How Drug Addiction Affects Relationships

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Breana had her first experience with drugs at the age of 12 when one of her friends convinced her they should smoke a cigarette and unbeknown to Breana, added Marijuana to it.

“We’re smoking this cigarette and I get up and everything is just going sideways and we were running down the street,” she said.

About a year after, her mother passed away.

“I watched her pass. She had a heart attack, she was 42 years old. After that – everything in my life went downhill.”

To help deal with the loss of her mother Breana started to use.

“Stealing my dad’s Tranquilizers and stealing my dad’s Alcohol, putting it in a water bottle and bringing it to high school with me – Taking pretty much any pill I could get my hands on. [I was] smoking weed before school, after school, ditching class.”

As soon as she graduated Breana moved out.

“I moved in with a bunch of my friends, every single night it was constant drinking. Every morning [I woke up] not having any idea, having my friends laugh at me every single morning for the stupid stuff I did while I was blacked out.”

Unfortunately, that was not the end of her spiral.

“I was using Ecstasy every single day, 15 pills a day. Anything I could get my hands on I would do it.”

When Breana was 18, she found out that she was pregnant. At this time, she was still using Ecstasy on a daily basis, and she had a miscarriage.

“I know that was due to how many drugs I was ingesting, and it was really tough on me but I definitely was not ready to have a kid yet.”

Losing Trust

“I tried Heroin for the first time and I was instantly hooked.”

Breana was always looking for that perfect high.

“You just constantly strive to get as high as you possibly can. There’s no getting that first high back.”

A lot of her friends were in and out of rehab, but Breana didn’t think she had a problem that she couldn’t handle on her own.

“I never thought I needed that ‘I can do this by myself I don’t need anyone.’”

During the time she had been using she had lost over 100 pounds. Having struggled with her weight her whole life, she thought it was a good thing.

“I thought I looked amazing, and I was like I’m not giving this up … That was blinding me from all the problems I was getting from it.”

Due to her Heroin use, her family began to lose trust in her, and her brother decided that he didn’t want her to come to his house anymore.

She found a job working for a call center and things started to look up.

“I met Jonny, he was really amazing to me – in the beginning. We started talking about having a baby, two months after I met him.”

All of their talk soon turned into reality.

“I was so happy that I was pregnant. Everything was going really really really well for me.”

Breana and Jonny both had jobs and she was selling Heroin. Even though she was still selling, she quit using everything during her pregnancy. The only thing she was a taking was methadone.

“I thought, ‘this is it; this is what’s going to help me stay straight, my daughter’.”

Her pregnancy went extremely well, but Breana had to have a C-section. Because she was on Methadone her tolerance for pain medication was high.

“I did everything I could to get them to give me a high milligram of Percocet. I got them up to perc 30s.”

She was allowed to take four a day, and she was still taking her Methadone.

“As soon as I got home I would snort two in the morning, take my Methadone at the same. I would be nodding off holding my brand new born baby – and I dropped her one time and that was scary.  But it didn’t stop me.”

When her daughter was around five weeks old Jonny became abusive. After the first time it happened she decided to leave and move in with her parents and took her daughter with her.

“I ended up taking him back, multiple times. He would always promise me that he was gonna change, that things were going to get better. Every time I took him back it just got worse.”

She and Jonny started using Methamphetamines together while still using Methadone.

“My parents got to the point where they were so sick of me, so sick of my drama with Jonny, that they were like ‘sorry we’re not gonna let you live with us again’.”

She and Jonny became homeless and had nowhere to go. Neither of them had ids to get a room and their baby was not 9 months old.

“I felt like nothing ever was going to get better and I was going to be stuck with Jonny for the rest of my life. He was so abusive to me in every way, mentally, emotionally, physically …”

They ended up staying with one of Breana’s friends from the methadone clinic, sleeping on her floor.

Feeling Hopeless

Jonny’s abusive behavior was taking a big toll on Breana’s self-esteem.

“He would just constantly talk down to me and I kept telling him ‘if you don’t want to be with me then you just need to take Sarah and go because I’m going to end up killing myself’ and one day I snapped.”

Breana took a whole bottle of a seizure medication, abound 90 pills, that was in her friend’s medicine cabinet.  When Jonny threatened to call an ambulance she took off. He caught up with her and convinced her to come back to the house so he could call 911.

“We’re about to call the ambulance and he calls me stupid. So I leave again, and I’m probably a mile and a half away from the hospital so I’m like I’m just gonna walk in the direction of the hospital, if I make it then I’m supposed to live, if I don’t then I’m not supposed to live.”

A woman on a bike found her collapsed and she called 911. Breana was taken to the hospital, was in ICU for three days and on suicide watch for another five days.

While she was in the hospital Jonny moved into his Heroin dealer’s house with the baby.

“I ended up having to go to a psych ward, and I was in the psych ward for another 8 days … I had to fake that I wanted to stay with Jonny the entire time I was in the hospital because I didn’t want him to take my daughter and never see her again.”

When Breana got out she told him that I was taking Sarah to the emergency room because she was sick, and she never went back.

From there she took Sarah and moved into a domestic violence shelter, they were there for a few months before she was kicked out for not turning I her Methadone. She was homeless again.

“I would go to Budget Suites and they have outside walkways and I would have Sarah in her stroller and I would lay a blanket over her and I would lay my head down in her lap and try to sleep but I would never sleep.”

She got into a homeless shelter, but with the rules of the shelter and having to take public transportation she couldn’t work the hours she needed to, to be able to support her and Sarah.

Breana started selling Meth to other people living in the shelter. She got caught with it, kicked out of the shelter and had Sarah taken away from her.

“I look at it now; I was so numb I didn’t even cry when they took my daughter.”

Finding Hope

Sarah was placed in her grandparent’s care. After getting her taken away Breana started doing as many drugs as she could get her hands on so she didn’t have to feel anything.

“I kind of snapped out of it and I was like ‘okay this is it, it’s not or never. I have to get off of Methadone. I have to stop using anything’.”

Breana went into rehab.

“The original reason I went into rehab was because I thought the certificate would make me look good, when I left rehab I knew that I had to stay clean in order to have a good life. I was trying to cover up so many issues in my life.”

After leaving rehab Breana was able to get a good job and her brother helped her get a car.

“It’s amazing to have a relationship with my family again, I can pay my bills, I don’t have to depend on anything every single day of my life anymore.”

Breana currently gets to have her daughter for half of the week without supervision and within the next month, she will have full custody of her once again.

“That little girl is what keeps me going.”

Breana still going to meetings on a regular basis.

“If you’re struggling, keep struggling. As long as you don’t pick up, things will get better.”

55 comments
  1. So proud of you breanna! Stay strong and take one day at a time. That beautiful little girl is worth it. Keep your chin up and don’t sweat the small stuff. Being clean is amazing and gets better and better as the yrs pass. I’m praying for you. And thank you for your kind words of encouragement for my situation also. It helps to talk to others who understand.

  2. Yeah, life is very tough and the distrust and difficulties arise very much when anyone of the person in a relationship is involved in drugs. This post’s story depicted the entire thing in a more wider aspect. So, we should try to be away of it.

  3. Drug addiction always destroys your relationship to everyone around you. Most of the time, you only think of yourself and you being high, and not the other person at all

  4. What I see from her story now is it so easy to get stuck into drugs but to come out of it, is so hard. I am so proud of Breanner, I and hope she keeps been clean.

    1. She faced a lot at a Tender age and Drug caused her a lot in family relation.
      The Rehab is what helped her in Recovery from Addiction.

      1. It’s quite unfortunate that she started using drugs at a very tender age.. I cannot imagine someone smoking cigarette and using marijuana at such a very tender age of 12 and the fact that her mum passed away at the tender age of 42 made everything worse ..I really feel for her.. It’s quite normal for your family to lose trust in you if you using drugs.. so.. I quite understand her predicament.. I’m really happy that she went into rehab and now she is having a good relationship with her family again

    2. I am So proud of you breanna! That beautiful little girl is worth it. Being clean is amazing and gets better and better as the years pass. I’m praying for you. And thank you for your kind words of encouragement

  5. Drugs takes you away from people you love and people that loves you. Even when yiu think people you have outside loves you, they are just killing you. Never do drugs

  6. Drug addiction mostly destroys not only the relationships but also the family itself. The only thing that will care for you after all of that is you family. You just need to find that courage with in you to break out from that drug addiction. Breana still picks up the part of her that was destroyed by drug addiction but as long as her family is there with her, I surely knows that she will be better someday.

  7. It sounds like Breana has marched over tons of adversity including her addiction and her abusive partner. I love how her daughter gives her inspiration to make better choices.

  8. This is a no brainer. Drugs affects e everything may it be physical or relationships!!!Stay away from drugs it always destroys you.

  9. It sounds like after a very hard run, Breana is definitely on the path to wellness and her family and support systems are keeping her centered. Thanks for this uplifting piece!

  10. This is ignorance that work. If you are ignorant of something if care is not taking, you might be lure into unpleasant experience.

  11. Breana got into addiction due to her friends influence. Losing her mom also made her to grow wild since on one is able to control her emotions.

  12. I’m glad about everything in this article. It gives me so much joy that her child is her inspiration, she didn’t let go for the sake of her child and she is here today.

  13. Drugs affect relationships because you lose your focus and determination while on drugs, and you give less attention to the other person. Detox to rehab thank you for sharing this wonderful post.

  14. Her changing attitude due to drugs caused a distance relationship between her and her family. it’s really disheartening to know how much drug caused her.

  15. I am very surprised when you misscariage,and your second pregnant and get baby you drop your kids on the floor, because of abusing,Breana I hope you to be a good Mom

  16. The influence of alcohol and drugs addiction is unthinkable and it can a lot of damages to live. It is not a good experience.

  17. This is a very pathetic story about Breana. Her story further shows that drug addiction can negatively affect our relationship with loved ones. So it is better to abstain from it.

  18. Due to intoxication, all our relationships end. It makes a person weak from inside. we should stay away from it. Thanks for sharing this blog.

  19. Breana’s childhood struggles with addiction had a negative effect on her life. This later coupled with addicting having negative effect on her relationship with other people.

  20. Drugs completely ruin our lives. This relationship ends everything. Man becomes mean after getting used to it. Thanks for sharing this blog.

  21. it is the motivating words for me keep pushing don’t give up and you would great again. This is an awesome piece.

  22. The technicalities may differ as each person eaxh family is different but in the grand scope of things yes it affects everything by destroying everything. Now whether you win or loose is in your hands.

  23. Seriously under the influence of drugs, one having a good life is uncertain. I am happy Breana thought of her daughter and the need to be useful for herself. I hope this motivates others as to stay clean is always the best.

  24. One must be very sensitive to the kind of people we are close with, the agony that comes with addiction is huge.

  25. This is peer influence at work. Every parent must instill in there wards confidence that will help them overcome whatever evil their peer may want to input into the ways.

  26. It will especially if the other fellow do not engage in alcohol and drugs. If care is not taking, he or she will see himself or herself doing the same.

  27. One must be very sensitive to the kind of people we are close with, the agony that comes with addiction is huge. Yeah, life is very tough and the distrust and difficulties arise very much when any one of the people in a relationship is involved in drugs. This post’s story depicted the entire thing in a wider aspect. So, we should try to be away from it.

  28. Drug addiction affects relationship beyond repair. It must always be avoided by everyone to ensure good and healthy relationship.

  29. An unbelieving reality here.
    At such a tender age, ecstasy everyday, 15 pills per day, miscarriage, loss of trust. I hope you stay free. Thanks Detox

  30. Drugs affects everything that surrounds a drug addict without an exemption. This is just a proof.
    At such a tender age, ecstasy everyday, 15 pills per day, miscarriage, loss of trust. I hope you stay free. Thanks Detox

  31. Drug addiction and relationship can’t work together. The other party might always see one as a misfit. it will never allow trust to be there in the relationship. one needs to throw away that.

  32. Relationship is all about trust, love and affection you show to your loved ones but drugs takes you far from all these quality, so to continue a healthy relationship you must stop this activity.

  33. Yeah, life is very tough and the distrust and difficulties arise very much when anyone of the person in a relationship is involved in drugs. Breana still picks up the part of her that was destroyed by drug addiction but as long as her family is there with her, I surely knows that she will be better someday.

  34. This story is breath taking. Depression and addiction are two major enemies of man now. People struggle to be free from addiction

  35. Drugs always give a bad impact to the user and their close peoples, including family. There are so many news regarding divorced caused of the drugs. That’s way very important to always stay away from drugs.

  36. It can affect even to the extent that the addicts may not want to see his or her love ones. This is actually common to youths.

  37. From her story, it is evident that she very much ruined her life due to the addiction. People should stay away from the addiction stuffs.

  38. What a good story what sharing. It’s not easy to get out of drug. But there is better life outside drugs

  39. Breana started drugs at an early age but her mums death what was broke the camels back, till she spiralled down the wrong path. I am glad she had a reason to get treatment and I wish her the best going forward.

  40. Breana’s story is a very touching one. Truly there is no predicting what grief and sudden loss of loved ones could really result into. It’s amazing despite the despair, she eventually accepted her need for help and is becoming better.

  41. Drug addiction affects not only the Individual involved, but also people related to the individual. Happy for her that she chose the path to recovery.

  42. It’s pretty saddening that these types of things happen to us. Any type of addiction can have a long lasting effect on relationships and I hope that people that are struggling with drug addiction can overcome their addiction and live their best lives!

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