Personal Narrative: My Tattoos

Nearly everyone knows someone that has used or sold drugs. Drugs affect you in many different ways. My tattoo is a band-aid in the crease of my elbow, remembering one of my family members, Devin, time of addiction. When he was addicted, I noticed many different personality changes. After I realized that they were addicted also changed my view of them. He also had two kids, and they way it affected them had the greatest impact on me. They had to stay with my parents a lot, and basically had to live with me.
To begin with, drug use impacted how I viewed him as a person. He started to spend a decreased amount of time with my family, he ultimately began to isolate himself. In the beginning I thought that he was working more often and did not have time to spend time with us anymore. It took me a while to figure out why he was being so strange. It never occurred to me that drugs were the problem until he would wear long sleeved shirts while working inside a factory. Knowing that his entire life was being controlled by a substance made me think that he was weak and vulnerable. He let it make his every decision and let it overpower him, which made me question him as a person entirely.
Secondly, Devin acted very differently than he does when he is clean. He started to do anything in an attempt to get money to buy the

substances with. The main thing he started to do was steal from other family members. On one occasion, a hundred and fifty dollars, a taser, a camera, and many other items were stolen from my aunts house. We eventually found out that he would take these items and pawn them for money. Another incident was when my great grandma broke her shoulder, he went around her house looking for the pain pills. When this happened, I did not fully accept the idea of his addiction, I did not want it to be true. But after this happened, there was no doubt in my mind about his addiction.
Lastly, when he was addicted, it affected his two kids the most out of anyone in the family.

Spending his time in and out of jail took a toll on his relationship with his son and daughter. When he was in jail, we only allowed him to talk to them over the phone. The ultimatum was that it was better for them not to see him through the glass, and only tell them that he was on a ‘vacation.’ His ex-wife has full custody over his kids, and got a promotion and is moving them to Florida. He told me he never imagined the effects of his addiction would be this long-term. Sometimes I beleive him more than I should, I never know if he is completely clean or

not.
In conclusion, drugs don’t only affect you, but the people around you. Letting a single substance control you changed you in many ways, and changes how people see you as a person. Long-term effects also come into play, but some do not realize that until it is too late to turn back. Watching Devin suffer through addiction changed my mind about multiple things. It changed my view of him, and made me never want to get involved with drugs in my lifetime.