My Sister's Life As A Struggle With Addiction

Every family story that I have been told has had some amount of a structural background, some more than others. My sister’s story involves her struggle with addiction, which not only affected her mental well being, but also her life as a college student. She did not succeed in college and it was not due to her lack of ability or intelligence. Rather, she is a victim of drug addiction, this is what caused her downfall. Drugs can dominate and destroy anyone’s life, addiction certainly is not picky. Nevertheless, there is some evidence that suggests certain genetic factors can play a role and make certain people more vulnerable to developing an addiction.. Unfortunately, my family is made up of people with addictive personalities. My sister did …show more content…
It is important to realize that she was under an unbearable amount of stress. Her parents that she lived with, her stepmom and dad, wanted her to attend UTC. It was convenient for her to attend UTC because her parents lived just outside of Chattanooga and for her parents that meant she could still cater to their every wish. The stress she had built up did not directly cause her involvement with drugs. However, the stress was one of many contributing factors that led her down the path of drugs. Her inability to cope with the stress had a critical impact on her emotional state. In our interview a few weeks back, she told me that if she had known how to cope with her stress effectively, she might not have fallen down the horrendous path of drugs in the first place. However, this assumption is unrealistic. Studies suggest that drug addiction is not influenced by any single factor, but rather various factors …show more content…
Her parents had shaped her into a person that was anxious and terrified of failure. She refused to come to terms with this and subconsciously craved an escape from her feelings. She began hanging out with people that were experimenting with drugs. She had met them through her boyfriend of the time. At first she felt out of place and awkward. She had heard the horror stories regarding these type of people, but she had never actually been around them. She could see how out of control their lives were and she knew she would never allow her life to deteriorate to that level. These people lived and breathed for their next high. It was an unquestionably pitiful, terrifying scene. Even though she knew their lives were pathetic, there was a sick part of her mind that craved to be just like them, to be out of control. Her whole life thus far had consisted of being controlled and manipulated in every aspect possible. Her refusal to deal with her emotions inevitably caused her to crave a reckless lifestyle that severely lacked sound judgement. This side of her that wanted to be free from rules took over her mind. Part of her knew that was she was wanted to do was wrong, but the other part of her did not care. Her anxiety was at its peak and this is what pushed her over the edge. She started taking Xanax, the drug that would end up being her DOC (drug of choice) and worst nightmare.