Kansas Independence

When I was a young child, I lived in the country. I felt kind of isolated. I didn't really like school because I didn't have many friends. We lived in the country until I was thirteen, then we moved back into town. We moved around a lot when we moved back to town, then I went into foster care when I was 16. Being in foster care was difficult. I didn't like where I was living or how I was treated.

There was always drugs and alcohol in my house growing up. My father was an alcoholic and he also used drugs. I believe he still uses drugs. My mother used meth. My parents' drug and alcohol use caused a lot of stress and financial problems. There was also domestic violence going on. A lot of my mom's drug use was related to the domestic violence. It was hard to have friends come over because of it.

My father's alcohol use has been going on my entire life, but there were some good times with him when he was sober. My mother did everything for all of us before she started using. She was the only parent present on a consistent basis. As the domestic violence increased, I guess she started using prescription drugs and then continued on to meth. They both got into meth. Then the financial problems started and they lost the house and things just kind of went from there. My parents got divorced and we went from drug person's house to drug person's house, hotel to hotel, and we were not able to get to school on a consistent basis. It was like that for three years. That whole time my father seemed to continuously stalk the family and added more pressure to the situation. I have no idea why my father used drugs and alcohol. I think he had a depressing childhood. I think for the most part, my mother's drug use had a lot of it had to do with depression and domestic violence.

My parents' drug use was harmful for our family. It caused financial problems, instability, and caused my siblings and me to be put in foster care. These things just got worse over time. I know that my stress level seemed to grow. I used to plead with my mother to stop, but I came to the realization that I couldn't get my mother to stop. She would tell me that she didn't know what else to do. When she did finally quit, I think that it was because she wanted to get her kids back.

I signed myself out of the system when I was 19 and got my own apartment. I lived there for about a year, but I had some problems with my mother's drug use. I let her move in with me and she was having people come over to my apartment that I didn't approve of. After that, I moved out of town with her while she was getting clean. I've been living with her ever since. My brother and my sisters are back home now too, and my mom is off drugs. I'm going to college now and I'm hoping to go into social work. I think that there are a lot of improvements that need to be made to the system.

I have tried using drugs. I started smoking marijuana when I was seventeen. I was using on a daily basis. It took the stress away. I don't smoke marijuana anymore though. I have epilepsy and when I was using marijuana, I had seizures. I decided that it wasn't worth it to have seizures and feel sorry for myself. I was also depressed when I was smoking pot. I was in a difficult position in my life because I was having to deal with my mother who was using and with being separated from my siblings. Since they were younger than me, they were still in foster care and I wasn't allowed to see them because I was in contact with my mother. I also wasn't doing very well in school then and overall, things just weren't going well for me, so I stopped using marijuana.

I don't really know what my perception of what a drug abuser was before, but now I see it as someone who can't admit to their problem, a person who cannot function in society. However, I think one of the biggest misconceptions about people who use drugs is that there isn't any hope for them. I think that there are a lot of people out there who there is hope for and I think that there are a lot of laws that need to be looked at. I think that sometimes people get stuck in a situation and there should be more programs out there to educate and treat people who are having problems and their families.