“There was another unfamiliar feeling sprouting through the cracks of my bruised and battered psyche. That feeling was hope. I didn’t have to be this monster anymore. I didn’t have to hustle to find my fix and I didn’t ever have to use again if I didn’t want to, I finally had a choice.”
‘I had finally been found out. The wails coming from my hysterical sister’s mouth were horrific. I had just confessed my truth.’
‘I am a mom of 3 beautiful children. I recently became an addict. My story isn’t your typical one.’: Mother admits she ‘could have bought a car’ with all the money she spent on heroin, ‘It made me sick’
“I lost my best friend to a heroin overdose. Grief stricken, I wanted to see what was sooooo great about dope that people would risk their lives for it.”
‘I was living a double life. I’d go to college. Then I’d hang out at trap houses, cut dope and use drugs intravenously.’: Addict says he was ‘miraculously healed’ and had ‘no withdrawals symptoms’
“The first time I ever injected methamphetamine I knew I was going to have a problem – because it was the best feeling I had ever felt. I dropped out of college and went on a binge. I was now forging checks, stealing from my family, selling drugs, and breaking into houses to support my habit. I never thought I would be able to get clean and sober.”
‘If you are not the parent of a heroin addict — you are lucky. Say a prayer and stop judging.’
“I felt his words in the pit of my stomach. ‘Mom, I need help.'”
‘My heroin addict.’
“I’m not sure who people picture when they think of heroin addicts, so, I’d like to introduce you to mine.”
‘I was married to a drug addict, then I married a man who happened to be a recovering addict. I wouldn’t change a thing.’
“My children’s father was set on a path that would lead him to a heroin addiction. The young man I had married, the one that had loved his babies and was so excited to be a dad, was gone.”
‘I was staying at a hotel. My friend had a clean needle, and just like that, I shot up meth for the very first time. My entire world flipped upside down.’: Addict’s powerful story of finally getting clean after hitting ‘rock bottom’
“My mom kept calling me. I ignored her. Next thing I know, I’m waking up to paramedics in my face. I overdosed. If my mom had gotten home 5 minutes later, it would’ve been too late. I would’ve been gone. Something told her she needed to walk home from work the very moment I didn’t answer her calls. Someone was looking out for me.”
‘Do you guys like pizza?’ Their eyes were nervous. This was yet another move, their 5th home. Where had these babies been?’: Woman becomes single foster mom of 3 overnight, ‘Every sunrise deepens our love’
“I did one final check on them and climbed into my bed, only to be awakened by sobs. My sweet 3-year-old had a nightmare. Rocking her, I wondered how it felt to seek comfort in a stranger. She clung to me, sweaty and shaking, her little heart pounding. I wondered what weight this little soul carried. I didn’t believe adoption was my best option. I was wrong.”
‘I went to church. We ate dinner as a family every night. And yet, I became an alcoholic and drug addict’
“At this point cocaine was the drug of choice, though I would take any drug offered to me, and alcohol was a constant.”
