A young girl at my university, may she rest in peace, recently passed away from a heroin overdose. This sincerely hits home, so I felt compelled to write about the topic of addiction this week. I try to share my personal experience and thoughts when appropriate. I hope that it will have some sort of positive impact on others, whether it helps them to reconsider the stereotype of addiction, or even to help a friend overcome the struggle/temptation of drugs. I also want the world to keep in mind that you can become addicted to virtually anything: alcohol, gambling, sex, caffeine, shopping... the list goes on. Although my end-goal in life is to help others in any way I can, I am mostly concerned with mental health, substance abuse, and overall emotional wellness. I have decided to share parts of my life more openly if it means helping or inspiring.

So, if I asked you to picture an addict, what image would pop into your head? Would it be a high-school or college dropout who decided that an education is just too much effort for them? Would it be someone who’s disrespectful and didn’t pay attention in the anti-drug programs of elementary school? Someone who is too lazy to take control of their life? Pathetic, irresponsible, and stupid... criminals, low-lives, and troublemakers? Contrary to the popular belief that it’s only criminals or “low-lives,” that’s not always the case. Picture this. A woman had a career, a family, and a baby daughter, yet suffered from the horrid effects of alcohol and drugs. At the age of 28, her life was unfortunately cut short by a heroin overdose. She was not a bad person, she was not ‘raised with the wrong morals,’ and she did not sit around and waste her life away. This woman was my mother.

There’s no specific label for who can fall into this trap. You may ask, don’t people choose to repeatedly use a drug? It would make sense that every time someone has an urge, they simply choose to give in because they want to. If they truthfully wanted to quit, they would just quit, right? I’m sure many people wish that it was really that simple. However, addiction is a disease. Specifically, a “brain disease that causes compulsive drug seeking and use, despite harmful consequences to the addicted individual and to those around him or her.” Drug addiction alters the way the brain functions. It is barely in the hands of the user after a few times — or even just once. It’s not simple to “just stop” if wanted, or unfortunately, if a life depended on it.

Many times hard drugs, such as heroin, are simply too powerful to overcome. Powerful enough to convince a woman that it is more important to be numb and than to recover and be a mother to her young daughter — who means the world to her. People around my mother believed she was too good for that path and couldn’t bring themselves to believe that she had been sucked in. I'm sure most addicts never planned on getting hooked on any sort of drug. It happens before you even know it. Often times, the people around you notice before you do. Even then, it's not always easy to detect. If you don’t have personal experience with family or a friend, or even yourself, how many times have you actually seen a real-life example of the effects of drug abuse? Personal experiences help others understand the seriousness of issues. More actions have to be taken to keep young people away... before it's too late.

I believe that the growing problem with drugs stem from the fact that too many teenagers and young adults have never truly learned about other negatives of drug abuse other than the obvious health effects. They haven’t seen how addiction can not only change your physical and mental health, but also your emotional, social, and even sexual health. There is no doubt that it changes who you are as a person. Action needs to be taken to help guide young adults in the right direction while they still have the chance. Too often I hear jokes being made about shooting up heroin and doing lines (of cocaine). Addictions are not to be taken lightly, and will take someone’s life — unfortunately, even while his or her heart is still beating.

Apparently, we hadn’t heard enough in high school because of the apparent rise of death by heroin overdose in my hometown in New Jersey. Action should be taken now before it is too late. The death count is rising every year. We need to educate young adults on how drugs, among other addictions, can rob them of their life — their personality. We need to make resources accessible where people are not afraid to seek help. The targets of this war against drugs are not always someone you would expect it from. Anyone can be at risk of falling into this trap and never escaping.