MARY WISNIEWSKI
Assistant Living Editor
Ever since high school, senior Katie Carroll drank coffee to stay awake. Carroll said her mom drank a lot of coffee too, so it was always around the house.
Carroll said she liked coffee because it takes away the desire to sleep. Her enjoyment of the beverage rolled over into college.
She said at first she drank coffee less in college than high school, only drinking enough to finish projects and papers.
“It wasn’t an everyday thing,” Carroll said.
Time would change that.
Carroll said this year she knew her coffee habits were out of control when she woke up one morning with a migraine-like headache.
She remembered her father telling her to drink some coffee to make her headache fade. She did, and her headache dissipated.
The next morning, she awoke with another headache; she drank coffee to remedy the problem.
When it happened again Carroll said she realized she had an addiction and wanted to stop.
At first, Carroll said she tried to quit cold turkey but realized it would not work. She is currently taking more of a realistic approach to stop her habit.
“Now I’m aware of how much coffee I’m drinking and only drink about a half cup of coffee,” she said. Carroll said she no longer gets the extra shot of espresso in her drinks.
With her reduction of caffeine intake, Carroll said it physically hurts. However, she said she refuses to rely on coffee in part because of her fiancé, Adam Wilson. Yet, she said it is hard to drink less caffeine when she is tired but said sleeping helps curb the addiction.
“The hardest part is wanting coffee and not being able to drink it,” she said. She also said it will be easier to completely break the addiction once she graduates from college in April.
Carroll is certainly not the only student to struggle with an addiction in college.
A report conducted by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University found that college students drinking and/or abusing prescription and illegal drugs has only increased since 1993.
They reported that each month, 49.4 percent of all full-time college students ages 18 to 22 binge drink, abuse prescription drugs and/or abuse illegal drugs.
Abuse of prescription drugs is at an all-time high. From 1993 to 2005, abuse of prescription painkillers like Percocet, Vicodin and OxyContin increased 343 percent while stimulants like Ritalin and Adderall increased 93 percent, according to the study.
Therapist and Alcohol and Other Drug Education Coordinator Robert Scholz said addictions occur when one is overly reliant on something other than oneself.
He said indicators of addiction include an increased tolerance, the ability to stop the habit, side effects while trying to break the habit, grades dropping as well as behavioral problems. These problems coincide with riskier acts such as unwanted sex and interacting with drug dealers, he said.
Scholz said Pepperdine is fairly typical in its addictions compared to other colleges. He said alcohol is probably the most prevalent, followed by marijuana and interspersed with pockets of people doing coke.
Scholz said there are many theories on how addictions develop.
He said on one spectrum is the idea of genetics, meaning some people are more genetically susceptible to forming habits.
However, it does not mean one will develop the habit. Choice is on the other end of the spectrum of theories, Scholz said. People develop habits because they like the way that substance makes them feel; Scholz said the truth is not clear.
“The reality is we don’t know exactly,” he said. “It’s probably a combination of things.”
In either case, Scholz said that culture affects people’s habits. He said all one has to do is turn on MTV and see college students drinking. He said indirect messages such as drunken adventures or alcoholic product placement can encourage addictions.
Culture is not the only factor in forming habits; a person’s temperament plays a role, too.
Scholz said he has observed that a person’s temperament affects what kind of drug he or she chooses. For example, he said anxious people usually do not like cocaine. This tendency can become a problem because the drug he or she chooses seemingly helps him or her, and it becomes a reinforcement, he said.
To complicate matters, many who are addicted to one drug soon find themselves addicted to many drugs. Scholz said if one is addicted to alcohol, often he or she will turn to a stimulant like Ritalin, cocaine or coffee the next day to alleviate a hangover.
“You will see a lot of cross addiction,” he said.
He said the worst physical reactions to addictions are caused by alcohol and opiates.
“These are two drugs that are technically legal but have the worst withdrawal,” Scholz said. He said alcohol is the worst for withdrawal symptoms and can actually result in death while opiates are also physically addictive and are becoming a problem with college students.
“Prescription drug use has increased,” he said. “People can get it easier. Students convince themselves that it is a prescription drug, so it’s not as bad.”
Adderall is one such drug more college students are using to get through the workload.
Scholz said Adderall has similar properties to other stimulants like cocaine.
“Adderall can be psychologically addictive,” he said. Despite this risk, many still take the drug.
“It’s normal during finals to see people passing out Adderall,” he said.
Scholz said a first step in breaking any habit is to evaluate how it is affecting a person.
“The first step is not to tell them to stop but to have them evaluate how it is affecting their life,” he said. “People tend to overestimate the positive use of drugs.”
Campus minister Linda Truschke said confession is a huge part in breaking with an addiction because it provides support and lessens one’s own burden.
Truschke said having faith will help get people through as well as knowing that breaking an addiction is not by one’s own strength.
“God is more powerful than what is controlling you,” she said.
For more information about breaking any type of addiction, visit the counseling center’s Web site at www.pepperdine.edu/counselingcenter.
03-29-2007