In the beginning of an addiction, obtaining their drug of choice is easy and care-free. Holding down a regular 9 to 5 job is not difficult and substance abuse only happens on their days off or after their shift. Unfortunately, when their recreational substance abuse becomes an active addiction, they may lose that 9 to 5 job because their substance abuse has become an everyday habit that take priority over everything and anything. Those who are in active addiction find other ways to maintain their addiction by:
Stealing: The most common method of obtaining their drug of choice is to steal. Addicts may steal money or objects to pawn for cash. Jewelry, expensive clothes, family heirlooms, cars, ect. – anything worth of value- the addict will steal and then pawn or sell for drug money. They may join a gang where criminal activity gets them more drugs or drug money.
Borrowing Money & Credit Cards: Not every addict begins their addiction penniless and broke. Those who have stable spouses, inheritance, or access to a steady stream of cash flow will often borrow money from their co-workers, their business, or banks to obtain their drug of choice. This is very common with those who are addicted to cocaine or speeders. If their drug habit becomes a full addiction, their steady stream of cash or line of credit may become depleted causing issues with maintaining a steady supply of their drug of choice.
Prostitution & Jobs Surrounded by Drug Use: Many people with an expensive drug habit turn to prostitution or doing sexual favors for money or drugs. The addict may solicit sexual favors from random people to obtain money or trade their drug dealer sex for drugs. In some cases, a person may find themselves in an occupation that is surrounded by drug and alcohol abuse that encourages them to using and increase their use. Some environments can cause added stress on the person influencing them to use drugs to keep up the demands of the job. Common jobs that are surrounded by drug use or encourage drug use are:
- Go-Go Dancing
- Strip Clubs
- Dance Club/Rave DJs
- Security Club/Concert Workers ( Bouncers)
- Bartenders
- Stock Market Traders
- Healthcare Workers
- Pharmacists
- Cross-country Truck Drivers
- Music Artists
- Fashion Models
- Celebrity Figures
- Actors/Actresses
- Night-shift Workers
- College Students
Donate Blood or Plasma: When drug use is out of control and the person is struggling in active addiction, people will donate blood or plasma for money. It is common in the homeless population to donate blood and plasma on a weekly or monthly basis.
Drug Dealing & Homemade Concoctions: In order to feed their drug habit, many people will sell drugs or make the drugs themselves to sell. Becoming a drug dealer means you always have a supply of your drug of choice and dictate how much you sell the drugs for. Some people resort to making the drugs themselves in order to maintain their habit. Drugs like meth, crack, cocaine, and some forms of heroin can be made with household cleaners, chemical, or over-the-counter pharmaceuticals. Home concoctions or drugs from crack houses can be filled with impurities and may cause life threatening side effects. Some drugs can be grown like psilocybin mushrooms, marijuana, and peyote and sold on the streets for money.
Emily’s True Stories of Addiction video demonstrates how she was able to fund her drug habit.
Emily grew up in a normal, educated family. She had a mom, dad and two sisters. There was nothing out of the ordinary that caused Emily to become an addict, there was no drug or alcohol abuse in her home growing up and she had a very happy childhood. She didn’t feel like she didn’t fit in with her friends, she wasn’t abused and never had anything to worry about. However, she did like attention.
Anger Issues
“It is not that I feel like I didn’t fit in, I defiantly acted out a lot to try and get attention but relatively happy,” Emily said.
Along with her thirst for attention, Emily dealt with anger issues in her earlier days. Most of her anger was taken out on her little sister because she wished she could be an only child.
“I did not want anything to do with my little sister.”
Emily wanted to be an only child so bad. She would convince her little sister to do things that would cause emotional harm to prove her point.
She would duct tape her little sister to plastic chairs. Her little sister would beg her to stop and Emily would promise her she would let her go, but never did. It got to the point where Emily’s mom had to tell her little sister to stop trusting her because she knew Emily would try and convince her to get into that chair again.
One day, Emily took a break from taunting her little sister and went to hang out with a friend.
The Addiction
“My friend came to me one time whose mom has gotten surgery and gave me a Vicodin.”
Her and her friend took the pill and nothing special happen. They both just got tired and went to sleep. Because Emily had already experienced a pill and didn’t get a desired effect, she thought trying marijuana would be a good idea.
“I kind of prided myself on staying, like, you know, I had stuff under control for a really long time.”
She barley remembers smoking the marijuana, she knows she did not get high from it though. The only thing she really does remember is they over paid for it and smoked it out of a soda pop can.
Although the weed didn’t get her high, alcohol seemed to make her black out, almost every time. She didn’t see the problem with it though because she felt like she had it all under control.
“In my mind it was not a problem because I was affording all of it.”
She didn’t have things under control. Her mind was playing tricks on he, the only way she could afford it was by stealing from her job. She ended up getting caught and fired. When she lost her job, things got really bad.
“It was kind of at that point where any real control went out the window. The cycle of getting new jobs and getting caught [stealing] and getting fired just over and over.”
Things would keep getting worse for her and she kept breaking promises to herself on staying clean and not stealing from her work place.
“Each time I got fired from a job I was like, ‘I am going to get clean I am not going to do this and I am not going to get high at work’.”
Emily took a break from working and went to rehab. She remembers her dad telling her that her little sister would come to him and cry. She wasn’t crying because Emily stole money from her, she was crying because she didn’t want her big sister to die.
Although her relationship with her sister was not the best, she was always very close to her dad. Emily and her mom are still working on their relationship. They used to not want to look at her.
Emily used to take advantage of her parents. She would drink and use in their house because she knew they wouldn’t kick her out. She didn’t care about their feelings because the only thing that mattered to her was the drugs and alcohol. Her love was very strong for drugs and alcohol but she believed she was stronger than the disease.
“I had friends who have went through the same thing and they went to rehab and would go to meetings and that kind of stuff but to me that just sounded so silly and I knew better and could do it a different way.”
Recovery Changed Her Life
Her thoughts took her to some dark places and she had a lot of lows. She tried many different ways to get clean and sober but nothing worked and she didn’t know why.
“All the other ideas of detoxes and Suboxone maintains and … just smoking weed and all the other things I tried to do didn’t work and it was kind of at that point I was just like I’m done. I don’t know what else to do and I don’t want to keep living this life.”
Emily’s parents found out that she stole money, she went to her first meeting and found treatment that night.
“By the time I got to treatment I was pretty much open to everything.”
In treatment she found the person she always wanted to be and attended meetings. Now, working a 12-step program is normal to her. She has friends that she can trust and wouldn’t trade them for any drug or alcohol.
“I have friends that show up for me and I show up for them. It is not just trying to get stuff out of each other.”
In order to keep her recovery, she follows in people’s footsteps that have done this before. It is not only her friends that help keep her sober, it’s her family too. She loves talking to her parents and wishes she could see them more often because they live across the country. Emily believes you have to let everyone have their own recovery experience and to just give a 12-step fellowship a chance. She believes in you.
“Give it a chance, you know, to see if your life changes and if it doesn’t, drugs and alcohol are always going to be there.”
45 comments
Having to resort to stealing to fund your drug habit can be really bad. It leads to a downward spiral that can be difficult to climb out of.
Helpful and supportive friends can mean a lot when looking to kick a drug habit. Emily is lucky she has such a strong support system.
I think Emily is lucky to have changed her life when she did. Had she continued down the same path she would have probably ended up in prison or worse.
I have heard of people resort to robbery just to fund their drug habits. That is what I call hitting rock bottom.
The importance of seeking treatment when having a drug problem can’t be overstated. Recovery sure did change Emily’s life.
A lot of petty crimes are as a result of people seeking ways to fund their drug addiction. It’s high time we as a society did something about it.
Thank you Bianka for sharing Emily’s touching and inspiring true story. I hope this motivates drug addicts out there not to lose hope.
I know how dreadful it must feel to not have any money yet still want to get high. I can see how such a situation can drive anyone to do some unspeakable things.
As stated before we all tend to think we can handle it until we do not, That is made worse for those who has addiction. I heard a driver in my area one time he is taking weed to stay awake as long driving hours meant money??? the issue with that is he is putting lives on the line. I get his reasons I do not agree with it
Having friends who genuinely care for her is what eventually helped Emily get clean. My hope is that she doesn’t relapse.
They look for a way to get fund to buy the drugs. They don’t care what it’ll cost them. They believe if they don’t take it, it’s like they’re gonna die
I’ve once lived with a drug addict, he stole my money many times in other to get drugs. I really pitied him. He’s now save. No more a drug addict
Emily is surely courageous. Thank God she has people with her who love her wholeheartedly.
Drug addiction can make one to go to any length just to have the drug, It is not easy to stop taking drugs,
This is a good revelation. These means of funding drug abuse must be stopped to prevent further abuse of drug. It helps to stop drug abuse. Thanks you.
The points you mentioned are all true adducts steal alots to get their supplies. I can do relate because my cousins used to steal alot because of smoking.
Really appreciate you Detox for sharing this inspiring and true life story. It’s actually full of lessons to learn.
There are several way people can fund there addictive nature. Because they find it hard to beat and let go.
Fantastic and amazing! I’m very certain that this piece of information will go a long way in the life of some people. Thank you.
The extent at which addicts go to funds their addict habit is sometimes worrisome because they do a whole lot to keep up with the bad habit, worse is prostituting themselves to get money. it can be quite depressing.
Some of the ways stated are not the acceptable ways to God. I am even suprised that some goes into prostitution because they want to fund their addiction.
There are different ways addicts can fund their drug habit life when needed to. But having a little care from people could go a long way.
People do all sorts just to fund their addiction, thank God for Emily she had friends who were there for her. Detox to rehab thank you for sharing this wonderful story of recovery.
Wow! It is really incredible the length drugs addicts go through in order to get money to fuel their addiction. Irrespective of how long they have been into drugs, going for treatment is always the best option so they can live a normal life.
Some of the ways she resorted to in order to raise funds are not right. She needs to find to be herself and neglect all these ways and focus on recovery to have a chance in life.
Addicts can fund there drug habit life in different ways that aren’t pleasant. But been under that influence don’t have a choice other than that.
Addicts can fund there drug habit life in all manners of way . Causing havoc to there life.
People who are under the addiction of one substance or the other can do anything to make sure they get money to purchase their drugs. They become a completely different human being all together from their usual self.
This post is an eye opener to many on how addicts fund themselves to get into the habit of taking drugs. Some of these ways are illegal and attention need to be paid on them in our bid to help the addicts in getting their life back.
All of these ways are so on point. They’ll do anything to keep the addiction going. A rigid determination alongside a working therapy saves the person eventually. Great write up by the way.
Thank you for sharing this information here. In order to feed their drug habit, many people will sell drugs or make the drugs themselves to sell. Becoming a drug dealer means you always have a supply of your drug of choice and dictate how much you sell the drugs for. Some people resort to making the drugs themselves in order to maintain their habit.
What a very good method. Thank you for sharing this information here.
This is a well detailed piece of information. Everything about how addict finds there lifestyle is true. The article is quite informative and educative.
Emily was so strong and the help she got helped her recover from Addiction.
Just like detox do say,it’s never too late…
Am glad she was able to recover. And the ways this drug addict fund their habits is not a good one
Addiction can lure you to do some bad things in order to get money for drugs. It will also make you to lose so many valuable things. You can be free, take a bold step to your journey of recovery today.
It’s hard journey in your life,but your family is the first one wants you get sobber,and 12 step program treatment really help everyone who same cases as addict like you, thank you for your efforts to exit from addicted
The moment addiction takes over the emotions and will of a person, it’s like serving a cruel master. Very unusual and absurd things will be done to bring satisfaction to it. No matter the pleasure drugs promises, it rarely every delivers without torment.
Non can be taken away from the above listed ways. Thanks for this revelation.
The most common one is through stealing. This happens when they are in serious need of consuming these drugs and alcohol.
It’s a pity the extent one will go just to get high. I’m so happy Emily that she could get of it , imagine her resorting to stealing just to get high. Thank God it is a thing of the past.
Such a fascinating read. It’s clear that Emily’s addiction only kept digger her into a deeper hole until she finally sought help. I think it’s especially noteworthy that even celebrities and physicians can be susceptible to drug use, if it’s an active part of their environment. Really glad Emily repaired her relationship with her family and has true friends that will keep her out of harm’s way. Her resurgence is truly inspiring.
Due to intoxication, many people take the wrong path like stealing is common. They do all this to fulfill their needs. Thank you Bianka for sharing Emily’s touching and inspiring true story. I hope this motivates drug addicts out there not to lose hope.
People who are under the addiction of one substance or the other can do anything to make sure they get money to purchase their drugs. They become a completely different human being all together from their usual self.
This is so true.. people do all kind of bad things to find their addiction. The article is on point. I just hope all addicts get the necessary help they need. Drug addiction sucks