Drug and Alcohol Treatment for Youth

Kyle’s Story

“Kyle is messed up.

He’s putting sin in his cup,

Inhaling poison all night

And getting high as a kite

Just to live through the night…”

Kyle raps. He’s got a rhythm and a good feel for rhymes. He is sixteen and he has no one. When Kyle was about ten, his father and mother overdosed months apart. Social workers coming to look for Kyle found him selling drugs in the street, high on crack. Foster homes, years of group home placements – no matter where they put him, he would find a way to use again. When he beat a stranger in the street over $20 in their wallet, a judge sent him to Mohican as a last chance.

“You guys ain’t got nothing for me…” Kyle laughed in his first therapy session. “I’m going to get high as soon as I get out of here or maybe even while I’m here.”

Drugs are all he knows and he doesn’t care that he may end up like his parents. He welcomes it. Life has no value to him – not his own nor anyone else’s.

“My name is Kyle,

I’m gonna live and fight a little while,

And then I’m gonna lay me down and rest,

Whoever asks, tell them I did my best…”

It took Mohican’s therapists a lot to get to Kyle. His love for rap was a hook, and when he entered the Academy’s rap club, he became a star. But in order for him to hold the mic up on a stage, he needed to earn it every week and working in a therapy group was one of the rules. The group talked about life with no drugs and alcohol. It turned out Kyle was scared of dying.

“I looked ahead and saw a ghost… Wait, I don’t have a rhyme for that one.”

His fear made him angry. He cursed and walked out on the group into the bitter Ohioan winter, no hat or gloves. His therapist called for help and Kyle’s childcare workers were right there, de-escalating, telling him that his life mattered and that plenty of people, including peers in his group, cared about him. When they brought him back, Kyle had tears streaming down his face. Seeing that he was not alone for the first time in his life broke the shell.

Twelve steps seem like a very long program, especially when you’re just 16. One has a lot to learn: coping skills; ways to avoid situations involving drugs; building a positive self-image.

“I saw a light, the sun was shining bright,

I knew that everything would be alright…”

Life is no easy street for Kyle – nowhere close. When he graduates the Academy, he still has no one to rely on but himself. He may be placed in a group home, facing the unknown again. His hope is that with the independent living skills he has learned and his newly acquired positive self-image (“My name is Kyle, I have been ready for a while…”), he could get a job and get a place of his own.

Here at Mohican, each year we see hundreds of “Kyles” coming through the doors. We give our best to them all. The ones who choose “the light”, stop in or write to us, sometimes years later, to thank the Academy for not giving up on them and helping them with a new start.