Growing up around drugs & alcohol - Essay Example

My father had problems because he consumed drugs (mostly marijuana but occasionally some other drugs) most of the time and he could not always keep his jobs. Because he was always "high," he had problems keeping a job because of absenteeism. My mother would often consume alcohol when her children were making too much noise. The two of them together created a dysfunctional pair that was not able to take care of their family. I remember many times when I did not have much to eat if my mother was on a bender and would not help.

One good thing is that my aunt Jenny, my mothers sister, would try to help us and tried to help my mother. My mother would always reject her help, but she would let her bring food for us. For this, I was always grateful. Because I was a young child, I was not sure what was happening in my home. Sometimes my mother was actually kind and loving to us. At other times, she was mean and cruel. I was never sure how she was going to be from moment to moment. My mother seemed to be very unhappy with her life and she took it out on her children.

Sometimes my parents would have a party or they would have other family over who were also into drugs or alcohol or both, and this would create more problems. As an example, since my father was always high, he thought it was funny to let someone grab one of us and blow marijuana into our faces. This would make us stagger around and eventually we would go to sleep. For some reason, they did not understand that this was child abuse and that it may cause problems for us later. In fact, one of my siblings has a neurological problem that I believe happened because of constantly inhaling second hand marijuana smoke.

Another problem for us growing up is that in school, it was difficult to understand what the teacher was saying, especially in more difficult classes like math or science. My mind was always wondering and I sometimes felt ill. My teachers were sometimes concerned with me because I would fall asleep