Drug Addiction Stories & Info

When I see girlfriends huddled together in the mall, I think of Judy. When I see grown women having dinner together in a restaurant, I think of Judy. We had been friends for seventeen years. She had a way about her, beautiful and bright, slender and carrying herself well. When I thought of a best friend, I thought of Judy.

One night she called me and asked if she could come stay with me. She lived 400 miles away and had decided to leave her husband. She moved in and that is when another side of her that I had never seen emerged. Somehow, somewhere, Judy got hooked on prescription drugs. She had no ailments that I knew of so I did not understand all the pain medications I saw on her dresser in the guest room. I asked her about it and she said doctors give them out left and right to her. She even told me I should give them a try as they made her feel good. I was shocked. I tried to talk to her about getting rehab but she informed me she was not an addict and could quit anytime she wanted.

Still, for the most part, she seemed okay. I helped her get a job and we went out one night to celebrate. Beautiful Judy usually had no trouble getting guys and that night was no exception. She caught the eye of several guys. A man I had recently begun dating showed up at the club after work and we danced and played pool while Judy flirted with her admirers.

I went to the restroom and when I came back, the man I was seeing (Paul) was visibly upset. He told me he thought he should go and looking at the time, I felt the same way. I asked Judy if she was ready and she said yes. I said goodnight to Paul and Judy and I left for home. On the way she told me Paul had made a pass at her. I was speechless. Still, she was pretty so I was not surprised.

The next day when Paul called and asked me out for the following evening I said no. I told him I did not want to see him and told him what Judy had said. He told me she had actually come on to him after he caught her attempting to put something in my drink!

I confronted Judy and she shrugged and said “Yeah, so what? I just wanted you to loosen up some.” That conversation ended seventeen years of friendship. I found out through a mutual friend that her marriage ended because her husband could not handle her addiction to the pain relievers.

I miss the Judy I used to know. I heard she lost her job and took off back to our hometown where she got busted a couple of times for drugs before going into court ordered rehab. Sometimes, when I see two friends sharing a moment together in the mall or a restaurant, I think of her. I miss my friend, Judy.  I wonder if she ever thinks of me?

My battle with drugs began as a teenager. I know now that it was a cry for help. I was the only survivor of a three-car accident that killed my parents and my brother. I was in the hospital for about a little over a week and became addicted to the pain reliever they had me on. I went to stay with my grandmother. I did not realize until I lost my family that I really had no one else besides her because both of my parents had been only children and my father’s parents were gone as was my grandfather on my mother’s side.

Somehow I made it through my junior and senior years. When the doctor and my grandmother decided I had been on pain relievers long enough, I found a new way to relieve my physical and emotional pain: crack cocaine. If my grandmother ever suspected, she didn’t let on.

After high school, I went to work in a call center for a major telephone company. I continued to live with my grandmother. While hitting up my dealer every chance I got for crack cocaine, I was also getting back into prescription meds. My grandmother’s health was failing and she began having a home health aide come in. It was this woman who would eventually answer my call for help and save my life.

One night I barely made it in from partying with friends. I took a couple of my prescription meds and dimly remember spilling the bottle of pills on the table. I began lining them up and playing with them. Then I passed out right there at the table.

My grandmother’s aide was staying over and she wandered into the kitchen sometime that night to get a drink of water and found me at the table surrounded by the pills and some white powder. She checked on me and found me to be breathing fine and somehow helped me to bed. The next morning when I got up, I went into the kitchen to find her at the table having coffee.

She sat me down and told me that she had a family member who had been on drugs and gotten clean at a local drug rehab center. She wanted to help me do the same. Seeing someone talk to me like they cared, having a conversation that was about me and my needs for a change made me break down and cry. She got someone to come in and watch my grandmother for a while and we went over to the drug rehab center. They helped me set up a leave of absence from work and helped me get off drugs.

My grandmother lived two more years. Her home health aide was there again for me as I was for her when my grandmother passed away. Aides become attached to their patients sometimes and she had fond feelings for my grandmother.

I did not slip into the abyss of drugs that time thanks to my support group and my grandmother’s aide who had become a good friend as well. I also met a wonderful man and I am engaged to be married. I still miss my family very much but now I know how to grieve properly without having a relapse. It is hard sometimes, but I know if I can do it, you can, too.

I have read many stories on here. I am not sure if you will post one that is third party or not. It did happen in my family but it was not a family member who caused it. Anyway, here is our story. The reason I think it is important is because it involves children being used by someone they should have been able to trust. 

When my son was in kindergarten, I received a call one day from his principal. He told me that it had been decided that my son had a behavior problem and needed to be put on Ritalin as he suspected my son had ADHD. Now I was concerned and a bit aggravated that his teacher had not told me of her suspicions. I was a hands-on mom, I had all of my children involved in sports and I was right there with them as either a soccer coach or baseball or football team mom. When I asked his teacher why she had not said anything to me, she was shocked. She told me that she had never seen any behavior problems in my son other than those that normal five year old boys go through.

Still, I took him to his pediatrician who did a thorough screening and based on his knowledge of my son, the two conversations with the teacher and the principal and my own active participation in my child’s life, he said there was no need for my son to be on any form of medication. What I did not know was that there were other children in the neighborhood also being told the same thing who shared the same pediatric clinic and pharmacy as we lived on a military installation.

With the rise in prescription refills being requested by the parents of children attending that elementary school as well as the parents of those children not on medication being encouraged to seek it, it soon became apparent that someone was stealing the prescription medication that was intended for the children. When a person does not need ADHD medication, it can be crushed and snorted and acts as a form of speed.

To this day I keep my guard up where teachers and principals are concerned. I stay active in my kids’ academic lives. I know sometimes teachers say that they have to clean up a parent’s mess but in my experience, my kids had some really good teachers and even some good principals. Still, I will never forget that one principal wanted to feed his addiction at the risk of hurting my innocent five year old. He picked the wrong kid, though, because my son had a very involved mother who knew his personality inside and out.

The principal lost his job but I am thankful every day that it was not at the expense of endangering my child by putting him on medication he never needed to begin with. My advice to every parent who is told by a principal or teacher that their child needs ADHD medication is to make sure, know your child, check with the doctor and with other parents in the school to see if it is being requested of them as well. Your child deserves to be protected in case there is an ulterior motive.