’s glad she got sober when she did.

“I didn’t hit rock bottom, and I don’t think I ever want to see me hit rock bottom,” she said in an interview.

She sought out help from school counselors, Monica Robbins and Shelly Veazey.

Robbins, who has been a counselor for 21 years and the Intervention-Prevention Program counselor for the Tahoma School District for six years, said in a phone interview the teen is not a typical case of drug and alcohol addiction.

“She’s very high-functioning,” Robbins said. “She was able to maintain a very high GPA.”

But, after two years of ongoing communication with the teen, Robbins said she was concerned enough to call the teen’s parents.

Students can expect a great deal of confidentiality when they talk to school counselors, Robbins said. But, if the student starts inflicting self harm or are being hurt by someone else, then parents or authorities are brought into the picture.

With the 17-year-old senior Robbins has been working with, it was different. Robbins said it was just time. She first told the teen of her plan to tell her parents, and then made the call.

“She understood,” Robbins said.

Three days after Robbins called the teen’s parents, she checked in to Sundown M Ranch, a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center in Selah, Wash. After spending nearly two months at the center, she came back to Maple Valley.

She said she thought about telling people she was doing college visits for two months. Instead, she decided the easiest part about coming back was admitting where she went.

“It’s part of me,” she said. “It’s going to be part of me for the rest of my life. And I just need to own up to it.”

She said she now wants to help people with chemical dependency and she plans to go to college to get the education she needs to pursue that. Since admitting her addiction to her friends and peers and sharing her story of sobriety, she said she has already had people reach out to her about getting help.

The teen’s advice to parents or friends of people who are going through addiction is to have patience.

“It took me a while to realize that not everybody is open minded yet,” she said. “You can’t help everybody. Be patient with them. You can’t force them to do anything that they don’t want to do.”

However, Robbins said parents are often in denial and don’t see the warning signs of their child’s addiction.

“Parents are usually the last people to see what’s going on because they don’t want to see it,” she said.

A few warning signs of drug and alcohol abuse to look for include slipping grades, change in friends, dropping sports or other extracurricular activities, personality changes, depression and problems at school or in their social life.

Trends

In general, Robbins said she doesn’t think there has been an increase in teen drug use, but there’s been a “shift.”

That shift, she said, is with the type of drugs teens are using and their availability.

Dabbing, she said, is one of two drug trends she’s currently seeing among teens. The other is e-cigarettes.

The two are very similar, but instead of nicotine being the drug of choice, dabbing utilizes a highly concentrated level of THC, the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis or marijuana.

Dried marijuana – which is usually smoked – has a THC concentration of about 5 percent according to United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Dabs, which are made from hash oil and butane, can contain upwards of 60 percent THC concentration.

Robbins also said the legalization of recreational marijuana has made it more available to teens.

“The message they are getting from the community is that it’s OK now,” she said. “It’s much more acceptable (and) more available.”

Wednesday, April 22, Robbins will host a parent information night on teen drug use trends. The teen mentioned in this article will tell her story, as will a parent. Maple Valley Police Chief DJ Nesel will also give a presentation. The event is free and will be from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at The Den at the Maple Valley Community Center.