Drug Addiction Stories & Info

Hi, the story I read Mama Listens to Me Now brought back something I would like to share if I could. My mother was on drugs throughout my childhood, too. Then one day, she got HIV from an infected needle. My mother died of AIDS when I was thirteen years old. I went to live with my aunt and her family while my mother was sick. They let my mother stay, too, until she got to the point where she needed around the clock care. After the funeral, my aunt gave me a journal from my mother. When my mother was diagnosed with AIDS, she began writing in it to me. She knew she would not be around for many of my experiences in life so she tried to be there for me in advance 

My mother had written in it daily for me for as long as she could. Then she would also put in sections in a different part of the journal for dating, sex, breaking up, friendships, school, dreams, drugs, money, doing the right thing, marriage, children and faith. She wanted me to not only have advice from her at the right time in life but to learn from her mistakes. And, she wanted me to know she loved me.

My mother’s journal to me helped the night of my first kiss. It helped when my first boyfriend dumped me for a cheerleader. It helped when I had a friend who was cutting herself and I went to that friend’s parents based on my mother’s advice.

I wrote in a different journal in response to my mother’s, how her advice helped, how I missed her, how I loved her. The only thing more precious to me than that journal would have been having my mother back instead.

My mother taught me to stay away from drugs. She told me quite frankly in the journal how she got hooked on drugs in high school and how the only thing she ever did right was have me. She wrote she had no right to ask anything of me but that if she could, it would be that I never do drugs. She wrote that if I steered clear of drugs, it would mean she had not died in vain after all. I promised her I wouldn’t and I never have.

I have a young daughter now and I write in a journal that I plan to give to her some day along with my mother’s. She is twelve and she knows why her grandmother died before she was born. Not only did my mother’s wish come true for me, I think it will come true for my daughter. I feel that if it does, I have my mother to thank for that as well.

I just wanted to share this because the story someone shared on your site reminded me that other girls have lost their mothers to drugs and not just me. Thank you for sharing.