Larry copeland usa today biography for kids
Worked at Self-Employed · Former Reporter, Atlanta Bureau at USA TODAY · Former Reporter at The Philadelphia Inquirer · Former Reporter at The....
Substance abuse treatment often impossible to find
When she was a young girl, Joan Ayala says she was sexually and physically abused by her grandfather, usually in his basement while her grandmother slept upstairs.
Life expectancy in the USA rose in to years – a record high.
Her family was no help, ripped apart as they were by alcoholism and mental illness.
Our hearts break when we hear stories such as Ayala's.
People have far less sympathy for abused children who grow up and, like Ayala, turn to drugs or alcohol in an effort to dull their pain or feel like a "normal" person.
The abuse she'd endured led her to use alcohol, marijuana and LSD at age 14. She dropped out of school soon after and began using cocaine at age 22, she says, because the high helped her "imitate," if not truly experience, the emotions of others her age.
By 26, she was a hard-core cocaine addict. Later, she began using methamphetamine.
The nation turns away from such damaged souls, providing little help to people whose mental illness and addiction are closely inter