“What do you want to be when you grow up? I want to be a dancer; nobody ever says that they want to be a junky when they grow up. Don’t let drug get in the way of your dreams”. I remember watching this commercial as child and that was my first encounter with what addiction was. The person that they always showed was homeless, dirty, and lazy. Even now there is the stereotype of the “loser” living in their parent’s basement because they cannot get a job or do not want to make anything of themselves. Another stereotype is the “deadbeats” who would rather waste all their money on their addiction instead of caring for themselves or others. There is a show on TV called “Intervention” which shows people struggling with some form of addiction. Often the mothers are crying because the addict would rather get high rather than receive the help that they need.

I have had several friends experience highs and lows in the battle with their own addictions. One of my friends told me that the day that stops smoking weed would be the day that she would commit suicide because the weed was filling an empty void in her life. She told me that smoking weed was the only thing in her life that she could control. While another friend has been smoking weed ever since he was twelve years old and he has tried to quit numerous times and has relapsed several times. Right before he is going to quit he will wake up early in morning shaking and feeling uncontrolled anxiety because his body has been deprived of the weed. Why they started their addictions in the first place I have no idea, but I do not see them quitting anytime soon.

Besides drugs/alcohol there are other addictions that are not considered addictions by society like food, relationships, sex, and or abuse. These addictions are not scrutinized because they are more acceptable. I have personally experienced who individuals can be addicted to disruptive relationships. Several of my sorority sisters have return to bad abusive relationships, both emotional as well as physical, because they believed that they could not get anybody better. She believed that she would never be able to get anybody else. The other reason that she continued to date him was that she lost her virginity to him and she was raised that if you sleep with someone you had to marry him. Another one of my sisters remained with her abusive boyfriend for many years, despite talks from her sister, because she loved him. She would come to meeting with burses all down her arm and she would be so proud of them that she would show them off like a badge of courage. From my psychology background I know that the circle of abuse does not just happen overnight it has to start prior. I believe that she was abused by her father and abuse is the only way that she can interrupt love.

Addiction can link to feminism because there is a deeper reasoning on why individuals are addicted to drugs, food, caffeine, relationships, and sex. As a feminist I believe that there is a problem in our society and there needs to be change. There is still a stigma that surrounds addiction for women. Women are look at as loving maternal creatures that would put their own families above themselves and it is impossible to think that a woman could be addicting. When a woman chooses their addiction over their family they are criticized in the community as a bad mother. In order for these women to receive the help that they desperately need there needs to be more understanding and change in society. In a way we are all addicted to something it just depends on how the individual handles that addiction.