Go Ask Alice

The first entries in my diary were filled with the ordinary worries of a fifteen-year-old girl: my weight, my crush on Roger, the struggle to talk to my parents, and the overwhelming feeling of not quite fitting in. My father, a college professor, decided we would move to a new city, and a small part of me hoped this change would bring a fresh start. But the move only intensified the loneliness, a gnawing ache that settled deep inside me. My younger siblings seemed to adapt effortlessly, highlighting my own isolation, and my relationship with my mother became strained, her criticisms of my appearance only fueling my insecurities.

That summer, staying with my grandparents, everything changed. At a party, someone slipped LSD into my soda. I didn't know what was happening, only that the world suddenly shimmered with an unsettling, vivid intensity. This accidental trip, initially pleasurable, opened a door to a new, dangerous curiosity. I began to seek out more, experimenting with marijuana and other drugs, finding a fleeting sense of acceptance and escape in a world that felt otherwise indifferent.

My new friends, Chris and her boyfriend Ted, along with his roommate Richie, drew me deeper into their world. Chris and I bonded over our shared dissatisfaction with our families and the establishment. We started selling drugs to make money, and I fell for Richie, despite my growing unease about the path I was on. The drugs offered a temporary illusion of connection, a way to quiet the constant hum of loneliness. But the highs were always followed by crushing lows, and the fear of pregnancy and the reality of my choices began to weigh heavily.

The spiral quickened. After a terrifying incident where I sold LSD to elementary school children, a moment that shook me to my core, I fled with Chris to San Francisco. But even there, the escape was temporary. The police caught Chris and me smoking, and suddenly I was on probation, facing the stern gaze of my parents and the cold pronouncements of a psychiatrist. The rules tightened, but the addiction held me captive. High on amphetamines, I ran away again, a desperate impulse to outrun myself.

My journey became a blur of anonymous towns and fleeting encounters: Denver, Coos Bay, Southern California. I lived on the streets, prostituting myself for drugs, witnessing the deaths of other young runaways, and feeling a chilling envy for their final escape. There were moments of clarity, sparks of a desire to help others like me, to become a child psychologist. I even talked to a priest, which led to my parents finding me, ready to bring me home.

Returning home, I desperately tried to rebuild my life. I found solace in my family, especially after the deaths of my grandparents, and even began a new relationship with Joel, a kind freshman who treated me with respect. For a time, I believed I could stay clean, that I could leave the drugs behind. But the pull of my old life, the insidious whispers of temptation, proved too strong. A malicious act by a former friend, who dosed me unknowingly with LSD, sent me into a horrifying trip that left me in a psychiatric institution, hallucinating worms and maggots consuming my body.

After my release, I felt a renewed sense of purpose. I was stable, detoxed, and committed to sobriety. My diary, my truest confidante through all the turmoil, became a record of my struggle and my newfound resolve. I felt stronger, ready to face the world, to talk to people, to live a life free from the suffocating grip of addiction. I even decided to stop writing in the diary, believing I no longer needed it, that I could finally share myself with others.

But the reprieve was tragically short-lived. Three weeks after I put down my diary, my parents found me. I was gone, taken by an overdose. Whether it was accidental or a final, desperate act, I don't know. The diary, a testament to my raw, unvarnished journey through the depths of addiction and the fleeting glimpses of hope, ended without another entry, leaving only the stark, heartbreaking truth of a life consumed.