Drug addiction does not discriminate, it will ruin your life no matter who you are. It does not care if you're someone's mother, father, daughter, sister or brother. It does not care about what race you are or what religion you practice. If you’re poor or rich, young, or old guess, what? It still can and will ruin your life. I know for sure it ruined mine and I’ve never suffered from the disease first hand.

My generation is so misinformed about the use of drugs and addiction. Part of that comes from us all believing we are invincible. We drink four nights a week thinking nothing of it. We think it's totally normal, not knowing in 20 years from now our livers will be failing because we decided drinking a handle of vodka in two days was “LIT.” College students pop pills and snort whatever drug they can get their hands on for a temporary high. You can no longer go to a college party without seeing at least one person tripping on some type of drug. What is worse, is they're broadcasting it all over their social media because they want to show how cool and wild they are while they're away. Their excuse is that “they're young” and "they don’t give a f*ck."

They warn you of the effects of second hand smoke starting in elementary school. "Don’t smoke, you will get lung cancer,” also “stay away from smokers, second-hand smoke is just as dangerous as lighting a cigarette yourself.” However, they never warn you the second hand effects of loving a drug addict.

My mother was the most beautiful woman in the world. She had a heart of gold and would give the clothes off of her back to a person if they needed them. I remember throwing tantrums in the middle of stores because she couldn’t buy me what I wanted, but she’d count her pennies to buy it for me any ways. I had no idea at the age of seven that that meant she’d have to go without her fix, to make me happy. Addiction didn’t care that I needed my mother, or that my mother wasn’t strong enough to fight it off.

So many people think that if you're a drug addict it means that you’re some low life who has nothing better to do. It’s not true, and I’m personally begging my generation to realize that it could be you or maybe even your best friend, addicted the next time you decide to be “cool.” If that's not enough, think of all the people that love you being in pain because you're no longer the person they remember, or even worse you're no longer living. Drug overdose deaths hit record numbers in 2015, according to the CDC there were over 49,000 deaths due to opioid pain relievers and heroin just in the year alone.

No one wakes up and decides they want to become addicted to drugs, so please don’t think it won’t happen to you, because you’re sadly mistaken.