It's estimated there are hundreds maybe thousands of students at Ohio State in recovery. That is trying to stay off drugs and alcohol and remain sober. There are a growing number of student groups across the country that help students stay on the straight and narrow. Now 23, Marty Lewis began drinking in high school. By the time he reached Ohio State the junior communications major says his drinking was out of control. Lewis says he was also dabbling in drugs. "Wherever I went or whatever I was doing, they type of person that I was that was the lifestyle I was living," Lewis said. The story is similar for 24-year old senior Raylin Smith. Smith withdrew from a small college in the D. C. area before enrolling in OSU. She thought her problem lay in the old school and her sorority friends. But Smith soon discovered the problem followed her to Ohio State. She also discovered she could find any excuse to have a drink.
"Anything could be a trigger. If it was a rainy day. If it was not a rainy day. If it was a game day at Ohio State, a football game. A bad grade on a test or a good grade on a test," Smith said.
Smith says it didn't take very long before she recognized she needed help. "The first step for me was reaching out to Ohio State's counseling and consultation services. And there a counselor put me in touch with Sarah with the Collegiate Recovery Community," Smith said. Sarah is Sarah Nerad. The 24-year old native Texan began using drugs and alcohol at age 15. But her so-called 'practice sessions' with girlfriends to learn how to drink like a lady eventually led to IV heroin use. Looking back, Nerad says she believes she has the disease of addiction. "I believe I was born this way and when I put that first drink into my body it was essentially Russian roulette for me. I didn't know at fifteen that I have this disease. And at fifteen, I set it off," Nerad explained. At sixteen, Nerad says she failed a drug test and entered a rehab program at her parents' insistence. She says she went through the motions to appease her family, but failed to take rehab seriously. That is, she says, until she wanted to get better. "The recovery program started to it started to take effect on the inside and I started to want recovery for me. I was willing to accept the fact that at 17 years old, I would not be able to drink or use drugs ever again," Nerad said. Nerad estimates there are nearly one thousand students at Ohio State in alcohol recovery and a couple of thousand more trying to get over drug addiction. "When I was a student at Texas Tech University for my undergrad, I was part of their Collegiate Recovery Community. So I've been a student in one of these programs and now I have the honor and privilege to start one and run one," Nerad said. The Collegiate Recovery Program she was instrumental in starting recently got a two million dollar grant from the Conrad Hilton Foundation.
Nerad has organized regular support group meetings, opportunities for community service, sober tail gate parties and other social events. And this fall the Recovery House at Penn Place opened where students in recovery from addiction can live.
Nerad expects Recovery House to be at its capacity of 28 in a couple of years. Right now, though, there are only two students and an advisor living there. Marty Lewis moved from off-campus into the Recovery House this fall. "I was in an eight person house; what I considered to be a toxic environment. An animal house, if you would. Moving into the Recovery House, it's not what I expected. It's not a hospital-type set-up. It's just normal, adult, mature, responsible living,"Lewis said. Student Raylin Smith says recovery doesn't have to be boring. She says she's had more fun in college being sober than she ever had when she was drinking. "For me, recovery actually afforded me what I had actually been looking for with drugs and alcohol. When I entered recovery, my world came back into color. I've never felt so alive," Smith said.