My Life After My Childhood

When looking at my genogram, there are several members of my family that have alcohol and drug addictions. Some of their addictions are so severe that it has contributed to mental illness such as anxiety, depression and bipolar. The most impactful one for me was my father. He was an alcoholic and had a gambling addiction. Growing up, I thought his addictions were more important than his family, and I hated him for it. I could not understand why we did not matter enough to stop. Once my parents divorced, and my father disappeared, I convinced myself that he was not worth my thoughts or compassion. Then he returned when I was 25 years old, and I was able to gain a different perspective of him and addiction. When he returned to my life, he had drunk himself almost dead and was in the ICU. At that moment, I realized he had no control over his addiction, and he did not choose it over his family. It controlled him and every day that he did not drink was a day that he fought arduously and won. Although there would be days, he would fight very hard and

As a child, I remember growing up in the beautiful city of Detroit, Michigan. It was clothed with one hundred plus degree summers, 6 feet or more of snow winters. A building called the Renaissance, which housed a rotating restaurant on the Penthouse level. It was the Motor city home of General Motors and the Motown city of music. Growing up there was so much fun and amazing to me. Where we would watch the bright, red, blue, green and yellow fireworks on the Fourth of July at Edgewater Park every summer, participate in community activities at the 4-H club. There were barbecues with our neighbors, one of which had a daughter with the exact first, middle and last name as mine. On the one side of me a lady everyone referred to as Ms. Pat, use to bake fresh yeast bread from scratch, and would always share with me and my sisters. We could smell it while outside playing in the yard and inside the house. Then you had the neighbor across the street with the rough edge to them, where you would hear an argument or two every once in a while, but when Mama needed some help while my stepfather was away in the Army, she could call on Joey and he would always be right there with his "yes ma'am and no ma'am" etiquette. With the memories of all things good from the eyes of a child, seeing everything as

Addiction has a way of pulling your attention away from your basic needs and making it harder for you to succeed in life. It's a sad truth that I've seen happen to so many people over the years. These are good people, with good brains and real potential, but addiction takes over and they can only focus on that aspect of their life.

My first real memories are from La Monte, a rural town in central Missouri, walled in on all sides by cornfields with a bank, school, and city hall being the only buildings not beginning to cave in. An Army Reservist turned pastor, my dad brought my family here to take up a preaching position shortly after my birth. I was unaware at the time, because of my young age, the financial arrears my parents drowned in. With my father working two jobs in addition to his preaching career, a trip to the local waffle house was often the only outing my family could find the money for. Unable to afford a daily commute to the next district, I was sent to the hundred-person school up the road.

Addiction is a theme that has been present throughout my life through members of my family and myself. My father was addicted to gambling and alcohol until finally, his drinking ended his life. My brother struggles with alcohol and keeping ahead of his problematic drinking. I have several cousins that float between alcohol and drugs to fulfill the need for an outside substance. For many years, I pondered how I had escaped the addiction curse in my family only to realize that my addiction is food. I overeat and self-sooth through food even though I have health concerns and know a better way. I spent most of my young adulthood angry at my father because he could not or would not change for his family. I am understanding more through education

Addiction is a disease that I will battle for the rest of my life. After being sexually assaulted at the age of twelve, I started to self-destruct. Lack of parental support, less than pristine living conditions, and an addictive personality paved an expressway to a life of addiction. I chose to hang with undesirable people, and was introduced to Marijuana, LSD, Ecstasy, PCP, Cocaine, Heroin and eventually what became the love of my life, the prescription painkiller Morphine. Never did I think that trying pot would have a domino effect. It led me to try harder and more addictive substances ultimately turning my life upside down. Often publicly

Addiction is too frequently downplayed by society. Addicts are mislabeled as weak minded people but I can attest that addiction is not a choice, it’s debilitating disease that can tear a person and their family apart. All too intimately was I included in the

Addiction is like most major diseases. Consider heart disease, the leading cause of death in the developed world. It's partly due to genes and partly due to poor life style choices such as bad diet, lack of exercise, and smoking. The same is true for other common diseases like adult-onset diabetes. Many forms of cancers are due to a combination of genes and life style. But if your doctor said that you had diabetes or heart disease, you wouldn't think you were bad person. You would think, "What can I do to overcome this disease?" That is how you should approach addiction.

Some reasons why childhood has changed during the past generation are the crimes surged from the 60’s through the early ‘90s, stories of abducted children appeared constantly in the news and this created fear in many parents. The society changed, people seem to have more malicious and that is why parents started to be more cautious.

He underwent major back surgery which with a miracle it was a huge success and got him back on his feet. After a long recovery process from the surgery and still battling this illness we finally found out what was wrong. He is one of four people in the world to have a illness called perm disease. The best feeling in the world was when they came out and told me they have found the problem and that it was treatable. After sending his blood work all the way to London UK, they found it. It was a miracle. To look at him then I was bracing myself to say goodbye. Leaving him in the hopsital in a different city every night was tougher than imaginable. But, looking at him today it's like nothing happened he's back to normal. Through this process I talked to many doctors, nurses, family and friends.

Addiction has been in my life since I could remember. At the age of 4 my father got put in prison for five years because he was addicted to meth. My parents soon divorced after my father got put in the prison system and my mother packed my siblings and I up and moved us to Indiana. Growing up my mother told me my dad was dead and since my father's family was in Alabama I had no way of knowing what the truth was. At the age of 9 my mother got really bad sick and was placed in the hospital and had to have a stint put in her heart. A couple of weeks being in the hospital my mother passed away suddenly due to a drug overdose. A couple of day's after my mother had passed away my grandmother and the rest of my family had started to move things out of my mother's house we found out my mother was addicted to alcohol and painkillers.

Growing up in a military family we moved around a lot luckily for me and my sisters we were young when most the moving was done. I was born in Germany on Air Force base but we moved within a year and I don’t recall much from there. From there we moved back to the states to help my dad’s mom and ended up in Arizona, I don’t recall a lot of details from there. Moving to Utah I was older and remember just vague details, such as our house and a couple of friends, my first-grade teacher and going to church. I was old enough to remember having to move to Wichita Falls, Texas though I cried and cried begging my mom to not make me move, I think back now to what my life would have turned out to be had I not moved. We ended up living in Burkburnett, this small, clique centered town made it extremely hard to become involved. This is the only real home I’ve ever known though it comes with its pros and cons I wouldn’t trade growing up there for anything. I met my ex-husband in that town and from there we were stationed in Savannah, Georgia. This area was right by the ocean and was perfect in every way to me, not too big, but big enough there was always something to do, had a good college and the airfield was

Even systems theory has disagreed on whether “addiction is an individual problem or a family problem” (Stevens & Smith, pg. 240). The author stated “is the addiction secondary to the dysfunction in the family or is it the primary cause of the dysfunction” (Stevens & Smith, pg. 240)? It’s an interesting question and one that may be “skewed by the viewpoint of the clinician” (Stevens & Smith, pg. 240). However, what a clinician must keep focused on is the “biopsychosociofamilial” aspect of the causes of the addiction (Stevens & Smith, pg. 240). All aspects of a person’s life must be explored as possible causal effects of the addiction or the clinician may miss out on a crucial piece of the puzzle that has created the addiction and is allowing it to continue.

Addiction is all around us. It may be that cup of coffee in the morning for the caffeine stimulation, the cigarette that is smoked for the nicotine, or an alcoholic drink used to relieve a stressful day or situation. For some, the addiction may not be to a substance, but to compulsive behaviors such as gambling, playing video games, or shopping. Consequences to addictions can impact an addict’s physical or mental state. Addiction can also have detrimental impact on the people that surround them. Watching a relationship fall apart because a person has an addiction to drugs, alcohol, or another addictive behavior is a sad thing to happen to anyone. Unfortunately, those with addictions usually won’t admit they even

The Secret of Childhood by Maria Montessori Maria Montessori passionately reveals to us the inner workings of children as they develop into their full potential in an effort to assist adults in understanding and supporting this process. The ideas and methods shared have become the foundation for the Montessori model of education. In the introduction, Maria Montessori asserts “there is no real place for children” in today’s modern society where parents are working, cities are crowded and deemed dangerous, and the home is often filled with furnishings off limits to children. We are asked to consider where children feel they belong and are understood. Though Maria believed that great progress was underway when writing this book, with an