My story begins the summer before 7th grade—I was 11 years-old. My older brother, who was very popular in school and someone I looked up to, introduced me to opium. A week later, I began smoking marijuana. At first, I was only using drugs about three times a month. Then it became two times a week. By the middle of my sophomore year in high school, I was using daily and by my junior year, it was multiple times a day. After an injury that kept me from competitive gymnastics, I had to find something else to give my time to…something that could help me meet new friends.

So how did I become so addicted? It was actually very easy, thanks to my cell phone.

Yes, in 8th grade I got a cell phone. It was mine and it gave me freedom. I paid the bills in full each month so that my parents didn’t have an excuse to see the statement, and in turn, ask me about the listed phone numbers. I maintained a 3.85 GPA, coached gymnastics, was responsible and came from a normal, middle-class family. No one suspected, not even my parents.

Also, being a girl, it was relatively easy to get drugs. Often I didn’t even have to pay to get high. I dated drug dealers who offered me free drugs or gave me good deals. I kept all my drug dealers close by. In fact, I could press a couple of buttons on my cell phone, and there they were—in my address book. Whether I was at school or on vacation with my family, I always had a dealer within 10 minutes from me. With a press of a ‘detail’ button for each contact, I had all the information I needed—what types of drugs they sold, where they lived, and how to get a hold of them. Normally, I’d call or text message a dealer around 2:00 during the school day and by the end of classes, I was hooked up.

The first time my parents took my cell phone away to punish me, I figured out I had to change all my drug dealers’ names to something generic, like ‘John’ and ‘George.’ Even after my parents had taken my phone away from me a few times, they still didn’t know about my drug addiction. I’d throw out comments like, “Yeah, I tried marijuana last week with some friends, but didn’t like it. Don’t worry…I’ll never do that again.” That type of stuff threw them off, but not for long. They eventually caught on.

Sophomore year is when my mom and dad started suspecting. I was dating my brother’s best friend, who was well-known among the local police as a cocaine dealer. Well, the cops showed up at my parents’ front door and gave them the lowdown on my boyfriend. But it wasn’t until Junior year that I got caught at school with drug paraphernalia. I was sent to an alternative school, and eventually put into a drug treatment facility.

I’m now 17 and am 8 months into my journey back to recovery. The hardest thing for me is remembering what life was like before I started using drugs. If there is any advice I could give parents to help keep their kid safe from drugs is don’t assume that just because your kid is an A student, involved in sports and extracurricular activities, that they are exempt from becoming a druggie. Pay a least half the cell phone bill so you have an excuse to see it. And if your kid pitches a fit when you take the cell phone away or never invites her friends to the house, let those be red flags.