I'm on a roll with being open and candid, so here goes.
I am a crack addict.
I have been clean for almost 5 years.
That's basically the story. I take full responsibility for my actions while high and while sober - they are my own actions. However, my addiction took a toll on my mental health (you may have guessed) Crack cocaine depletes your serotonin system in a serious way. Serotonin = pleasure center. For those who do not know how hard-core a cocaine/crack cocaine addiction is (they ARE different) there was once a study with rats and cocaine. Basically, the rats got a little push pedal that delivered cocaine right to their brain. They continued to push the lever, because it felt gooooooooood. Cocaine stopped coming out after a while. These rats STARVED TO DEATH because they kept pushing the pedal. They dehydrated because they would not move away from the lever even when they weren't getting cocaine.
Anyways, enough neuro-biology. My main point of this is that this is a sensitive topic for me. I understand that "being crack-head" is some sort of sick joke in some circles and that it's somehow funny. These people (myself included) suffer from ADDICTION. I cannot stand the naivety and ignorance of people. Today, in one of my classes my professor made a joke referencing quitting crack and crack-heads - normally this doesn't bother me, BUT, I was in a terrible mood today, did not need to be reminded of it and then the class LAUGHED. I sat there with my head down and I was mad. The ignorance of people to sit there and LAUGH at something they know nothing about. To me, this is like a rape joke - it's not funny. You are probably offending a scary statistic of women and men by joking about it.
I can tell you right now (and my family will stand behind me on this) .... there was NOTHING funny about my addiction to crack. So, educate yourself and quit being so ignorant.
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