My name is Andrea, And I'm an addict...

And so I will start at the beginning...

I was born into a loving, yet disfunctional home. Growing up, I was the only girl. I have two older brothers and one younger brother. My parents were, and are still married; dispite a short term separation. My father was cheating on my mom for a very long time, and about the time when I was 7 or 8, my mom decided to dump that information on me. I was young, I immediately developed a resentment towards my father for his actions, and I developed a resentment towards my mother for hitting me with that information at such a young age. We always moved around, so I never had any really close friends. And I developed more resentments for it.

In school, I was always super intelligent. I skipped 2nd grade, and was offered to skip many other grades. But my parents denied because they didn't want me hanging out with the older kids. (Which happened anyway) I never fit into a clique, I was always friends with everyone. And I always wondered who I really was. I never had one set style, so I guess I was a poser?

The first drug I ever used was alcohol, I was about 11, and I got alcohol poisoning. Hm... shocker? Then I went on to smoke weed, skip school, and get in trouble. Years went by, I was drinking alot and smoking weed before school, and smoking cigarettes in the bathroom at school. One time I think my two best friends tried to do an intervention on me, but I don't think it worked. Lol.

But I moved to Linthicum in April of 2005. I was arrested that summer for trespassing at Bengies drive-in. Then I started my tenth grade year and I was starting to hangout and skip school with these kids. We skipped school, went to a friend's house and got fucked up all day. I would drink and smoke myself into oblivion, everyday of my life. In January of 2006, I had a spiritual awakening. I said to myself, "Is this really what I'm going to be doing for the rest of my life?"

So I went into treatment, and met a guy. HA! So, needless to say, I didn't stay clean. I relapsed on alcohol.

I began using cocaine, and triple C's. I smoked crack for the first time too. I hated it because I was already on a mixture of drugs.

I used until July 24, 2006. Then I went into treatment again. Then to long-term. I was about it until I got out, on December 13, 2006. I relapsed on alcohol, again, shortly after.

So I began trying to control my using. I would only drink on the weekends and smoke weed occasionally. During the week, it was all business, but I was a fucking weekend warrior.

This system worked just fine, I thought. Until I was working at Zumiez, as a 2nd Asst. Manager, and I quit. I broke up with my long-term boyfriend. And I began smoking weed everyday. I stopped going to school, I moved out of my parents house. My life became unmanageable. Quick.

I was smoking weed everyday, it eventually was getting me less and less high. Then I was asked by a friend if I had ever smoked crack. I replied, "Yes, I hated it. But maybe that was a fluke." INSANITY!
So I smoked crack, it didn't even work that well for me, but I did it anyway.

My life was completely unmanageable. In the end, I was living in hell. Everyone hated me for the things I had done. And I wanted to die.

I went into treatment at Sheppard Pratt on January 3rd, 2009. And from there I went to Pathways. But I have been clean since that day.

This is a journey. And I am in it for the long haul. <3