On MTV’s new limited series, 16 & Recovering, the students and teachers of North Shore Recovery High School shed a light on what it’s really like to live with addiction and the road to recovery as a teenager. Regular high schools usually shut out students struggling with addiction. These students often get suspended or expelled for drug use at school, and the schools aren’t equipped with the proper resources to provide support. Recovery High School’s principal, Michelle Lipinski, knows that suspension and expulsion do nothing but hurt those struggling with addiction. Being punished with no school only gives them more freedom to abuse drugs.
In the four-part series, each episode highlights two students in their recovery process. It covers their background stories and their home lives. Viewers watched as the students struggled with desperately wanting to be sober and not being able to help relapsing. It also showcased how hard it was for the students to finish their senior years as they and their peers battled addiction.
The show sheds light on the heartbreaking lives of addicts and breaks the stigma that surrounds drug addicts.
Viewers also get to see the stories of the teachers and what it’s like for them to work at the Recovery High School. Most of the teachers struggled with addiction in their own lives and tended to question why they continued to work the job- with all of the heartbreak and worry that it brings.
While a lot of the show is heart-wrenching, especially for those who know the realities of addiction from personal experience, it shows a lot of lighthearted moments as well. In their daily GroupUp (homeroom), they celebrate the little things like sobriety records. Viewers also get to see the students joking around and having fun as normal teenagers do; it also shows the students tapping into their interests like music, art, and photography.
There’s a bad stigma surrounding addiction, and teenage addiction often flies under the radar. Public schools give up on teenage addicts and leave them to the wolves. Media like 16 & Recovering will hopefully help break the stigma and provide more awareness around addiction.
Although the four-part series of 16 & Recovering has already debuted on MTV, the series can be found on demand (for some providers) and online at http://www.mtv.com/shows/16-and-recovering.