Mariah S.

My life growing up was very chaotic and dysfunctional. My dad was never around and when he was he and my mom were constantly fighting. Abuse was a regular thing at home. My mom was too consumed in her addiction to pay attention to me and my siblings. My addiction began due to lack of supervision. I fell into the crowd. My drug use started at 12 with weed. By age 14 I was smoking meth and drinking every weekend. At first I started using because everyone around me used and it was fun. When things were going wrong, I started using drugs as a way to escape from the world. Drugs helped me forget all the bad feelings. Once I came down everything was so hard to deal with, so I just wanted to stay high. I came to Teen Challenge because I was tired of being broken. I didn’t want my childhood trauma affecting me as a parent or my relationship with my son. I was ready to surrender to God and allow his will to be done in my life. While here I hope to let go of everything and allow the Lord to gain control. I want to establish a firm foundation in Him.