The @addictiontokdok uses social media to reach youth
When she found a way to reach 25,000 teens with one social media post, a Moon doctor knew she had hit on something big to warn teens about the dangers of drugs, alcohol, cigarettes and vaping.
By day, Dr. Elizabeth Foley Zona, D.O., medical director for anesthesia services at Three Rivers Endoscopy Center in Moon, is the epitome of the classic medical professional, delivering anesthesia to adults getting colonoscopies or other gastrointestinal procedures.
Her colleague, Dr. Les Stine, medical director at Three Rivers Endoscopy Center and the Center for Digestive Health & Nutrition, said Dr. Zona is “confident and caring, easy for patients to relate to, and able to put patients at ease during a stressful situation.”
Executive Director Colleen Jakubovic said Dr. Zona is “never hesitant to take advantage of a teaching moment … She is kind, funny, upbeat and full of positivity.”
In her volunteer offhours, using the expertise gained from her second board certification in addiction medicine, Dr. Zona, 41, displays that same confidence, caring and professionalism, but with a much more bubbly, upbeat, spontaneous demeanor while working with teens. Her topics are tough — the importance of making good decisions and the dangers of using drugs, alcohol, cigarettes and vaping.
“I try to be relatable, funny and entertaining — honest but educational,” she said. “I introduce myself as their ‘future’ self.”
And she’s very good at it, especially since she began using TikTok in early December to create more than 150 videos reaching thousands of teenage and young adults. The videos cover lots of topics from “Signs you are addicted” to “How do I keep my kids from getting hooked on drugs?”
The answer to the second question is, “Talk to them,” Dr. Zona said.
She got the idea to become a TikTok creator from the group of 16 high school, premed and medical school students she mentors.
“All of them are on TikTok, and they told me that I could reach 3,000 people at a time rather than 300 in an auditorium if I would just use TikTok,” Dr. Zona said.
She took their advice. In the first 10 weeks, she had amassed more than 1,000 TikTok followers. One of her videos, “I wish I knew this as a teen,” reached 25,000 views.
In 2017, seven years after becoming an attending anesthesiologist, Dr. Zona decided to add the addiction medicine specialty to her medical credentials after a close friend and classmate at Moon High School, Teah Robinson, lost her battle with addiction in 2016.
“Teah and I were friends since seventh grade,” she explained. “She was sweet and beautiful and kind. She had been in recovery for addiction to opioids, and she relapsed. Unfortunately, she was left by scared friends and was never able to recover. We were so similar as kids and had so much in common, and that one decision to use opioid pills in high school, that seemed common and relatively harmless at the time, affected her life so much … It easily could have happened to me.”
She added, “I am grateful to Teah’s twin sister, Tahnee Robinson, and her family for allowing me to share her story.”
Since Ms. Robinson’s death, Dr. Zona has offered a $1,000 annual scholarship in her memory to a Moon Area High School senior planning to enroll in college or technical school.
“The winner demonstrates healthy decisionmaking and personal choices through an essay and application process,” she said, adding about 35 students apply for the scholarship each year.
In addition to the almost daily TikTok videos, she regularly speaks to Moon students at assemblies. Her message includes lots of advice about making good choiceswith encouragement and warnings mixed in.
She also offers some shocking statistics behind the record number of overdose deaths now occurring in the U.S. One group, Families Against Fentanyl, cited U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stats that show fentanyl is now the No. 1 single cause of death for Americans age 18 to 45, killing more than suicide or COVID or car accidents https://( drive.google.com/file/d/ 1S0szR2Ua9v0Sr91YhDD 7gPrXsDkHxDvP/view).
“This is because of illegally produced fentanyl being added to all drug classes in America,” Dr. Zona said. “One pill that looks like a Xanax or an Adderall can be counterfeit and contain illicitly manufactured fentanyl that can kill you. A lot of kids are dying after their first drug use.”
Other points Dr. Zona stresses:
• “Vaping” products do not actually deliver a vapor. They deliver a chemical aerosol that contains toxic heavy metals, harmful gases (called volatile organic compounds) and highly addictive nicotine, which means you may not be able to quit using it just because you want to. Nicotine use can also worsen depression and anxiety.
• Alcohol poisoning is a consequence of drinking too much alcohol in a short period of time. It can cause a loss of consciousness, coma or death. Alcohol is a factor in the deaths of thousands of people younger than age 21 in the U.S. each year, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. A recent Journal of the American Medical Association research letter reported the number and rate of alcohol-related deaths increased approximately 25% between 2019 and 2020, the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Noting that opioid overdose deaths increased 38% in 2020, with a 55% increase in deaths involving synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, it said, “There were similar increases in the number of deaths in which alcohol contributed to overdoses of opioids (40.8%) and, specifically, synthetic opioids (59.2%).”
• Never leave a hurt or sick friend because you are afraid to call for help. The Good Samaritan Law protects you from getting in trouble if you call for help in an emergency.
At the end of her PowerPoint presentations, Dr. Zona always shows students a slide that includes her TikTok handle, email address and an anonymous telephone number they can call for help. And she always notices at least 50 new followers on TikTok after her presentations.
Dr. Zona has advice for parents and other adults who work with teens:
“Don’t dictate — educate. I feel strongly that the ‘just say no’ approach is not effective for most kids,” she said. “They are naturally curious and need to learn the information from us or they will learn it from the wrong sources.”
She treasures the gratitude she gets from students after her high school talks. For example, in 2017 Abbie Fish came up to her after a presentation at Moon and said, “I want to be you when I grow up!,” she recalled.
Dr. Zona took her under her wing shortly thereafter and continues to mentor her to this day. Ms. Fish is now completing her first year of medical school.
Adult groups are on Dr. Zona’s radar, too. She enjoys speaking to community groups such as Vintage Church in Moon that sponsors the Hope Addiction Recovery program. On May 10, she will raise awareness about deadly counterfeit pills.
“... they told me that I could reach 3,000 people at a time rather than 300 in an auditorium if I would just use TikTok.”
— Dr. Elizabeth Foley Zona
Moon police Capt. Doug Ogden has worked on several community presentations with Dr. Zona. He said he has “nothing but praise” for her.
“She has provided guidance for me on street level drugs, and what’s happening in our area. She is extremely knowledgeable, humble and has a great heart for her work,” he said.
Barry J. Balaski, superintendentof Moon Area School District, said Dr. Zona is very popular with the students and relates well to those who don’t always feel comfortable engaging with their families, teachers and other authority figures.
“The students like her,” Mr. Balaski said. “She really makes a concerted effort to keep them from failing … She’s warm and accepting and encourages them to go after their goals.”
Dr. Zona and her husband, Chris, are graduates of Moon Area High School, she in 1998 and he in 1999, and make their home in Moon. They are the parents of two sons, Zachary, 10, and Tyler, 6. “Giving back” by providing free addiction education to the community where Dr. Zona grew up is high on her priority list. And she doesn’t seem to mind the hard work and long hours it takes to reach her audiences in all different ways.
“If I speak to thousands and one doesn’t go down the path of drugs and alcohol, those hours are well spent,” she said.
Check out her TikTok videos: @addictiontokdok.