Topic: substance abuse

Suicide: Did it have to end this way?

March 17, 2009 |

“Suicide is not chosen; it happens when pain exceeds resources for coping with pain.”

Suicide.  Self-inflicted death. The pain that drives an individual to commit suicide is mirrored by the pain experienced by those left behind to mourn.

In the past year, suicide has touched a number of families and individuals in our community. Two newly married men.  A high school boy. A college student. A friend. We react with shock that spirals into grief punctuated by a simple question: Why? And “was there something we could have done? Or noticed?” «Read the rest of this article»

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Crack Cocaine: Guest speakers at Alternative School share their experience and recovery

By Debbie Boen | January 19, 2009 |

Tough talk at 8 a.m.

“You don’t know my mind.  Who are you to tell me what to do?”  That’s what Anna Monroe said to people trying to get her to stop doing drugs.  I heard Anna talk at the Alternative School in Clarksville to a large group of high school students.  “I was just like you,” she says to the audience as she rests the side of her head on her hand, frowns, hair in face.  “I used to hear motivational speakers in my school too.  I was thinking, why don’t they just shut-up so I can leave?”  Anna was one of three guest speakers to talk as part of the Character Education Program.

Regina Moore, Alea White, Anna Monroe, guest speakers at the Clarksville-Montgomery County Alternative School

“You want to know cool?  I was cool,” says Anna.  In the days when they didn’t have white-out she took another piece of paper, wet it, and glued it over the ink on report cards to forge it.  Instead of going to school Anna was going to Disco Fever, the place where rap started in the Bronx.  She was the first girlfriend of Grand Master Flash.  She hung with school mates the Furious Five and the Sugar Hill Gang.  She enjoyed making rap rhymes.  She was in a group called the B Girls, B for Break dancing.  She stayed out dancing at night and was too tired to go to school.  When she was old enough, she dropped out of school. «Read the rest of this article»

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Life Center Foundation: Hope thrives in the aftermath of substance abuse

January 6, 2008 |

The Life Center Foundation is all about hope. So is Bill Irby, director of this life changing program that serves as “a bridge to a new life” for men and women grappling with the devastating effects of substance abuse. Irby’s mission is to move them from dependency to productivity within the community.

Life Center Foundation is a non-profit residential and an outpatient recovery program that offers a chance at recovery rather than incarceration. Tucked away on a tree-lined street in South Clarksville, the program is housed in a large sprawling home with a rambling porch. It’s a quiet place where residents live, usually for six to 18 months. Individuals are referred to the program through local court systems; these clients are often homeless victims of alcohol, drugs, and bad choices who have arrived at a crossroads: jail or recovery. The key to the recovery option is a strong desire to learn and acquire the skills needed to make new, different, self-sustaining and productive choices. That’s where the camaraderie, support, fellowship and Bill Irby come into play. «Read the rest of this article»

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