Drug Addiction Stories & Info

The importance of family for providing values and setting an example as an antidote to youth drug use is not to be underestimated. Children’s first sense of the world comes to them from their relationship to their parents. Feelings of personal value and worthiness come from the positive feedback and encouragement, the love and concern for our well being that is shown to us by our parents. Whether we feel confident and secure or have doubts about our abilities depends very much on the comfort and security to be found at home in our early childhood.

All families have their own unique structures and dynamics – from a single teenage mother to grandparents raising children, to families blended by a second marriage – all families are different.

There is no normal, no ideal family unit – a successful family unit is one in which a child feels nurtured, loved and is encouraged to become an independent, happy individual.

It is said in business management that when two people always agree – one of them is unnecessary. In the traditional family, with a father and a mother it is part of a child’s natural development to witness the difference in approach and style and interplay between the parents. Children need to experience the interplay between passive and dynamic roles even when there is no father or birth mother in the home.

The paternal role of the father is associated with protection, bringing home money to maintain food and shelter, discipline. and authority.

The maternal role of the mother is related to cleaning, feeding and making comfortable the father and the children in the home.

It is by experiencing and exploring the world of parental dynamic, its tension, how difference is dealt with, how love is expressed, that draws, impels the child into relationship, from the mothering environment into an experience of the wider world.

The abilty to function autonomously yet feel attachment and bonding with family is not something that can be forced, demanded or compelled. In fact, if there are forcing pressures, they will reduce overall freedom, confidence and self esteem in the child, and create overdependence or a spirit of rebellion.

If childhood is too oppressive, traumatic, the child tends to withdraw into himself and is not able to focus fully on the task of growth and development. The child gets stuck at points where there is inadequate support, or active pressures forcing him back towards immaturity and dependence.

When parents are into regular drug use, it interferes with the healthy parental dynamic – both parents can act in negative ways and the symbol of power, authority and strength – becomes the drugs, the rituals, the highs and lows of drug life. Drug abuse in the home does not enable the child to venture confidently into the outside world, leaves him with many unresolved, painful issues about his value and worth, the world and his proper place in it.

 Drug use as a “feel good” short cut to feelings of satisfaction and reward can easily be attractive to a young person who feels depressed, cut off and dissatisfied in his closest relationships. Parental drug abuse affects all children in the family, and interferes with normal sibling bonding and rivallry issues.

Family traditions and rituals are an important basis for encouraging feelings of belonging and status. When children use drugs it is often said to be surprising because the child has come from ” a good home”. A house that is triple A rated bricks and mortar, with a manicured lawn, is not necessarily also a good home. A good home can be a single parent in a state housing community, it can be grandparents, anyone who is bringing up children with love, and discipline, and support.

Families that are over restrictive, or overpermissive are setting up a store of troubles for the future, as children strive to fit in with family needs and demands the best way they can. The neglected child can be the child of drug addicted parents – just as much as the child of parents too busy working, and worrying to prioritize the needs of their child.

Any form of negative, attention seeking behavior from drug use to other forms of antisocial behavior in children is a call to be noticed, and understood. Graffiti brings forth a cry for financial compensation and redress.

Perhaps the compensation and redress that should be provided is to the child by the community that has allowed the child to “drop out”and fall by the wayside.

School and family are the main influences in a child’s life during their formative years. Increasing levels of alcohol drinking and drug  use should be seen as a warning sign that something is amiss – children are seeking relationship with mind-altering substances in preference to dealing with life.

 Governments throughout the world pay lip service to the strengthening of the family unit. Meanwhile nations play power games, prioritize financial gain over policies that are truly supportive. Families need to look inward, to review and develop their strengths.

 Narconon International director Clark Carr says that his long experience in alcohol and drug rehab services shows beyond any doubt that it is as a result of having inadequate skills to deal with life that people turn to alcohol and substance abuse.

see article:

The good news for families and children who want to do without drugs in their life is that there is an international institution, established for over 45 years that can help families reunite. Narconon helps families to renew and strengthen family bonds, using methods that are proven, natural and safe for complete alcohol and drug addiction recovery.

 see article:

If you or your children have made a wrong move, and use drugs to provide satisfaction, it is never too soon, never too late to make a start on the road to recovery of family strength, stability and harmony.

 Detox from drugs, build life skills – and regain the benefits and rewards of an empowered family life. 

To any youth out there who are thinking of drinking to be cool or fit in I have only one word for you and that is “STOP.”

My name is Nicole, I’m 31 years old and presently in a drug and alcohol rehab. I was 11 when I started smoking, 12 when I started drinking and 13 when I started using drugs. I did all of this because I thought it was cool. I could never have been so wrong that moment that I choose to smoke, drink and takes drugs was the moment my life took a turn for the worst.

I‘m a mother of a little girl who is turning 11 in one month that is the age I was when I made my 1st life-altering mistake. I will tell you all what I’m going to tell her. Please stop and think twice before doing something to be cool because you don’t want to end up with a lifetime of regrets, sorrow and heartache. The coolest thing in life is to love yourself for who you are, and who you are is GREAT just as is, without smoking, drinking or using drugs.

Nicole C.

In many studies it has been suggested that heredity does play a part in addiction to some degree. However, there are also proof that peer-pressure and lifestyle play an important role. Heredity may be a factor in addiction, but, with the increased drug use in the general population growing every year, the chances of having a family member with an addiction also increases. In this case, heredity may not be a factor, but rather a numbers game.

The fact that your Mother was an addict should certainly make you more aware of the dangers, if nothing else. Even if you are prone to addictions more through heredity, the fact still remains that you cannot become addicted if you never use the drugs. No one is an addict until they begin using drugs. If you already have tried drugs, or use drugs, there still is help available.

Heredity or not, addiction does not simply go away. The sooner one gets addict help, the better. Since you have family members who have had addiction problems, realizing that the potential is there should be enough incentive to get help. If you are using drugs, even occasionally or recreationally, there is a chance you are or can become addicted. The best course of action would be to stop the drugs completely. If you can’t, then get help.

The sad truth is; everyone should fear becoming an addict. It happens so quickly and so easily that the addict doesn’t even realize what is happening. Cases of addiction rise year after year everywhere in the world. Even people who have no family history of drug addiction can become addicts. If there is a family history of drug addiction, the chances are even greater.

Possibly more than heredity, the fact that you learned your coping skills from your parents may play a big role in whether you become an addict or not. Learning to cope in different ways is one of the most successful attributes of rehabilitation. Again, until you take that first drug…you will not become addicted. Once addiction occurs, it doesn’t matter how it started, the important thing is to quit. Virtually anyone who takes a narcotic drug can become addicted regardless of whether their parent’s were addicted or not.