It is a known fact that sometimes, families can even sort of encourage the individual to continue on with his substance abuse addiction. How so? What are they doing that actually acts to the detriment of the individual. Sometimes this happens by the parents using drugs. It also happens by parents who are too busy with their careers to spend any quality time with their children, or parents that are divorced and just don’t care. The kids in most cases turn to the streets to raise them, and depend on their friends for all their needs.

What makes it even harder for someone with a drug dependent family is that some families who have a history of Long Term Drug Abuse wouldn’t feel comfortable with someone in their family that is straight. And I’d even go as far as to say that the family wouldn’t know how to deal with it. They might for example say something like, “It’s cool, one hit won’t kill you”. But it will distract them and no one can do one hit and not want to keep going and get high.

In some circumstances in order for someone to go completely clean they have to be permanently removed from that environment. That’s not to say that they can’t visit their parents or family on occasion, but to live in an environment like that is very self destructive in only inviting problems that can affect the child the rest of their lives and shut the doors to all the future opportunities that would normally be open to them. If they don’t move out of it and do something more positive with their lives, they’ll basically never get anywhere.

If a child or teenager comes from this environment, I have some advice. Yes you can get through this and move on with your life. But you need to remain laser focused to do this. Concentrate on a strict routine that includes school, doing your homework and plans to get a good trade once you finish school so you can earn yourself a decent living. The other option is to do whatever it takes to graduate from high school, stay out of trouble then join the military. The Marines took me away from all the idiots I grew up with that ended up doing self destructive things after they graduated.

And if you do join the military, not only will they pay for a lot of your college when you leave, but they will pay for 75% of it while you are enlisted. Check out Base Education and start taking General Education classes on base while you are still in. If you can take enough classes, you can get a Bachelors Degree while you are still serving and even become a Commissioned Officer. Don’t let an abusive family destroy your dreams for a solid future, but remember, you may have to fight hard for it. But if you keep fighting for it and keep resisting the drugs, things will eventually work out in your favor. I’ve seen it myself with a friend I’ve served with who had nothing but the right mindset, and now he works for the LAPD and just retired on about 40k a year.