Growing Pains

MY FIRST encounter with my addictive personality came on my fifteenth birthday. I was in the hospital; the diagnosis was "nervous condition"; the treatment was morphine and tranquilizers. Very quickly I learned to produce agonizing headaches to keep those needles and pills coming. But my physician soon caught on. I was withdrawn from the drugs and sent home with a bottle of sugar pills. I had overheard the plot, and I wondered why on earth the doctor would do such a thing.