Drug Addiction on Teenagers

ad·dic·tion

/əˈdikSH(ə)n/

noun

the fact or condition of being addicted to a particular substance, thing, or activity.

Hi, I'm 16-years-old. I'm a freshman in college, I graduated high school 2 years early, I had straight A's my whole life, I was involved in my school and community; I sound pretty great so far, right? Well, what if I told you that I'm also a drug addict. This is my story.

When I was around 12-years-old, me and my friends started smoking cigarettes. Note that no one in my direct family is a smoker. I didn't grow up seeing anyone around me smoke. We thought we were so cool for it, and I loved it. A year later I had moved to the US, and I had stopped smoking, but mainly because I didn't have any opportunities to do so. This wasn't an issue for me considering that I wasn't addicted to smoking, but I knew that as soon as I had the chance, I would take it.

Fast forward to second semester of 8th grade, I was just starting out at a new school. I didn't have many friends, but I did know an girl there that I was immediately fascinated by. I soon developed a crush on her (I promise, this is relevant to the story) and tried to spend as much time with her as possible. This girl smoked weed, while I had never even thought of doing it. At the time, I was very against smoking weed or any other drugs, but this girl had me head over heels. At the end of the school year I asked her if she would want to come over and spend the night with me. I saw this as a chance to do more stuff she liked with her. So that night we swam, we walked around, and then we came back to my house. When we were in my room, she pulled a bag of weed out of her backpack. She started smoking, and offered me some. I denied at first. I knew nothing good could come out of it, but eventually I gave in. I took my first hit out of a pipe, and gosh I hated it. I kept smoking because I thought it would make her think I'm cooler, which honestly worked because that night she kissed me so it was a win-win situation.

I didn't smoke any more weed until the summer before sophomore year, when my at the time best friend and her girlfriend came over and brought some. That day I got truly high for the first time, and it was such an amazing feeling, I knew I wanted to feel that way again. It was a while before I got to smoke weed again, which I didn't until December of 2017. I made some new friends online who liked to smoke a lot, so hanging out with them would only involve smoking. For about a month all we did was smoke weed. I knew I wasn't addicted, but I enjoyed it a lot. Then one day my friend tells me that she has a surprise for me—come to find out it was a bag of cocaine. I have never done cocaine. I was freaked out by the idea of it. But I did it anyways. I felt such a rush, I felt invincible. The high only lasted about 20 minutes, which made me want more. It was all downhill from there.

Fast-forward to Valentine's Day 2018, I had been talking to this guy online and we decided to meet up. PRO-TIP: don't take drugs from people you've just met. We hung out after-school at a Chick-Fil-A nearby. We talked for a bit before he offered me some "skittles" AKA coricidin, a party drug. At this point since I had tried cocaine and weed, nothing worried me anymore, so I took them. I was jumping and running up and down. It felt amazing, until it didn't. I didn't feel like myself. I felt dead, but then one day that's what I wanted to feel. So I started smoking weed on a daily basis, I was doing coke every now and then, and I was always also popping pills. I was falling down a hole that I wasn't sure I would be able to come out of.

My family on my dad's side always suffered with nose issues, including me. I did enough cocaine this year to lead to me not being able to smell most scents. The past few months I had been sticking to only weed and cigarettes, but this was not helping me in any way. I take mood stabilizers because I have been diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder, which have insanely bad reactions to the chemicals that are in weed. This led to memory-loss, my immune system weakened so I was sick a lot more, and I was having anger management issues. And before I realized it, I was addicted.

I needed to smoke every day so I wouldn't feel sad. I needed to smoke so I wouldn't feel anything at all. I lost friends and relationships because I would've chosen drugs over anyone else. Today I am proud to say is my first month anniversary of being sober. I'm most likely going to be in a substance abuse program. I have been suffering from withdrawal symptoms, but I know that in the long run I'm going to be happy I quit.

Now, I'm not writing this so you can feel sad or feel sorry for me. I'm writing this because I hope at least one person reads this and realizes they're not the only ones. Addiction is very real, and there are definitely days where I would kill just for a couple lines of coke, but I know that sooner rather than later I will get over this and never want it again.