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"Testing the limits\u2014whether it be by challenging your parents' opinions, getting inked, or performing any other act of rebellion\u2014is an adolescent rite of passage. But for the more than 25 million teens in America, drugs and alcohol are playing an increasingly common role: More than a quarter having consumed alcohol and an estimated 20% having used drugs before the age of 17. This has led to a rise in addiction, with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration reporting that 132,850 teens were admitted to substance abuse programs in 2010 alone\u2014and that number is only growing.\n\n\"I went to rehab the week after my 17th birthday, after I got a second DWI,\" says Clare, now 18. She took several weeks off school to enroll in a court-ordered residential program where she lived with two dozen other girls. Clare and her cohorts came from a range of backgrounds, but had one thing in common: They had gotten in trouble and were sent to rehab to address the underlying problem.\n\nThe program was centered on group therapy, where the girls would discuss how their lives had been directly affected by their substance abuse. Clare's wake-up call came after hearing stories from fellow patients; one had endured a sexual assault, another committed vehicular manslaughter. \"When they talked about those events and how much they drank,\" she says, \"they were drinking the same amount I was. It scared me how lucky I was to only get arrested.\"\n\nThe recognition of one's addiction and its effects is an important step, says Scott Brand, who works in the outreach department of Inspirations for Youth, a leading teen addiction treatment center. The residential rehab program has seen great success with dual diagnosis therapy, which addresses both substance abuse and mental behavioral issues. \"Teen addicts generally also suffer from accompanying issues such as low self-esteem, cutting, and depression as well,\" he says. Treating these conditions in tandem with substance abuse has proved effective for many of Inspiration's patients.\n\nThough research has established a strong correlation between mood disorders and addiction among teens, there are social factors unique to girls. Pam Blankenship, ecutive director of the Dallas-based non-profit organization C.A.R.E. (Chemical Awareness Resources &amp;amp; Education), explains that girls are more likely to drink because of family problems than because of peer pressure, suggesting that instead of drinking to fit in, they drink to escape. \"They do it to cope with frustration or anger,\" she explains.\n\nNot surprisingly, rehab programs aren't one-size-fits-all. Though college freshman Meagan believes that the year-long wilderness program she completed when she was 16 ultimately helped in her path toward sobriety, she still has reservations about whether or not its tough-love ethos provided \"the right situation\" to foster recovery in. The rehab, which involved intense multi-mile hikes and survival ercises, strictly governed the lives of its patients. \"I didn't talk to my parents for weeks, didn't see them for months, because they forbid it,\" Meagan says. \"I had to earn the right to speak to my family.\"\n\nShe had to accomplish specific tasks in order to gain privileges for everything from wearing shoelaces and having gloves to speaking to the opposite sex and talking on the phone. \"Most of the kids with me had real behavioral problems and were constantly fighting authority, so I got why they were there,\" she says. \"But it just highlighted how little my parents understood my situation and what I was going through.\"\n\nThough having a strong familial support system can play a crucial role in the process, after a certain point, recovery is an individual choice. After several attempts made by her parents while she was a minor, New York native Meredith* achieved sobriety only after acknowledging she alone controlled her fate. Her first experience with rehab at a therapeutic boarding school proved ineffective when she returned home her senior year of high school, since it also meant returning to the friends and pressure that led to her substance abuse in the first place.\n\n\"Going back to school was the hardest part,\" she says, noting that in addition to being made to feel an outcast by her classmates, she also struggled to translate what she learned in the isolated rehab community to her daily life. Her relapse went unaddressed for over a year, at which point she sought help through an outpatient rehab program designated for college students. The program composed of older peers proved to be more inspiring, as most patients were there because they chose to be. \"After you turn 18, it's really difficult to be sent to rehab without your consent,\" Meredith says. \"It was for the best because I had to recognize I had a problem on my own and decide to address it.\" In addition to the motivational aspects of the group, Meredith benefitted from the ability to receive help and immediately apply it to real-life scenarios.\n\nSixteen-year-old Daniela, who has been in treatment for the past seven months for abuse of prescription ADHD medication and diet pills, has found her experience in outpatient rehab to be similarly positive. Her ability to live at home during the process\u2014allowing her to continue to go to school and interact with friends\u2014has provided her with a sense of consistency. \"It's one thing to recover somewhere isolated from temptation where you can focus on yourself 24 hours a day,\" she says. \"I needed to learn these things where I live, where I'm constantly tempted and thinking about recovery.\"\n\nWith six months of sobriety under her belt, Clare also feels confident in her recovery, but acknowledges it's something she will \"deal with every day\" for the rest of her life. This is particularly top of mind as she prepares to start college in the fall. \"I know it's going to be difficult and I know I will feel that pressure, but I don't want to deny myself the college experience,\" she says. \"If there's one thing I learned from rehab, it's to seek more out of life and think toward the future. I've accepted my past. I'm an alcoholic, but that's not all that I am.\"\n\n*Name has been changed"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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