MADISON, Wis. — Youth throughout Wisconsin struggle with mental health and substance abuse issues every day.
Often the two issues are related.
According to a survey administered to public schools in Wisconsin by the Wisconsin department of Public Instruction, 40% of students they surveyed reported feeling sad or hopeless every day.
Alex Ketzmann is a junior at Horizon High School in Madison. Ketzmann said mental health issues led to her life of drug use.
Ketsmann’s first encounter with drugs was at 9 years old.
“When I was 13, I started having some relationships with people who gave me weed, and I started just smoking every single day for like a year,” said Ketsmann.
Ketsmann and her parents tried everything, from rehab programs to therapy and even Alcoholics Anonymous (AA).
“I didn’t find anything that really helped me,” said Ketsmann. “ I was in AA and that was probably the most helpful to me, but again, you can’t be in AA meetings 24 hours a day all the time.”
Ketsmann and her family thought they had tried everything and that’s when they found Horizon High School, a school for students in recovery.
“Her first day at Horizon, her mom was texting me saying ‘I don’t know if she is going to get out of the van, she is hysterically crying, she’s a bit of a mess,'” said Traci Goll, director of Horizon High School.
Alex is not alone in dealing with her mental health and substance abuse issues.
With substance use, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services reported that 66.7% of youth in Wisconsin have consumed alcohol by the 12th grade.
It also reports that 11.4% of all youth have misused prescription pain medication.
Goll has watched Ketsmann grow into a completely new person in the last two years at Horizon High School.
“The growth that Alex has made is incredible,” said Goll. “She has almost two years of sobriety.” For most of her childhood, Ketsmann felt helpless, but she said Horizon has given her hope for a brighter future.
“I am almost two years sober. I can drive a car, I have a job, I love my family, I have great friendships. That’s just crazy to me because I didn’t plan on living to sixteen. I didn’t plan on being where I am today,” said Ketsmann.
Horizon is one of only 34 recovery schools in operation in the U.S. and it runs completely through funding from the community.
Funding that is helping Ketsmann reach her goals of going to college.