My personal experience with drug addiction has been hard to cope with. People have judged and labeled me because of my past. I am still a student, and when someone leaves for "rehab" it gets around. Coming back to school, most of my peers and teachers showed little respect to me because of my choice to drop out of school and get help. I completely understand their thought process, drug user = bad influence. But what angered me the most was the lack of understanding and empathy that some of these people possessed. It was pathetic.
I am sorry,but I would really like people to realize that overcoming drug addiction is far harder than it appears. People should not be judged because they use or have used narcotics, or stimulants of any kind. Just because you use cocaine, doesn’t mean that you hop clubs, and trash hotels and steal. I know if you asked any or most of my teachers they would agree I was not a bad influence except for the excessive drug use. I was a writer, for a local news paper, people respected that, but what they didn’t know that I was a full-blown addict.
We preach that children should be who they want to be, that you shouldn’t act different to have friends, but if you do one thing wrong, if you show people your vulnerabilities, you are shot down, spat on, and forgotten about. What person wants to go through that hell? Judgment is cruel, disrespectful and pathetic. It is the ultimate low of the human race. What makes a judgmental jock better than a quiet drug addict? Nothing, equality is everything, equality is crucial. I am no different than the President of America, the Prime Minister of Canada, or a homeless woman on the street.
*Article was republished for the November 2010 Addiction Issue
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