Information Related to "The Hole in Your Heart"
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Their stories are real, but some of the names have been changed.
• John told his story at a drug rehabilitation center. His parents were divorced and his father had been a cocaine addict. His mother worked all the time, but he was close to his grandfather—till his grandfather died when John was 14.
"I was angry that he was taken away. I didn't understand, I was lonely. I was a latchkey kid. I just started doing stuff because I was so angry, I think" (quoted by Barbara Strauch, The Primal Teen, 2003, p. 183).
• Between the ages of 15 and 17, Jo's gambling began to take up all her time and attention, leading her to skip school and then drop out at 16. "I remember blowing all my wages in a few hours one Friday night. I got really upset and depressed. It's like drugs, you tell yourself 'never again' but deep down you know that as soon as the next pay cheque comes in, you'll be [gambling again]" ( www.camh.net/egambling/issue8/clinic/griffiths/ ).
• Debbie, 20, described the time that led her to finally call a drug treatment center. "I was in a café, shaking, lonely and sweating profusely. I needed a fix!
"I went further downhill. I was living in a one-roomed, dirty bedsit [apartment] where men visited me so that I could scrape a living and afford my drugs. My life was going nowhere. My body was in ruins" (www.drugsline.org).
• "A girl in our town committed suicide recently. She did well in school and came from a family with plenty of money" (quoted by Miriam Kaufman, Overcoming Teen Depression, 2001, p. 194).
Some look at these life stories and say, "How could they do those things?" But I've felt that bottomless pit of pain, confusion and hopelessness, and more often my question is, "In this insane and sadistic world, how does anyone avoid a breakdown or self-destructing?"
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