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Self-medicating became as routine as getting dressed in the mornings. Still, I constantly rationalized distorting my perceptions so I wouldn’t have to confront the painful emotions I was all too familiar with.

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Drug overdoses killed more Americans in 2016 than people killed in the Vietnam War which roughly killed over 58,000 US soldiers. How much bigger does addiction need to get in order for people to consider it important?

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You damaged me in more ways than I think you’ll ever understand, or will ever be able to admit to yourself.

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addicts never feel quite right in their own bodies. They struggle with feeling like two people. They feel feelings very deeply. They care a lot about what others think of them. They’re codependent. The drugs are a SYMPTOM of the disease of addiction, and for a while, help become a temporary escape from the disease. The drugs are NEVER the cause. It doesn’t work like that.

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See, the talk always seems to be about you. The focus is always on you. How are you doing? How are you feeling? Well, I have myself to ask how I am doing, how I’m feeling.

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I see now that our flaws and damages should not be ignored or desensitized but harnessed and embraced — that all of our quirks and qualities have a part to play in the greater scheme of our lives and should never be silenced or drowned out.

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Addiction is a disease, a cold-hearted monster who ruins lives and families and beautiful people every single day and literally gives zero fucks.

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They say that love is enough to conquer anything but heroin has proven to our family that love is most certainly not enough.