Portage centre program gave teenager hope for happiness
There was a time in the not so distant past when Charlie Ireton was living the high life and loving it.
And the emphasis on is the word “high.”
“I’d eat, sleep and party,” said the 18-year-old, who began using hardcore drugs a few years ago. They messed with his life and caused his family much grief. When the situation became unbearable, his parents made the toughest decision of their lives and let him go. That’s how he ended up in a group home and in deeper trouble.
“My parents didn’t want to see me leave, but we thought it would be best,” he said. “They didn’t know what to do and I knew I wasn’t setting a good example for my younger brother. In the end, it was the best thing that happened.”
He wound up in a group home that was more like a hotel, and the teen came and went as he pleased, spending nights out high on prescription drugs, cocaine, crack or anything else he could get his hands on.
A counsellor recommended he go to Portage, a residential substance abuse rehabilitation program for adolescents in Elora, Ont. He agreed to do it, but his heart wasn’t in it. All he really wanted to do was get stoned.
“I wasn’t ready to change,” he said. It was only a matter of time before he slipped back into the old life.
And then something clicked. It may have been the warning that he’d be kicked out of the group home, or that his family didn’t visit him for long stretches because they couldn’t watch him self-destruct, or maybe it was that he’d finally decided he couldn’t live that life anymore.
That’s when Ireton returned to Portage, where he saw what had been staring him in the face a year earlier. “I saw people who were happy, and that’s what I wanted very much — to be happy and content with myself.” It had eluded him for years. It took courage and guts to change the course of his life. “Portage gave me hope that I could be happy.”
While meeting with counsellors one-on-one and in group therapy he discovered who he was and what he wanted out of life.
“I learned to be honest with myself and others,” said Ireton. Ireton also learned that others at Portage genuinely wanted to help him move forward. It’s also where his relationship with his family began to mend.
Wilderness camping with Outward Bound gave him the opportunity to challenge himself even further. Portage had cleared his mind and rejuvenated his spirit. It was a high he’d never experienced with drugs.
“I was crazy proud when I finished the first camp, and I came back loving camping,” said Ireton, now a Grade 12 student at Huron Heights High School in Newmarket.
And the bonds that developed with the people who shared similar challenges and goals are amazing, said Ireton, adding that the friends he’s made will be buddies for life.