What are drugs? They are a substance that’s used in the diagnosis, treatment, or prevention of a disease or illness. What is drug abuse? It is the use of a substance that modifies a mood or behavior in a way that characterizes a pattern of adaptation caused by over using. As a young child growing up, I always lived in a neighborhood that was surrounded by drugs. Kids I grew up with were doing them, I eventually started doing them. I started out, drinking with friends on the weekends, and then it eventually became an everyday thing. I knew it was wrong but I didn’t care, I did whatever I wanted whenever I wanted to do it. I drank all day every day, with or without friends. It would be a constant routine. One of my old friends introduced me to pills. I would pop hydrocodone, oxycodone, and whatever muscle relaxers I could get my hands on. Once that wasn’t giving me a good enough high I began to smoke marijuana. Around the age of seventeen, I was smoking cigarettes, pot, drinking, and popping pills. It was out of controls. It was to the point that I was smoking over a quarter of pot a day, a carton of smokes a week, and a couple pills a day. I choose to misuse substances because it made me feel better and forget all the chaos in my life. It started by being given up by my biological father who used drugs and drank a lot. I was then adopted to my step-father. Who lived off my mom and drank on a constant basis. When I started digging the whole for myself, I was suffering from being sexually abused, not feeling like I had anyone to go to because my mother was always working, my eldest brother had just left for boot-camp. I refused to come home, because I didn’t want to be manipulated and abused. I felt that doing drugs was easier then destroying what little family. It was easier than going to someone and asking for help. After getting my second strike and having to complete so many things to keep my record clean, I had reached out to my mother for help. She divorced my step-dad, but things got worse between me and her. I wasn’t going to school; I was still doing drugs, partying all the time. She made me feel like I ruined her life, I ruined everyone’s life, and that she didn’t want me around anymore. After about three months of living like that, my mother kicked me out. Ever since then I have stayed off drugs, stayed away from partying and started attending school on a regular basis. I go to counseling ever three weeks, to help talk to someone and learn that I am not alone in this world. This whole experience has made me a stronger person and of course I have regrets, about a lot of things I did. By taking drugs and partying all the time, all I have done is made things harder for me. I now have to work ten times harder to make sure I graduate with all my required credits, and on time. I still need to learn to control my moods, so I do not always seem angry with the world. I have learned to take it day by day, worry about myself, and do what I need to do in order to be successful. I have pushed myself to have better relationships with people like my mom, and my aunt, be able to talk to them and go to them if I ever need help. Their tough love is what got me out of the whole I was digging for myself. I do not wish for anything I went through upon anyone. I know the ups and downs, the right things I should have done but didn’t do. I know the troubles I caused for others and the pain I brought upon them. When abusing alcohol and drugs, I wasn’t only hurting myself I was hurting my friends and family around me. Abusing drugs or alcohol, or any sorts of substance is wrong, and it will bring nothing but trouble for you.