.entry-date::after {content: ” by Val Niehaus”;}
December 15, 2016 – Full Issue
The Lybert family is made up of father Rick, mother Sandi, sister Ashleigh and Tyler, brother and former drug addict. They are no strangers to what drugs can do to an individual or to an entire family.
The Lybert family are the founders of Your Choice to Live, Inc. This is a non-profit organization that has been going strong since 2009. It has provided services to over 300 families and the family has spoken to over 85,000 youth in 100 middle and high schools across southeast Wisconsin.
Their mission statement is: Your Choice-Live is a drug and alcohol awareness program for youth, presented by young adults who share personal experiences with the choices they made regarding drugs and alcohol during their school days. Some of our young speakers made a personal choice to stay out of harm’s way at a time when just saying no seemed almost impossible. Other speakers found themselves trapped in a cycle of addiction. Our mission is to reach youth, before the drugs do, with the knowledge and skills to make the best choice, and the resolve to remain substance-free. Cited from the website www.yourchoice-live.org.
The Forest County Drug Task Force invited this family to come talk with the community Dec. 5-6, 2016. The Lybert family visited both the Wabeno School District (participating here were Wabeno, Laona, and Armstrong-Goodman districts) and the Crandon School District to tell their story to the students. They held a youth presentation for students grades 6-12 and later in the evening they had the “Wake Up Call” presentation for adults 21 years of age and older. Among other points, this evening presentation included an in-depth portrait of a teen’s bedroom identifying the spots with “red flags” where a teen might hide their drugs. It also showed how common household items can be used as drug paraphernalia and the ways that teens may coverup or hide their drug and alcohol abuse. This part showed parents the real deal about what they should be looking for inside of their homes and, more importantly, their child’s bedroom as signs of possible drug use by a child.
PTT was able to attend the presentation for the youth in Wabeno, and the auditorium was packed. There were 350 seats in that auditorium that were full, and, in addition, there were people standing as the family began their program. The presentation started with Tyler speaking to the students. He came off talking to them as genuine as can be. He said, “We are not here to fill your heads with statistics; we are not here lying to you or making up a bunch of stories. We are here to share stories, our stories. The choices you make in life are what is going to affect you later on in life. This presentation is to show you, whether you believe it or not, the choices you make today or tomorrow will affect your life forever.”
Tyler started drinking at the age of 12. He moved on to smoking marijuana at age 13; by 15-16 he started doing prescription pills and by 17-18 he was doing heroin. He stated, “I never planned on being a heroin addict. No one ever plans on this. Everyone starts for a different reason, whether it’s to have fun or to fit in. No one ever plans on going any further but they do, because of the choices that they make. When I was younger I told myself I would never smoke pot, and I did. I promised myself I would NEVER touch heroin because it was poison and it’s dangerous, but I went down that path and I couldn’t say no. This is something that developed because of my choices and those choices led me on this path. The choices I made when I was 12 led me to being a heroin addict.”
Tyler went on to talk about how these choices not only affected him but his whole family. His entire life purpose at the time was just to get high and he hated that fact. He stole from his grandparents, his parents, and his whole family because it was easy. He says, “I was this happy, hyper, fun-loving kid when I was little. But once I started doing drugs, it seemed that the further I slipped into it, the less I became who I was. I turned into this angry, violent little monster that did anything and hurt whoever to get what I wanted.” He said, “I would wake up every morning terrified of what I had done the night before because most of the time I couldn’t remember. Walking outside to see a mangled car and wondering, did I do that? I can’t remember. I can’t tell you how lucky I am that I didn’t have to wake up in jail knowing that I killed a family. Because we know people who have done that. I can’t tell you how lucky I am that I am still here.”