Memoir- The affects of drugs and relationships.

There is a drug epidemic in this country and you may or may not be surprised of the culprit. There are now more drug related deaths from prescription medications such as Oxycontin and other popular pain and anxiety medications. The abuse of these legal drugs has allowed the number of deaths to rise to more than heroin and cocaine combined. The streets can be a dangerous place for adolescents and young adults. Not every teenager gets the privilege to grow up in a wealthy and educated area. Growing up I lived in a nice neighborhood where everyone knew each other. There were many other kids my age, and we were all friendly and got along well with each other. Once kids start going to school they are guaranteed to meet children from other parts of their city, some good and some bad. My parents were hard workers and worked opposite shifts so one of them was always home to be with my brother and I. I have had many friends growing up that came from broken homes and bad neighborhoods, from houses with no parental supervision and no way to know right from wrong.

Growing up I had many friends my parents would say were, “from the wrong side of the tracks”. As a child and adolescent I saw things their parents did, drugs for example, that I did not understand at the time. If my parents knew now what was going on, I would never have been allowed in these houses. As I grew older the tables had turned from seeing my friend’s parents drinking and using drugs to seeing my friends doing it, at age thirteen. I had my first encounter with a drug related death at age fifteen when one of my very close friends overdosed on heroin her mother was allowing her to use. This event is something I have never fully recovered from.

High school is usually when most people start to experiment with alcohol and drugs. It was my adult years though, that my most of my friends turned down the wrong path. From age 22 to 26 I have currently lost two boyfriends and four very close friends to the Oxycontin epidemic. This doesn’t include family members or people I worked with that are also suffering from an addiction.  I was cheated on, stolen from and lied to over and over again. The trust in my relationships was completely destroyed. There were no reparations that could be done, and finally, after years of carrying that weight on my shoulders one by one I had to end my relationships’. You see there comes a time when you can no longer hurt because you can not control other people’s actions. It is a difficult and heartbreaking concept to accept. It never gets easy; to make the decision to walk away from someone you love, whether it is the first time or the fifth time. When someone decides to use drugs it completely takes over their lives. They are capable of doing things to people they love they would never normally do. The person is not the person you know and love, and it is very difficult to accept.

 I am not writing this to imply I am a better person than those who could not avoid the lifestyle or resist temptation. I am writing to shed light to the fact that I have lost a great deal in my life to drugs, things that were very important to me, people who still are very important to me, and it is not because of choices I’ve made. Drugs are a very big part of society, they are hard to avoid, and present in my life very much, even though they are not welcome.

Dealing with the effects of drugs in my life has also helped shaped me into the strong person I am today. It has lead me down the career path I have chosen as a nurse. I have sympathy and empathy for addicts, and I will eventually dedicate my career to helping people overcome addiction. People often ask me how I can work with a group of individuals who have caused me so much pain. I do believe addiction is a sickness and if I can help just one person get and stay clean it would make me feel unbelievably accomplished as a nurse. Not many people understand, and that’s okay.

It is a terrible feeling to lose someone you care about whether it be a friend, significant other or a family member because of the lifestyle they choose to live; It has happened to me time and time again.  choices they make in respect to drugs, stealing and other various crimes.  There comes a time when you put yourself first and no longer worry for your loved ones, instead move on and hope they will one day return to a healthy and drug free lifestyle. I know I am not the only one affected by this problem. But sometimes it feels like it.