Lessons of Abuse Not Lost on Ex-Addicts : Drugs: Many in a Saddleback College class will have an edge when they become counselors because they’ve been there.

Shannon Mackey flipped the pages of a scrapbook that contained a photo history of the childhood she almost lost to drug addiction.

Mackey, surrounding by classmates, stared at the snapshots that tracked her deterioration from a smiling picture of innocence at 9 to a haunted, drug-abusing teen-ager at 16. She shook her head as the dark story replayed itself.

“It’s amazing to think that the little girl in these pictures grew up to be a drug addict,” she told the class.

Once consumed by a life filled with cocaine and speed, the 20-year-old woman is now trying to channel her energies to helping others battle drug addiction. The scrapbook of childhood photos she compiled recently was part of a rigorous training program that Mackey has joined to prepare for a career as an alcohol- and drug-abuse counselor.

Mackey’s story is similar to those of hundreds of recovered addicts enrolled in the counselor training program at Saddleback College. After two years of classroom work and internships, the program’s graduates seek jobs in the growing industry of treatment centers.

Saddleback College’s program has more than 500 students. It is the largest training ground for drug counselors in California and the model for dozens of similar programs in the western United States, Canada and Mexico, college officials say.

Richard Wilson, chairman and founder of the Saddleback program, said the graduates of the program have become a major force in the burgeoning drug and alcohol rehabilitation industry, with alumni working in more than 100 treatment centers throughout California.

“When I started here (in 1976) there were two hospital treatment programs in Orange County,” Wilson said. “Now there are over 40.”

“Our timing was right on target,” he said. “Our students have been major leaders in the development of these programs.”

About 80% of Wilson’s students are either recovering addicts or come from dysfunctional homes that may have included battered family members, abused children or alcoholic parents. Another 20% of the students are professionals--such as health-care officials and those in the clergy or law enforcement--who are interested in counseling drug or alcohol abusers.

“For a long, long time, there was no one in this field but recovering addicts,” said Wilson, who is the son of an alcoholic parent. “The whole concept of (Alcoholics Anonymous) is addicts helping each other.”

Wilson said students sometimes throw themselves into their training with the same single-minded abandon that characterized their addiction. They are grateful to be alive and hungry for redemption, he said.

One student, Monte McConnell, 52, said facetiously that he spent the last 20 years working.

“Working to get drugs all the time, that is,” he said. “With 2 billion brain cells screaming ‘Yes! Yes!’ it’s hard to just say no.”

Today, the second-year student puts all his energy “into becoming a counselor. It’s an energy born out of my past failures and frustration. I want to give as I have been given to.

“I just feel grateful to be given another chance. I want to get down on my knees and thank God.”

In the 12-step program for recovery taught by Alcoholics Anonymous, the final step tells recovering alcohol abusers to help others with the drinking problems, noted Jill Radakovich.

“When someone has helped you and you know the difference they made in your life, you have to help others, whether or not you get paid for it.” said Radakovich, a recovering alcoholic who graduated from Saddleback five years ago.

Lowell Gimbel, another recovering alcoholic, is a former corporate attorney who struggled with his addiction while he tried to succeed at the office. “I was climbing the ladder of success, but it was up against the wrong building,” he said. “I’ve been up against that building all my life.”

Now Gimbel says he wants to be a counselor “because it makes me feel good, working with recovering alcoholics. I want to give something back to the world.”

Saddleback’s training program is rigorous. To earn the basic qualifications to become a drug counselor, students have to spend two years in the classroom at Saddleback College. Next is a tough curriculum of science and psychology-related courses.

Many students give up.

In addition, the students are required to serve several weeks in a supervised internship.

Getting certified by one of the several professional health-care organizations, such as the California Assn. of Alcohol and Drug Counselors, requires several additional months at a supervised internship followed by a written exam.

“It’s definitely an arduous task,” said Wilson of the process. Getting ready to pass the test “usually takes an additional two years beyond this school.”

The ones who stick to it usually give Wilson most of the credit.

“He creates a sense of family here,” said Al Wiltshire, president of the program’s alumni association. “As a result, we all look out for each other. We don’t care if you are young, old, deaf or blind, you are part of the family.”

Wilson says he goes out of his way to bring his students closer. Camaraderie is “often one of the things missing in a big college campus or a commuter college like ours. We make our offices a drop-in center, hold parties and try to make a big deal out of our own graduates,” he said.

“A lot of students come from where they have no family. This is the first family they have had in a long time.”

Charlotte Schaffer has a natural family, but “let’s put it this way,” she says pointedly, “if it wasn’t for Dick Wilson, I wouldn’t be here.”

With long blond hair, high cheekbones and a model’s slim figure, Schaffer found getting into life in the fast lane was never a problem.

“Life has been plenty of liquor, plenty of good times and plenty of men, too many men,” she said. Starting a job, or a relationship, or anything else was easy, she said, “but I could never finish anything I started, until I finished this program.”

She said it could never have happened anywhere but in the Saddleback program, where “it was the passion of the people here that got me through.”

“I’ve had life in the fast lane,” Schaffer said, “I’ve gone through the ‘I want, I want’ stage. Now it’s about time for ‘I give, I give.’ ”