I grew up in an unstable environment for most of my childhood. There was always a mixture of fighting, drugs alcohol and on top of that I was adopted by the man my mom married. He had 5 kids and I had one sister and we all stayed under the same roof. The ages expanded form me being the youngest at 4 to my oldest brother 21. With that, you could only imagine the chaos with 7 children. We lived a wealthy life for the most part so poverty was not the issue. The issue was that anything went and there were never consequences. Being the youngest, I had always followed in the footsteps of my siblings. My blood sister on the other hand did not. She was very smart, independent and motivated. I was very good at sports throuout my youth. It was my passion to play soccer for the rest of my life. I never thought I would loose that passion, but eventually I did. After my biological mother and my adoptee father divorced, we were lost. We had no where to go and had no clue what to do. I lived with my mother and her boyfriend until I was 12.

I began to realize I wanted more freedom and hate my moms boyfriend so I moved to my dads 'where anything goes'.. I started hanging out with my "step sister" and that's where it all started. I went wild. I began smoking pot at 12 which then led to cocaine, OxyContin and many more. Eventuallyy sister and I got an apartment when I was 16, she was 21. it got worse from there. I met a new guy that I am still with. We got involved and immidiately got addicted to lortabs. We were in heavy addiction taking 20 each a day. We continued this for 2 years until it brought us both to our knees because we we doing things that we would never do sober. We both went to rehab.

Three monhs of treatment and a lot of hard work has pulled us through. He now has an amazing paying job, we have our own house, and we are happy and healthy. One thing I have to stress is it IS hard to stop using but with support and dedication, you can accomplish anything. I was hard for me after I got sober to not want to use. But when those times come, pray, call someone, write how you feel. Don't go use. Its definitely going to be hard , but that's the point. You have to push yourself to accomplish what you want in life. In the end it is totally worth it. I promise you, if I could stop using, you can too. Give yourself enough respect to have a better life. You deserve it you are worth it an YOU are here for a reason. I am 20 now and I am the happiest I have ever been in my life. I hope you will be too!