Drug Addiction Stories

January 7 has long been a sentimental date for me. It is not a birthday, it is not an anniversary but it is the day I found out that Christmas wishes do come true. I remember being 17 and crying because my parents were fighting again. My dad was drunk again. I had the television on hoping to tune them out. I had my headphones on and was playing on my computer. Multi-tasking and just trying to not hear the screaming going on in the house. Still, it was all about my dad’s drinking and before I realized it, I was typing in on search engines “my dad is an alcoholic”. 

Then I saw it. A link about an Alcoholics Anonymous group for family members. There was a phone number and I reached for my cell phone and dialed the number. The lady on the other end listened to me and told me I was not alone. She said alcoholism affects every member of the family and that there were others who understood what I was going through. She walked me through the steps to get in touch with a local group so I could go to a meeting for teens who have parents who are alcoholics.

I went to several meetings that got me through Thanksgiving and the approaching Christmas holiday from school. A couple of days before Christmas, a sponsor at the group helped me to meet with my parents one Thursday evening after my dad got off work. She told my parents I had been going to a meeting for teens of alcoholics and that I had something I needed to say to my parents.

I looked at them and told them I loved them both. I then looked at my dad and told him that listening to the two of them fighting over his drinking hurt and that all I really wanted for Christmas was one whole day where there was no drinking and no fighting. My dad actually looked ashamed. My parents looked at each other and then my dad hugged me and promised me I would get my Christmas wish.

Then, a couple of weeks later, on January 7, he knocked on my door and asked if he could talk to me. My mom walked in right behind him. He told me that he had just returned from his first AA meeting! That was two years ago. I am in college now and still living at home and today marks the two year anniversary of my dad’s sobriety. It also marks the day I began to believe in wishes again.

I was always a rebel child ever since I could remember, I think being rebellious came naturally to me. Defying my parents and going against what they wanted me to do seemed to be my sole mission. I always thought the generation gap was much wider, and with every passing phase it only got worse.

As I turned 16 my life turned a new leaf, I started skipping school. I’d even sneak out the of house in the dead of night and sleep among the homeless. I nurtured this deep feeling that no one ever understood or loved me. Skipping school and leaving home, gave me a complete sense of freedom.

The look I sported was trashy, unkempt hair, ill fitting and dirty clothes, the punk style with the ‘I don’t care attitude’ was my favorite. With loud colors that scream ‘look at me’ and garish makeup I felt really safe hiding beneath all of it.

Since I would hang around the streets at odd hours, it really wasn’t difficult for me to get drugs; I would often be asked by small time peddlers if I needed any. I used to refuse, but ended up buying some with my pocket money and the money I had gathered from working at the deli. One possible reason could be that because of my angst, I had no friends and was looking for some.  There were some I knew from school who were already into it, and bought from the same peddlers.

I was doing chemicals like LSD, and I quite liked it, it took me to another world that I could associate with easily. I slowly became more adventurous and hooked on to anything I could afford and lay my hands on. I wanted to graduate even further, and was looking for something that would satisfy me, that’s when I noticed heroine. In the mean time, I was kicked out of my home, since I stole some money from my parents, used their credit cards to take care of my needs. Lost about 10 pounds, and was doing the rounds of shelters where I could spend my nights in. I soon discovered heroine and the feeling was indescribable. I now needed to shoot drugs into my blood stream, and was totally hooked on heroine for a year.

My parents had to look for me, and found me out on the streets one day; I think what they seen came to them as a shock. I was taken home and cleaned up, the confrontation was long. I didn’t agree instantly. It took me several months to pick up the phone and call the drug addiction rehab. Since then I have been clean.

My Mother and Father would get into horrendous arguments and we were just little girls.

I don’t like people to judge my parents simply by the fact that they were alcoholics because for the most part, they were great people.  I really didn’t realize my childhood was any different than anyone else’s until I got older.  My parents both worked, and worked hard.  They very rarely missed a day of work.  I can probably count on one hand the number of times they missed work.  On work days, the drinking started right after work.  On non-work days, the drinking started somewhere between 11AM and 2PM.  They had a lot of parties and people were over a lot.  We also went camping often and the beer and booze came right along with us.  There actually were some funny stories that came from the events that happened, but the good stories don’t outweigh the bad.

I can remember the most vivid memory I have is of hiding behind the bed or in the closet.  My Mother and Father would get into horrendous arguments and we were just little girls.  My sister and I would hide behind the bed or in the closet.  We weren’t really afraid that they would hurt us, but the whole ordeal was so very frightening.  It happened more and more often as time went by.  Even as teenagers we would retreat to our room and turn up the music to drown out the yelling.  By the time I was a teenager, my Mother’s frustration must have reached its peak.  There were times she pushed me down the stairs, threw food hot from the oven at me and other such things.

Alcohol does strange things to people.  I can remember being called stupid, crazy and a host of other things while I was growing up.  This no doubt had a result on what kind of parent I became.  Although I escaped the alcoholism, one of my daughter’s is an alcoholic.  I look at my grand children and I want to hold them close to prevent anything hurtful being said to them.  I want to protect them from having an alcoholic mother, but I cannot.  I can only watch and observe.  I know that so far, she does not seem to show the animosity toward her children that my Mother did.  I also hate to think that my little girl is going through that.  Hopefully I can stop her before alcohol ruins her life, her family, her future.

Alcoholism can be stopped without being a continuous struggle for the rest of the person’s life. The Narconon alcohol rehab and drug rehab program has been designed to accomplish just that: complete and unconditional end of the addiction. To learn more about how the Narconon drug rehab program works call 1-877-782-7409.