Drug Addiction Stories & Info

I  am writting this for any 22 year old daughter who has ever lied to or disrespected her parents.

I used to be one of them. I let my communication with my parents as well as with myself fall out of place. Big mistake! Communication is key to any proper functioning relationship. The actions you take not only reflect on yourself, but to those that are around you.

Your parents are normally people that love you, provide for you and raise you. In hopes that you will become a contribuing, honest and respectful member in society. And for the past 4 years, I was not one of those people. Despite everything right that my parents did for me growing up.

If there is one thing I can say to you, it is to listen and respect your parents wishes. Sometimes they may seem unfair, or like they dont understand. But it’s the opposite. They understand it all too well. And all they are trying to do is protect you from the evil of this world and guide you along a path of happiness.

I am now a daughter that is honest and respectful towards my parents. And I’ve never been happier with the action I take in my life as I do today. I want to thank my parents for always being there for me and never giving up on me, when I had even given up on myself.

Thank you

Kaitlyn Raisanen

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As she stood there in her wedding dress, I smiled. My daughter was beautiful. Still, I knew this special occasion would have a touch of sadness about it as her dad would not be there to walk her down the aisle. He had died several years earlier while she was still a teen. He had fallen ill one day and while at the doctor, we found out he had severe liver damage. He had been a drinker since the age of 12 and it had caught up with him. At the age of 37, my husband died.

Dana was cautious about drinking. She would not go with her friends unless they promised not to have alcohol. I knew that she could have just as easily gone the other way as many kids take up the very thing that takes control of their parents. Still, there are many who, while learning a painful lesson, use it to enhance other areas of their own lives. Dana was one of those young people.

I stepped forward. “Dana, sweetie, this is for you.” I handed her a locket and she looked inside. A picture of her father was in it. Just because someone lets drugs or alcohol take over their lives does not mean they don’t have loved ones and my husband was dearly loved. Dana hugged me as the tears fell between us. “Thanks, Mom, now Daddy can walk with me down the aisle.”

I know my husband did not set out to purposely hurt our family. He was an alcoholic when I met him although I did not realize how bad it was. Back then, it was simply partying to us. But his drinking got worse and worse and when he lost his job at the plant, he began drinking around the clock. He was never a mean drunk, but he did get depressed during that time. Still, when he got the diagnosis, he never acted like he was a victim and left letters for our two children and me. Dana’s brother would be walking her down the aisle in their father’s place. Like her, he has steered clear of drinking as well.

Dana had read the letter from her father the night before, one he had requested be opened when she got married. He was the one who had requested the locket be given to her for this day. I know he would have given anything to be here and that he would be proud that his beautiful daughter and handsome son had stayed away from the very thing that had killed him, alcohol.

“We did good” I whispered to my husband as the music started and one of the groomsmen led me down the aisle to sit at the front as the mother of the bride. “We really did good.”

I was in my car driving home from work just minding my own business when a song by the talented snger Kellie Pickler came on the radio. It was a song about a girl saying she wondered if her mother ever thought of her. The song took me immediately back to my own daughter.

I had been into crack cocaine pretty heavy when the state took her away from me. They gave her to her aunt and uncle on her father’s side. My ex had died of an overdose himself and neither of us had family except for his sister. They took our daughter and raised her. I remember calling her on her 16^th birthday to tell her I loved her and my little girl told me she wanted nothing to do with me. She was in high school, she had friends and she never had to worry about eating or who would be in the house when she woke up. Before she hung up, she said “Mom, the only thing I want for my birthday from you is for you to get help before you end up dead like Daddy. Otherwise, I am not sure I can handle talking to you and wondering when you will die from an overdose.”

That call prompted me in a way nothing ever had. I hung up the pay phone and just stood there crying. A couple approached me and asked if I was okay. I poured it out to them. As luck (or the birthday candle fairy?) would have it, the woman was a drug counselor. They were just out taking a stroll that Saturday when they saw me crying in the phone booth.

I went into rehab that day. I was staying with friends who were as hooked on crack as I was and I had nothing but a few changes of clothes. I knew if I did not go with the couple, I would go back to the house and use feeling sorry for myself as an excuse to get high.

I was an inpatient for four months. Afterwards, I got a job through the help of one of my new friends in my support group at a retail store. I wrote my daughter and told her I was getting help and while she was still understandably cautious, we began writing and talking and she had recently sent me an invitation to her high school graduation.

I was out of rehab just over a year when I heard that song. It brought back all the memories of what I had done to my daughter. These days, however, my crutch isn’t crack. I took a deep breath and changed lanes as I decided to turn right instead of left to my small apartment. There was a support group meeting starting in about 30 minutes and I knew after hearing that song that I needed to be there.