Thanks to you, Felicia has a forever family. This year she’ll be adopted by her foster care family, after many years of uncertainty. Felicia is thriving as she navigates many new loving relationships and normal life experiences. Felicia’s mother began abusing drugs when she was just 11 years old. Felicia and her sister were born addicted to heroin. Her mom continued to care for them and agreed to undergo rehabilitation. But she was unable to stay clean, and ended up back on the street. Her two girls were placed in foster care in separate homes. Your gift of [[gifts.pledge.amount]] has helped us train and supervise Felicia’s CASA volunteer. It also ensured her case file was up to date and her court dates were attended on her behalf. It
Heather was addicted to painkillers for eight years. She grew up extremely close to her grandfather and after
Rachelle Allen had 3 kids she didn't want anymore kids so she "underwent a tubal ligation". So she could't get pregnant. Later years she met her husband. Her husband wanted kids. Allen agreed and had a surgery so she could have kids again. It was 2005 where she was in pail from the surgery. This was the first time Allen used opioids. 6 months after the surgery her pain was gone. She kept taking opioids because she said it was the only way she could function. Her doctor didn't tell her that opioids were highly addicted. Allen researched what was going on with her and Allen said "I knew I was in trouble". On Allen's wedding day she was 8 weeks pregnant and she said she was "pretty high". Allen started to demand to her doctor to give her more
Throughout the story, we read of Basile happiest of times when she was a little girl, living in a bright and sunny home in New Jersey and recalls her mother playing with her hair and kissing her over and over, comforting her. Basile then talks very thoroughly about when, where and how her parents became users of opioids and how they impacted her life starting at the age of 8. After both her parents started using, Basile and her little brother were poisoned by addiction and were impacted heavily. Basile recalls spending Christmas in a very tight room in homeless shelter with her mother and brother. This experience wasn’t ideal, but she says she was spoiled with the donated gifts
Born in 1960 Kimberly Renae McCoy grew up in country side of Vian Oklahoma. Her parents, Billie and Sue McCoy raised her to be strong and independent, which turned out to be the best gift they could give their only daughter. The second of four babies her hardworking mother bore, only Kim and Clinton, the third, baby survived. The first, Richard, died of SIDS a few months after birth. The baby, Morgan David, died of pneumonia when he was a few months old. After the deaths of the babies, Billie went into a deep depression and refusal to grow close to his two living children, instead of turning to alcohol to cover his pain. Sue, continued to be loving and affectionate to both Kim and Clinton, but it wasn’t long until she used alcohol to help with her hidden pain as well.
At 11 years old she saw her mother deceased in a casket. She gave birth to her first baby at the age of 16 and had five more children to relieve issues of feeling empty and alone. As the pressures of teen pregnancy, poverty and motherhood mount Diane turns to crack cocaine and neglect her then young children. Her eldest daughter reports her drug use to her teachers which results in the removal of all six of Diane’s children into foster care for a period of 10 years. During that time Diane turns to her community drug rehabilitation center, Child welfare services, her religion and her therapist for help in recovering from her addictions and for help in reuniting with her children.
Lauren’s mother succumbed to the troubles of the world and was addicted to drugs while she was pregnant. Her mother’s addiction caused the severity of Lauren’s
This story, while centered on Maries struggles with addiction and family support the story we also hear from two social workers in DCF; Ilia
mother died of lung cancer. After these devastating events took place, it was a phone call from her twin sister Becka, and knowing that therapy alone or coupled with AA weren’t enough to break her physical and emotional addiction with alcohol, that
A mentally ill teenage named Jessica Roger was born to Joan and Kevin Roger. As a young girl Roger’s mother was verbally abusive to her and her sister, she even went as far as trying to kill her husband. When little Roger was about eleven years old her mother left them with their alcoholic father. Roger ended up in prison for biting her sister and other acts because of her disorder, eventually she committed suicide while serving her time in a place where she just didn't belong. Although her mother showed remorse after her death and said, “she accepts blame, maybe too much, for what happened to her Jet”. On the other hand her father was unapologetic for his drinking “I still drink. It’s legal”. Roger sent her parents countless letter of how she was feeling but they didn’t do anything until after her death. Are you wonder how a mentally ill sixteen year old girl ends up on prison?
In the memoir Beautiful Boy, by David Sheff, we get a glimpse of his son’s addiction to crystal meth. Sheff wrote an amazing story that illustrates how hard it is for a parent to struggle with co-dependency and the natural feelings of wanting to protect your child. This book emphasizes how difficult it is for a parent to stand back and let their children’s life fall apart because of their addictions. Beautiful Boy, shows us many situations that co-dependents struggle with everyday with their loved ones. Some of the themes a co-dependent struggles with are the obsession of the mind, enabling, and feelings of hopelessness.
Sadie was born following a pregnancy complicated by intrauterine exposure to OxyContin, fentanyl, and methadone. She was diagnosed with severe neonatal abstinence syndrome with narcotic withdrawal. Sadie was given both Phenobarbital and methadone during her 23-day stay at Community Regional Medical Center following her birth. She was discharged on methadone to her mother on October 29, 2009.
He was constantly high on heroin, and when he was not, he was grumpy and abusive towards her. Eventually in times of lonesome, Baby got a hold of drugs on her own. First, she tried magic mushrooms. At first, getting high was a way for Baby to entertain herself. However, she eventually tried her father’s drug of choice, heroin. She quickly becomes addicted to the feeling she gets when high off this drug. Heroin entwines itself into Baby’s day-to-day life and begins to impair her normal decision making, “There wasn’t much, but there was enough to make all my anger dissipate. As soon as I was high, I couldn’t even remember what my escape plan had been (569).”Her quick addiction allows Baby to find an escape from her reality. Turning to drugs to fill the void her parents left within her childhood is not only temporary, but it is dangerous. People close to Baby demonstrate first-hand the dangers that this coping mechanism can pose. Her pimp, Alphonse, even died of an overdose with her in the room, “As soon as I looked at Alphonse’s face, I knew that he was dead, even though I had never seen a dead body before (604).” Baby’s method of coping from her father’s negligence is to turn to the exact thing that she witness ruin him, heroin. However, as a child of her age, she would not know any better. Her father is happier and more affectionate towards her while he is high, so it would only make sense to her to think that she would be the
In today’s society people are talking about babies being born to drugs, and how could a mother do that to their unborn child. Drug addiction is a very serious issue that needs more research. We are still learning the effects of substance abuse. One problem that needs to be looked at is are there enough Rehabilitation Centers, to help the women who are addicted to these different street drugs. Also doctor and nurses should not judge these women but instead give them the best prenatal care that can be provided. We need to see what harm and side affects it has on the mother and baby, so that we can be able to understand better how to treat these women and get them off drugs before they do harm their babies.
During the summer of 1967, the area in San Francisco was a magnet for individuals looking for drugs. Joan hung out with runaways and acidheads. She met a different array of people such as, dealers to poets. One thing she did notice is that there were several children. They were as young a five years old taking acid. While at Haights she blended into the scene. The readers of the article that she is writing gave them the sense that she was putting herself at risk reporting this story. As she wrote what was happening there she was afraid that she might get sucked up into the Haight abyss and become a lost soul.
During this time, my mother found that her diamond earrings were missing. She then subconsciously had a feeling that Becky knew where they were. My mother asked Becky about it and Becky just said she didn’t know anything about it, but that wasn’t the true story at all. By that time I was in Nebraska visiting my favorite aunt. A week went by and I had missed Mother’s day that year since our flight was canceled, so we stayed an extra day. The next day I finally get home, not to find a warm home with my family greeting me at the door, but instead to find my parents and my sister with a couple of suitcases in their hands walking to the car. I proceed to ask my mother what was wrong with my sister and she replied with “Yesterday Becky confessed that for the past year, she has been doing heroin.” My heart sank. I never thought it was that serious. My parents took her to rehab, and I went into my room and cried the rest of the day.