{"id":1577,"date":"2018-03-09T23:32:43","date_gmt":"2018-03-09T20:32:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/?p=1577"},"modified":"2018-04-07T22:36:39","modified_gmt":"2018-04-07T19:36:39","slug":"recovery-from-drug-addiction-is-real-with-rabih-darwiche","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/recovery-from-drug-addiction-is-real-with-rabih-darwiche\/","title":{"rendered":"Recovery from drug addiction is real with Rabih Darwiche"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dearborn\u2019s battle against drug abuse<\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n

 <\/p>\n

Rabih immigrated from Lebanon at age six with his family to the United States to live with his parents in East Dearborn. He attended Lowery School and then Fordson High School. He was the youngest of his 7 other siblings. Rabih lived a normal life like any Arab American child living to Dearborn until he was drawn into the \u201cwrong circle\u201d as he describes it.<\/span><\/strong><\/h6>\n

Special Report<\/strong><\/span>
\nThe Yemeni American News<\/p>\n

Our reporter Adel Mozip sat down with Rabih Darwich, now Hype Athletics Wayne Center Building Manager and a recovered healthy individual for an interview.<\/p>\n

Rabih says \u201cIt all started in my early teens, I became aware of my surroundings; seeing many students smoking so after a cycle of watching the same scene, my curiosity led me to smoke my first marijuana at age 14. I then became addicted to alcohol after being pressured by my peers. We used to smoke after school, by the gas station, and backyards\u201d<\/p>\n

Peer pressure was imminent in dragging Rabih into the circle. \u201cThey tell you flat out. If you\u2019re not with us inhaling then you can\u2019t be part of us.\u201d Rabih went through high school being addicted to all kinds of drugs. \u00a0\u201cWhen I was 19, I injured myself playing basketball, and I was then addicted to prescription drugs such as Vicodin, Suboxone, Xanax, and others.\u201d<\/p>\n

The addiction got worse. He says \u201cmy family wasn\u2019t understanding why I was acting. Addicting got me stealing money, I burnt many bridges along the way. I never went to jail until I was 30 after not paying insurance, and getting a DUI. I wasn\u2019t normal anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Rabih details his story one night where he overdosed with one of his friends. \u201cIt was a Sunday football game day and I took two doses by mistake.\u201d He says that he collapsed in front of his house after taking many pills. His neighbors called the ambulance and he and his friend were taken to the hospital.<\/p>\n

Rabih hit his rock bottom; narrating one night after leaving the hospital seeing all the cigarettes in his bed and his elderly mom crying at the edge of the room. Thinking about suicide and coming clean at the same time, he decided to go to rehab for the 23rd time. \u00a0\u201cPeople that knew I was addicted didn\u2019t know very much about what I was going through, they were saying something sloppy like \u2018grow up\u2019, or \u2018love yourself.\u2019\u201d He completed a rehab two-week session and then moved out to a \u201c3-quarter house\u201d. A three-quarter house is a transitional housing unit that provides a lower level of supervision for people who are in recovery. He recalls his first day at one of these houses; where the power went out; temperature around 95 in hot Michigan weather and bed bugs in the house. \u201cWhile it was a scary scene, at least it was better than my room. I knew that minute that God has something for me and I wanted to live.\u201d<\/p>\n

In September of 2016, Rabih saw an ad in the newspaper to work at Hype. He met with Ali Sayed and was afraid that [Ali] will judge him. But to his surprise, \u201cI will give you a chance!\u201d. Ali agreed to hire Rabih knowing that he\u2019s in recovery and Rabih afterward felt that he prejudged Ali, not the other way around.<\/p>\n

He tells me \u201cI started off as maintenance, and I am his building manager. I do vocational training for people in recovery, autistics, and people. My mission is to serve the people. Now I have some roommates. I do intervention now, we tell them that stigma needs to end. People should not be shy to ask for help.\u201d<\/p>\n

He says that parents go through rough times when they have an addicted child. \u201cThis is extremely uncomfortable for them; the child would go back to the house. Parents actually would enable them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asking Rabih on how faith plays a role in the recovery process. He said, \u201c You have to find faith; It doesn\u2019t matter who you believe in; as long as you\u2019re believing in a higher power.\u201d Rabih says that unfortunately, [religious] scholars are lacking the understanding of addiction.<\/p>\n

Rabih explains his journey to Mecca, \u201cGod gave me strength and when I went to Hajj because the struggles I went through in my life, and the stress; the struggle I was experiencing sober in full reality. I was understanding the concept of being alive. I asked God when I saw the Kaba\u2019ah for the first time is to help me help the people.\u00a0 I was asking for forgiveness, and it was an incredible feeling. Most of the fear got replaced with faith, and I knew at that moment the purpose of life .\u201d<\/p>\n

Rabih became an active part of SAFE, Substance Abuse Coalition, a project of Hype Athletics which is designed to combat addiction in the community knowing the stigma associated with addiction.<\/p>\n

Headed by Hassan Abdallah, SAFE is founded on three aspects: education, advocacy, and services. Abdallah believes the cultural taboos and stigma associated with substance abuse by giving people the freedom to speak out when they or a loved one need help.<\/p>\n

SAFE has partnered with Dearborn schools and community organizations to do a peer-mentoring program to spread awareness about the dangers of drugs. Abdullah says \u201cTeam SAFE began its Life-Skill Drug Prevention and Education Program within the Dearborn district – within 3 days, our SAFE Mentors covered 36 classes (all classes in grades 3-8 at McCollough\/Unis). Our goal is to cover each 3rd-8th-grade classroom at least twice before the end of the school year. We will begin at Stout and Woodworth Middle School after mid-winter break. The kids and staff were engaged, excited to learn, and empowered with the knowledge to make positive life decisions. Some of our mentors even taught the classes in Arabic to accommodate non-English speaking students.
\nSAFE is committed to giving the kids in our community every resource possible to prevent harmful life situations and to become leaders for SAFE in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now there are many initiatives in the Arab American community combating substance abuse. One organization, in particular, Life for Relief and Development is empowering a drug-free community coalition (DFC) of committed individuals and organizations who work together to reduce the substance abuse problem and its negative impact. Headed by Dr. Abdelwahab Alawneh, the program identified problems; hookah and marijuana.\u00a0 Three focus groups were held with youth in the spring of 2016 to learn more about Hookah, 30 youth participated. \u201cThe results were alarming, 25 out of the 26 surveyed believe that hookah is safe to smoke, 22 reported that their parents allowed them to smoke hookah but not cigarettes, all participants reported that is easy to get hookah at home, friends. 11 participants reported that using marijuana is safe and has no negative health consequences.\u201d
\nDr. Alawneh says that the coalition is launching \u201cParents Against Marijuana \u00a0(PAM)\u201d in collaboration with Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM). \u201cSAM headquarter is in Virginia and is the world\u2019s largest organization focusing on defeat legalizing marijuana. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The other partner is Productive and Healthy Michigan organization which is leading the effort to defeat legalizing Marijuana in Michigan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Life for Relief and Development is working closely with the Islamic Center of Detroit in launching seminars and education to the parents to combat substance abuse and opioids.<\/p>\n

The Islamic Center of America in partnership with SAFE, HYPE Athletics and Access will be hosting a half-day Community Forum on Saturday, March 17th at the Islamic Center of America.<\/p>\n

The American Moslem Society (AMS) is also embedding Life\u2019s program into the programming of the mosque\u2019s services. Dr. Mahdi Ali, President of AMS says educating parents is very important; bringing experts to explain ways to help parents became aware of the drugs\u2019 problem.<\/p>\n

Asking Rabih for an advice to people who are addicted, \u201cget honest with yourself and have mercy. In order to be free of drugs, you would have to endure. Please don\u2019t be ignorant, educate yourself, by helping. You\u2019re not alone, and we have many people that actually care. Reach out to help.\u201d<\/p>\n

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