- Drugs
Mitzi is an interventionist and licensed clinical social worker specializing in high-end crisis cases. She’s built a name for herself treating adolescents and young adults battling substance abuse, but it’s not a role she sought out. As a family therapist, she thought she had found her niche and it definitely wasn’t addiction. She frequently treated kids who had been prescribed ADD meds, but as a less pharmaceutical option, parents instead would bring their children to Mitzi because she favored coping skills over drugs. She also saw a lot of teens and young adults with mood disorders – highly functioning kids that also seemed to have a lot of anxiety/mood issues.
Then, eight years ago, she met a kid who was doing heroin. A doctor asked if Mitzi would treat the young person as a favor. The teen’s family held a common bias: “Our kid can’t be a heroin addict because of who we are.” It would be something Mitzi would run into time and again, and she became committed to working with these families, helping them to reshape their mental image of what a heroin addict looks like. It could easily be the kid next door, the honor student, the high-achieving teen applying to Ivy League colleges.
Come into Mitzi’s lobby during her Tuesday night support group and you’re going to see every private school in the area represented. Look beyond the Prada and Coach bags and you’ll find bright, accomplished, beautiful kids who challenge our ideas of what a heroin addict looks like.
Now, eight years later, she’s been called the “pied piper” of young heroin addicts. It happened so naturally. As Mitzi continued to offer dual diagnosis treatment to this group, she began to see a correlation between those pegged for ADD meds when they were young and those who became heroin addicts by age 25. There was another common denominator: she couldn’t get over how brilliant these kids were and found herself becoming an advocate for young opiate addicts. It’s a professional shift that has changed her practice, resulting in her doing a lot of treatment program-placements for young narcotics addicts.
“I work with young people because I feel I was given a gift to connect with young people,” Mitzi explains. “I have a lot of hope and respect for them – they often think I’m one of their peers. I’m certain it’s because I hear them authentically, yet clinically. It’s physically if not emotionally impossible to reach every demographic, and I realized that I needed to specialize in one specific area, and working optimally with the younger generation became my specialized niche in this world and in my profession.” One of my favorite compliments from a young adult – and one that I’ll always cherish – was being told I was “smooth Jazz.”
While other areas of work proved immensely challenging and skill-building, her current focus leaves her much more energized. It’s her passion, and so she continues to hone in on what she does best. While she says she’s doesn’t know why God picked her, she considers it a privilege.
What continues to stoke that passion in a treatment field that can be heartbreaking? It’s a telephone call like one she recently received from a grieving mother. She had treated her son for two years and he was doing really well. Then, at age 17, he was killed in a non-drug-related car accident. Although some family members were not keen on the idea of therapy during his treatment, but after the accident both parents expressed gratitude telling Mitzi, “Thank you for helping us get our son back so we could have this last year with him with some Joy.” Mitzi expresses to parents constantly to do everything a professional that you trust recommends, for should something happen, it’s all that you will have. NO SHOULD HAVES. Above is an example of a family system with broken hearts, but without any should haves.
It’s a privilege she doesn’t take for granted. She refers to this as “The Holder of Privilege” a family bestows.
As she has continued to work with this specialized group, it’s provided Mitzi with plenty of hard data. She shares this information freely with peers and parents, speaking at conferences and leading workshops. A popular topic for her is family systems and the importance of treating the family as a whole. No one drops off their teens for treatment at her office. Instead, entire families come in.
Parents are taught that they need to learn how to hear some hard things from their kids. Children in recovery need to be able to admit, “I’m craving heroin” in the same way they would talk to Mom or Dad about their favorite sports team.
She’s found that why these kids use drugs is an interesting conversation. Most are masking pain, so treating the physical addiction – along with the mental health issues behind it – is key. And once they get this kind of treatment, these kids go on to do amazing things.
Next up? Publishing her research and treatment model, so even more people can benefit from her.