addiction

Indestructible puzzle pieces that make up my own personal hell.

Approximately 5 children die from child abuse, daily.

1 out of 3 girls and 1 out of 5 boys will be sexually abused before they are 18 years old.

90% of child sexual abuse victims know thee perpetrator in some way. 68% are abused by a family member.

“Childhood should be carefree, playing in the sun; not living a nightmare in the darkness of the soul.”

From birth til’ I was nine going on ten years old(before I was taken away by the state) I lived with a single, homeless, abusive, drug addict, woman aka my biological “mother”. I was the oldest of three children: my little brother one year younger than I and my baby sister 8 years younger. I was responsible for them as well as myself.
Abuse was the “norm” of which I experienced throughout those most important years of my life. I may have been too young to recognize it all, but it was there. My personal hell is a giant puzzle, here are a few of it’s pieces:

Age 4: I remember this far very clearly as it was the night of my 4th birthday. My “grandmother” was making homemade strawberry ice cream cake. We were at my “aunt” and “uncle”s house. I was watching a childhood favorite show called “Gumby and Pokey” I believe. My “uncle” went into the kitchen to get himself a glass of hot tea. I was sitting on the couch in the living room where I could hear him and he sounded angry. I remember feeling frightened. He was blaming me for something, I cannot recall what that something was though.(probably just him being wacked out on speed)He came rushing into the living room telling at me with the tea in his hand. He dumped the scout hong hot tea on my chest. I screamed at the top of my lungs as it immediately blistered up. We all thought it would leave a scar for rest of my life. Well needless to say it did, just not as everyone thought it would. I have no physical mark on my chest, no trace of a scar whatsoever. However, I do have much worse, a vivid memory of that exact insistent of abuse engraved in my mind, forever.

Age 5: I was at my “aunt” and “uncle”a house. The same “uncle” whom dumped the scolding tea on my chest. It was night time. I had fallen asleep on my cousin’a bed. My “uncle” came into the room to move me to another bed. In the process he had put his hands on my vagina and grabbed me inappropriately. I later tell my “mother” and at age 5 I had my first run in with state workers/child protective services who questioned me about the whole situation and I was scared and unsure if it was intentional or not. At age 5 I had experienced my first memory of sexual abuse.

Age 8: It was day time, I was at the house of one of my “mother”s ex-boyfriend’s father’s house. We would stay here time to time. At the time there was this woman who had red hair and a son who was 12-13 years old named Andrew. He was mine and my little brother’s buddy. Andrew loved magic and would show us lots of tricks. He played on the computer and we were very fond of him(my brother and I). Later that day, we were inside Andrew’s room with him watching him play on the computer. He then began to show up images of naked woman. My brother and I didn’t want to see these and told him to stop, but he wouldn’t. He then took me into the other room and made me watch porn. I told him I didn’t want to and that I would “tell on him” he threatened me so I didn’t say a word. He than took me back into his room where my brother was, he began to master are in front of us and then told me to suck on it I refused, but again he threatened me and so I began to, but stopped seconds later. He then forced my little brother to!! I was 8 years old being forced to suck on another kid’s genitals, and even worse to watch my little brother do the same! We never told a soul. To this day it is devastating and brings tears to my eyes. I’m not sure my brother remembers the day, I sure hope he doesn’t. We never speak of it.

Age 9: My “mother” had a “friend”. He was an older hippie-looking man who drove a fan. He was a painter I believe. He really favored me. He would take me around in his van and buy me food and anything I wanted. He would rub my legs while driving which made me feel very uncomfortable, but I never said anything because he fed me and was overly nice to me. He began to spend more and more time with me always the same buying me stuff, rubbing my thighs, telling me I was pretty and stuff. One night my “mother”, brother, and I were sleeping in the back of this broken down van on someone’s property, it was late at night and I had just been on 24hrs of antibiotics for strep throat. I was cold and starving, we were all 3 cold and starving. He had called and wanted to come see us(me) and he offered to bring us McDonalds, my “mother” said yes. He showed up with our food and sat in the back of this broken down van. He say right next to and he put his legs and hands under the blanket. He slowly moved his hands finding my legs, he began to rub my legs and thighs while we all were talking, he slowly moved his hands to my vagina and began to rub it and then into my pants and underwear, he touched me and made me feel so strange. I had never experienced that feeling before, I didn’t want him to stop, but at the same time I knew it was wrong. He then left that night. He began to hang around and bring me places, bought me stuff, rubbed my thighs, ect. Then he offered me a “job” to help him and this lady he knew move plants because she was moving. I helped him move these plants. He & I shared a vacant room with this lady’s son. We all three slept on the floor. I was in the middle. After the son fell asleep, he reached over and began to touch me and he pulled me closer and rubbed some sticky stuff on my vagina area, he tried to bring my hands to touch his genitals, but I pulled away and moved closer to the son. He stopped touching me. That was the last time I remember seeing this man. I was almost raped that night. If that woman’s son wasn’t in that room, I’m sure I would have been raped, instead of just molested.

Note: coincidentally, after the above at age 9, almost 10, I was taken away from my “mother” by the state and put into a group home. Reason I was taken away? Drugs and being homeless(same thing it’s all DRUGS) I went into one foster family, then to the next where I was adopted along with my 2 younger siblings. I wish I could say it was a holy ending, but it truly wasn’t for many reasons I will not get into today, however, one incident from after the adoption is also a puzzle piece to my personal hell.

Age 13(ish): It was 6th grade and I had this best friend named Kayla. I hung out with her almost daily. She lived with her mother, but on weekends would go to her dad’s. This was one of the weekends where she was at her dad’s. She invited me to come over for a sleep over so I agreed. Mage was telling me how her cousins where going driving here from somewhere far to visit, but they would arrive when we were asleep. So that night I heard some laughing and talking coming from her dad and the other adults. I was in bed with Kayla, we were sharing a bed. Later I was awakened by this man next to the bed, it was Kayla’s dad. He was drunk, I believe. I didn’t look at him and pretended to remain asleep. He began to rub my butt, and put his hands in my pants and kept trying to get me to roll over. I wouldn’t budge. I didn’t know what to do, panic began to set in as it always does in these situations. I tried to roll closer to Kayla as if I was sleeping so I “accidentally” kneed her back in hopes to wake her up, she woke up a bit and said Dad what are you doing? He left the room and she went right back to sleep. Again, I never told anyone about this. It was after all the bad things were supposed to be over and it was too familiar to me so I didn’t say a word. This was the last time I had been sexually abused/molested.

I feel as though I have healed from these abuse examples as well as all the ones not shared today. The reason I feel as though I have healed is because I can share my story without crying or being fearful. I have permanent emotional scars from each and every one of these experiences as well as many other ones to match. I had been a victim of just about every type of abuse on a number of different occasions.
I was lucky enough to make it through this and become a stronger person today. Not everyone who has been through similar abuse can say that today. Not all abuse victims live, and the one who do usually don’t live “normally” and never will.
These emotional scars will last a life time. It’s like being in your own personal hell. You remember every incident as if it happened yesterday. Nothing you do will make you forget. The damage has already been done. These are the puzzle pieces that create your living hell. Indestructible puzzle pieces. One must live with this until the day they physically die. Your own personal horror movie only it’s a documentary and no ones acting. It’s a hell we carry around with us no matter how hard we try to lose it along the way, it remains.

It has been said that time heals all wounds, I do not agree. The wounds remain. In time, the mind, protecting it’s sanity, covers them with scar tissue, and the pain lessons, but it is never gone.
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Until the last petal falls…

Two addicts.
One the user himself
The other born into it
Both alike
The same pain source
Two completely different scars
Both victims

Dating a recovering drug addict is not the easiest path to choose, but I have done just that. Call me stupid, tell me to “run” and I’m going to tell you, “Too late”. Simple as that, “Too late”.
I used to think that when people fell in love, they just landed, and they had no choice in the matter afterwards. Maybe that is true at the beginning, but it’s not true of this, now. I fell in love with him, but I do not stay with him by default as if there’s no one else available to me. I stay with him because I choose to, every day that I wake up, every day that we fight or lie to each other or disappoint each other. I choose him over and over again, and he chooses me.
There is a hell, believe me, I have seen it. Addiction is a monster that controls his life, my life, our life. I have never used a day in my life and I never will, however, I was born a drug addict. Addiction is a disease that has and continues to play a huge roll in my life. More often than not it chews me up into tiny pieces and spits me back out. It leaves me gasping for breath, depressed, alone, devastated, hopeless, lost, and angry.
Imagine a bare hand that has been playing out in the snow, purple in color, ice cold to touch, can barely bend at the knuckles, and you place your hand in a bowl of hot water..what do you get? A terrible stinging sensation. That’s what it is like to date an addict. He is the frozen snow hand barely able to move and I am the hot water that could scold anyone who comes near me. After the stinging sensation you get a non frozen hand, one that is back to it’s original color, one that is able to move freely and bend every which way. You also get water that is now no longer hot, but warm. Together, we have the potential to be the others strength, their rock.
The worst part for me through this all is not own pain, but rather watching him drown and not being able to convince him that he can save himself by just standing up. I can not save him, I can only love him, and that is, to this day, the single hardest thing to for me to do. How can I love him so incredibly much and be kind when he continues to lie, hide things, and hurt me? How can I even believe he loves me when his actions show me otherwise at times. How can you watch someone you love so incredibly much hurt himself and you so terribly bad. Some would say: you don’t.

“It’s time to move on, my dear”

I would say, “Too late”

He suffers from an awful disease and it causes him the same amount of pain he causes me, if not more! He doesn’t mean to do any of it, and I do understand that. I’m not going to sit here and pretend I always see it this way in the heat of moment and that it doesn’t hurt me, of course it does! It destroys me and hurts me greatly, but the one reason I still haven’t given up is because he hasn’t either. As long as he continues to fight, I will continue to fight.
You first grow strong enough to love him, yet empty enough to sit down at the table with addiction’s worst horrors. After all, we all have secrets that could break the strongest of hearts. The main difference is that he takes the mask off when he talks to me. It wasn’t always this way, in fact it took a hell of a long time for me to pry it off, but now it’s off. It’s a truly beautiful thing to see someone so closed off, hidden, frightened. Someone who had been so hurt, but now finally has someone to be themselves around. Their true self. I am honored and I would never take that lightly.

“I want you to undress your heart, and show me how much it hurts, so that I can show you how I intend to make it stop”

I want to love him as if I have never been broken myself. I see past this label “Addict”. I see this lost, lonely, loving, strong soul. He is the most amazing individual I have ever met. He truly is my sunshine. He is the one that keeps me going when I fall weak. He is MY rock. People won’t ever see that , though. All the average person sees is this strong young lady with the is “weak addict”. Reality is the tables are actually turned. Tilt your head. This is no “Beauty” and the “Beast”.
We are both these strong, beautiful, young people who have been through hell on multiple occasions. We both are fighting internal battles and working on ourselves by the minute. We are growing individually as well as together. We have such a great love and understanding of each other. It is a beautiful bond I wouldn’t trade for the world. It is true bliss. Not to be mistaken for perfection, bliss. Is it easy? HELL NO it’s not, but it’s what we have. We are all searching for someone who’s demons play well with ours. We are lucky enough to have just that. It takes a lot of work and strength building on both ends and of course we each drop the ball, quite often actually. However, we always pick that damn thing back up and try again.
I know that if I ever broke his heart, it would not be because I could not love him, but because I have been damaged, and being in love is so damn terrifying when your bones have already been torn. For bid that time ever comes. My love for him is unconditional. As long as he continues to fight and allows me in I will not be going anywhere. I will fight along side him. Not for him, but with him.
It’s hard and sometimes feels damn near impossible to wait for something you know might never happen, but it’s even harder to give up when you know it’s everything you want. As long as he gets back up every time he falls, I have faith he will fall less and less. He is a fighter. He is strong enough and he can and will conquer this!
When he falls weak, wether it being for a second, for a day, or for a few days, I hold his face between my palms, a beautiful face, a charming smile, sea green eyes, and I say, yes, I will take you and I will love you, again. He is only human. As far as being human goes, he is the most amazing one I have met yet. A long, hard journey still awaits us and I have no doubt we can and will get through it as long as we have each other and neither of us gives up the fight.

“In the end there doesn’t have to be anyone who understands you…
There just has to be someone who wants to”

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He loves me. He loves me not.

“A shot to kill the pain.
A pill to drain the shame.
A purge to stop the gain.
A cut to break the vein.
A smoke to ease the crave.
A drink to win the game.

An addiction’s an addiction because it always hurts the same.”

I have been surrounded by addiction since the day I was born. In fact, I was born a drug addict myself. I am the oldest of 3 children all to the same “mother” with different “fathers”. My biological “mother” was a major drug addict who was also homeless. She wasn’t one of those “functioning addicts”. She was extremely unfit to be a parent, in my opinion. Everything was on the back burner including us, her children. We were taken away and put in a group home and foster care and later adopted. I was 9 years of age(many years older in maturity, I grew up way too fast) when I was taken away and officially adopted when I was about 11 years old. I learned never to make an addict choose you or their substance because you will lose every time.

I met a young man(5 years older than me) about a year and a half ago. We worked together and I was new to the state and looking for some friends. He introduced himself and we began to hangout. He would see me almost daily on his lunch breaks because I had a new puppy and he absolutely loves animals. It was adorable. He was adorable. The texts started as: “can I come see Nala on my lunch”(Nala being my puppy) and slowly progressed into “can I come see Nala and you on my lunch” to “can I come see you on my lunch” he was an absolute sweetheart. Feelings on both ends began to blossom.
I knew he was an addict. He had mentioned that he had gone to rehab 2 times before. He was very reserved and I didn’t ask much about it because it wasn’t to the point where he was willing to talk about it. We would hangout quite often and things were going great. I started to notice him disappearing to the bathroom for long periods of time, I even snuck up on him in his car where he would jump and hide something, he would meet “friends” at the gas station, I even saw him in action at a drug deal while at work! A car pulled up and he got in the car and a minute later he got out and ran back inside to work. I knew the signs of using very well and I knew he was into something.
One day, while he was in the shower I read his texts and saw him looking for heroin. I was devistated and wasn’t sure how to bring it up. I wasn’t too invested into him at this point and I knew I was going to leave. I just needed a how and when. So one night we were texting and he was saying how much he truly likes me and how I make him feel so sane and so forth. I decided I needed to bring up that I knew and so I did. He freaked out!! He denied it to no end and told me that he’s not using and I was mistaken and everything else under the sun! He fed me lie after lie and I decided to convince myself I believed him and give him the benefit of the doubt and hope things would change.
Things were a little awkward at first and he had left to a cousins out of state wedding for about a week. When he returned he told me he cares about me a lot and he does want to continue building things between us. I agreed. Not too much later, maybe a week, I knew he was still using and I just would never say anything. It would turn me off completely. I would physically distance myself from him whenever I knew he used. I wouldn’t want to cuddle, touch, no sex, nothing. It was a bomb waiting to explode. I would find hallowed pens and foil in the bathroom. I knew I had been right all along and he was in fact using pills and heroin. I just didn’t know what to do. I left my own “mother” because of drug use and I couldn’t leave this guy. There was something I saw in him and knew he just needed a supporter and love. I wasn’t sure if I could be all that, but I wanted to. I just needed him to let me in and the truth to come out.
“Be careful what you wish for.”
A couple months went by and one day he came to pick me up and he was obviously high as a kite. He wasn’t making any sense, we was even nodding out. I was terrified! He almost got in a few car accidents! We made it to his house and he couldn’t unlock the door to his room. He went to the bathroom and was in there a while so I knocked and got no reply, I opened the door and he was passed out on the toilet!! He got up and passed out on the living room floor, scared out of my mind, I called his cousin to come help me. His cousin showed up and things just escalated from there. It turned into us getting into a huge argument where I went to leave his room and he wouldn’t let me so I pushed him out of the way and he lunged at me pushing me hard so I screamed at him and slapped him across the face! His cousin ran in and held in back while I ran out of his house. I called for a ride and his cousin came out and wouldn’t leave until I left. My boyfriend called the cops on me and he ended up going to jail that night. It was over for ever…or so I thought.
About a week or 2 later we decided to try again now that the truth was out and that we could fix things. Call me stupid, but I’m a very passionate person. I don’t know why I wanted this to work so bad, but I did! I was invested.
Things were better and worse. He was seeing a psychiatrist and put on some meds to help him manage with everything going on, however, they gave him Xanax and Paxil. Xanax is an awful drug to give an addict! He was now getting high legally. He was being sent home from work daily because he was so out of it! He got in 2 accidents and to totalled his car! He got a DUI. He was not doing well! I told him to get off the meds, NOW. Eventually he stopped taking them, after weeks of hell while being on them.
He had hurt me daily(emotionally), he was not the same person when he was using and I didn’t want anything to do with him unless he was sober. I wanted to help, but he needed to help himself. I almost left him daily, but he kept saying things like: “please just hang in there I promise it’s going to get better” and I kept hoping for that, but I was so tired of being hurt by drugs. Mind you he wasn’t the first drug addict to hurt me(my biological family all chose drugs over me and I left them in the dust). So I stuck it out. Things began to look up.
He was sober and back to working without being sent home. He even moved in with his grandma which is the woman he loves more than anybody in this world. The way he treats that woman is the most attractive thing I have ever seen in a man of any age. He adores her. I had hope, still very hesitant to trust and everything, but I was working on it daily.
I ended up having to move about 45mins away from him and we were planning to move back to my home out of state as soon as he completed his classes from that night he went to jail. He was going to have his new classes back from his DUI transferred there and we were going to have our new beginning. After all we had been together over a year and been through hell and back already. He had gotten a new, better job while I was living a little far away. He seemed to be happy, healthy, and doing great! He came to visit me and he picked me up and we went to the fair and hung out for a few days for his birthday and things were great! Then the 4th of July(my favorite holiday) he came to see me and we went to the drive in theater and things were good. He went home that night and then he got busy that month and didn’t see me again. I was lonely and missing him like crazy, we didn’t talk enough due to his new job and I just felt us falling apart. I needed to see my man! He kept saying he was trying as hard as he could, but I didn’t understand how that was possible since he wasn’t seeing me! He moved out of his grandmas the 1st of August into a room he rents. Things began to get even worse, he still wouldn’t come see me, he was so distant, so emotionless and I didn’t understand. I didn’t even assume drugs because I had worked so hard to trust him and believe he would tell me if he relapsed like he promised to do.
I went to visit him a couple weeks ago and the first night was kinda awkward and we fought. But the next day he had to go to work and so I stayed asleep. Then when I woke up I went to put a bottle of lotion off his floor into his toiletry bag and so I pulled the bag out from under his bed and I saw this box that had a monkey on it and said. “White, black, Hispanic” or something like that and I was like “what’s that?”, so I pulled it out and opened it and it was a fake penis used to pass drug tests! I just about had a heart attack!! My heart sank and I began to ball my eyes out, I was devastated! I had a huge panic attack and called him crying asking him to come home and bring me home and he asked why and I told him what I found he told me that he had it for a long time and not to freak out and he will be home later and I sai, “No! Come home now!!!! I need to go!” and he said he was clean and for me to stop freaking out. So I hung out and decided to wait for him to come explain himself. I went to put the stupid penis under his bed where I saw a box to his box fan and I was like hmmm… So I looked in the box where I found a bag full of burnt foil squares!! I freaked out and was soo hurt! I called him back told him I’m leaving and what I found he denied it and everything, but I got my shit and I left! I couldn’t believe he would do this too me AGAIN!! I didn’t know what to do, think, or feel! I wanted to die.
I went pycho bitch on him and freaked out in very inappropriate ways. I am in love with this guy and he claims to love and care for me, but these actions do not prove that to me! Days went by of us fighting and being mean to eachother and I found out he was in jail one day and I was crying over it and upset and just wanted to know why and felt like an idiot for even caring, when he obviously didn’t care about me.
I found out he had been arrested for 2 felonies of robber. He was stealing things out of cars. He lied at first and days later after me prying he told me the truth. He has court days coming up this week to determine his punishment. I have been loving and supportive of him and he is back on the sober track. I still am not sure what I want out of this because I don’t want to be with him unless he truly gets clean and stops using. He needs to be 100% honest with me and allow me to help him. Last night I was talking to him and asked him where he sees “us” going and I told him if I want to be with him then I need answers to my questions, HONEST answers. It turned into another fight because I had asked him the name of someone he told me he used with. He said he won’t tell me because he still wants to hangout with them. I told him that if he wants to hangout with someone he uses with then he must not want to get clean. If he wanted to get clean he would get rid of everything drug related including that fake penis and people who use drugs. He needs to stop setting himself up to fail unless he doesn’t truly plan to quit. Now I’m in a bad situation because I don’t know what to even do. I almost killed myself last night and he didn’t even seem to care or try to stop me. I’m so fucking depressed. I can’t sit there and be with him or there for him if he doesn’t change his ways. What he’s been doing isn’t working and he needs to realize that and change. He’s lost most of his family. Now he’s losing me. Why can’t he just be honest and set himself up to succeed. How can he care about me if his actions continue to show me otherwise! Talk is a disease, action is it’s cure!

“Addiction is a monster, it lives inside, and feeds off of you, takes from you, controls you, and destroys you. It is a beast that tears you apart, rips out your soul, and laughs at your weakness. It is a stone wall, that stands to keep you in and the rest out. It is a shadow that always lurks behind you, waiting to strike. Addiction lives in the mind, sitting, staring, waiting…. A prisoner in his own body.”IMG_1426-1.JPG