The Boy Who Lost Himself To Drugs -

“I don’t know who is looking back at me in the mirror anymore,” Michael says, his voice a dry rasp. “I look for the kid I used to be, but he’s gone. I traded him for a high that doesn't even feel good anymore.”

“Addiction is a parasitic entity,” says Dr. Aris Thorne, a clinical psychiatrist specializing in adolescent substance abuse. “It feeds on the host’s personality. The drug becomes the primary relationship in the addict’s life. Every other relationship—parents, siblings, friends—is viewed through a transactional lens. Does this person help me get the drug, or do they stop me? If they stop me, they are the enemy.” the boy who lost himself to drugs

People will say he chose this. They will point to the first joint, the first pill, the first needle. But choice is a luxury that evaporates long before the needle ever touches skin. Addiction is not a moral failure. It is a slow, systematic demolition of a human being, brick by brick, until nothing remains but the wreckage. “I don’t know who is looking back at