Art Therapy For Teenagers

While in recovery, I've learned how to talk about how I am feeling. I've learned all the tools, how to talk, and what to do. Sometimes even when I talk about how I feel, there is still something in me that needs to physically get out. When I was using I wouldn’t talk about anything. I would stuff down all my emotion with negative coping mechanisms. I would either use, cause chaos, or literally run away from problems. I didn’t know how to let go of the physical strain I was going through. Recovery has taught me healthy ways to physically let go of emotion. One of these ways is art therapy.
When I am in a depressing mood I will play my guitar and write a song. When I’m angry I’ll draw. When I’m bored or feeling sorry for myself I’ll make a collage or a card for someone. Art is the most expressive thing I know. It feels so good to be able to let everything just slide off me and into this creative emotion filled entity. I can just sit in my room for hours, expressing myself with art, getting lost in it all. By the time I finish, I realize that I hadn’t once thought about using drugs or alcohol. It gives me a sense of fulfillment. I had been able to work through the issue without feeling the need to resort to havoc.
Sometimes my best friend will come to my house and we will express ourselves with art together. It creates and environment where we can focus and talk about what is on our minds. It has helped me in recovery when just talking about what’s on my mind wouldn’t completely help. Today I make it a habit to do art. Everyday I make sure I am physically expressing myself with creativity. Whether it be poetry, music, sculpture, etc. I do it. Art has been a huge outlet for me and for others to help keep clean and sober.

Eminem Heavily Addicted to Prescription Drugs

Eminem recently opened up to Vice Magazine, admitting that he used to be heavily addicted to prescription painkillers and sleeping pills. He reported that at times he was taking 10-20 Vicodin a day and so many Valium and Ambien that he couldn’t count them. Again we are reminded of the growing problem of prescription drug addiction. After a nasty relapse following a knee injury, Eminem got clean and stayed clean. In the article, he shares about his initial struggle to write raps sober. He says, “I almost feel like a little kid again with rap. I wanna play around with different flows. If I don’t feel like it’s what I’m fully capable of, if there’s one weak line, I wanna change it. Rap was my drug. It used to get me high and then it stopped getting me high. Then I had to resort to other things to make me feel that… Now rap’s getting me high again.”

Most of the people I know in recovery are highly creative in one form or another. Many addicts in early recovery struggle with the fear that they will not be able to do the creative things that they used to do when they were using. Art therapy is an extremely useful tool in exploring emotions and recovery. I associated painting and drawing with using, and I thought that I wouldn’t be creative anymore without drugs, which is a lie. I felt like art was a best friend that I could never go back to again, and it broke my heart. Recently, I heard a speaker share that as an artist, in order to overcome her challenges with creativity, she had to remember that she was a creative and clean person before she started using, and that she was a creative and clean person now. Art therapy at Visions helped me readjust my perspective regarding art. I began to see it as a useful tool in my recovery. Painting and drawing are now forms of meditation for me, and a way to work out challenging issues. I don’t know what role art will play in my future, but I know that I don’t want to be without my creative outlets.

Addicted to prescription drugs

Art-Therapy

This is art produced by one of our recent graduates from new york city during an art therapy session at Visions Adolescent drug Treatment Centers

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