[narrator reading onscreen text] <i> My name is Dallas.</i> Oh, I feel like Dallas is just
one of the greatest people ever. [chuckles] She is so funny. <i> She's beautiful.</i> Yep. [Dallas]<i> I know I'm young,
and I should be, like, thriving</i> <i> and enjoying my life.</i> <i> But I feel like I'm trying
so</i> [beep]<i> hard</i> to squeeze a little bit
of joy out of whatever I can. [clears throat] I am an addict,
as in drug addict, and my drug of choice is heroin. Dallas has stolen so many
things, so many things. I can't even put together
all the stuff she's stolen. [Lisa]<i> At one point,
when I was sleeping,</i> she came into my place and took
the debit card out of my purse and went and took out $1,000. [Tom]<i> She needs help.</i> She needs to be helped. [Lisa]<i> When Dallas was born,
it was definitely</i> one of the happiest moments
of my life. [Tom]<i> Yeah, I mean,
it was amazing.</i> You couldn't help but cry.
You're so happy. I was so happy. [Tom]<i> We had our rough times.</i> <i> We were young and growing,</i> <i> and we were recovering
alcoholic addicts,</i> learning to live life
with children. We struggled really bad
financially. It was really hard on us,
and got to the point <i> that I just no longer wanted
to live like I was living.</i> At that time,
Dallas just did really well. <i> She was a really good student.</i> <i> The teachers just loved her.</i> She loved school. She is extremely smart. <i> She's very, very,
very, very smart.</i> <i> Homework for her
was quite easy.</i> My second husband,
in the very beginning, treated me really well. <i> And then right after
we had Leah,</i> <i> that's when things
started to change.</i> He was emotionally, mentally
abusive to myself and my kids. [Dallas]<i> My stepdad
treated me horribly.</i> He would get my face,
get my face like really close <i> and lean over me
and like scream,</i> red, spitting in your face,
just disgusting. He had an extremely violent,
violent nature. <i>But Lisa didn't stand up to him
on behalf of her children</i> the way that I felt
that she should. [man 1]<i> Lisa should have tried
to protect Dallas</i> because she knew
what was happening. I felt really helpless. <i> I was real isolated
at that point.</i> [Dallas]<i> She was depressed.</i> <i> She was locked in her room
for days at a time,</i> bawling, at night, crying, and just all a bunch
of [beep] chaos. I cried a lot and I also leaned
on Dallas a lot. [Dallas]<i> She was so lonely.</i> <i> My mom turned to me
for comfort.</i> I remember her asking me
to stay at home from school. She was always pulling me
out of school. <i> And like me driving in the car
with her</i> <i> at three in the morning</i> <i> she's crying and talking
to me about stuff.</i> And I'm like, "Mm-hmm, mm-hmm." I'm tired and I got school
the next day, but she wants to go to a movie
because she wants to feel better <i> and you want to be there
for your mom.</i> [woman 1]<i> Lisa and Dallas had</i> <i> more of a girlfriend
relationship,</i> not a strong mother
relationship. [man 1]<i> Lisa relied on Dallas
too much for support.</i> The burden on Dallas
was terrible. Terrible. I don't think Dallas had
anybody to rely on at that time. <i> She became that caretaker,
having to be there for her mom.</i> I'm sure she felt very alone. [Lisa]<i> Dallas found me
in the bathroom.</i> [Dallas]<i> I just remember
being, like,</i> "Why would you do this to me?" I'm just going, "What the [beep]
is wrong with you?" Like, I was supposed to walk in
on my mother [beep] dead on my bathroom floor, and what? Raise Josh and Leah
from that point? If I remember right, I think
she was a little bit angry. Nothing that Lisa did
makes a lot of sense to me. <i> I've never understood her.</i> [Dallas]<i> She was being
so selfish</i> that she made me feel
so [beep] angry, like, just livid. [woman 1]<i> It was a terrific
blow to Dallas.</i> And then she withdrew. Obviously,
she couldn't take anymore, <i> and she just decided</i> <i> that she was going to live
her life</i> <i> the way she wanted to.</i> One day, I just couldn't [beep],
I couldn't do it anymore. [Tom]<i> I thought that
if we kicked her out</i> and made her live life and do the things
she needed to do, that she would get clean and sober,
and I was wrong. Dallas and I have
a very close relationship. -Can I talk to you for a second?
-Yeah. [Lisa]<i> I'm not judgmental
towards Dallas at all</i> around the way she's living. So I'm all like, ugh. $20? -Hi, Mom. Thanks.
-You're welcome, honey. [Dallas] OK. I'll be right back. -OK. Be right back.
-I'll be right back. [Leah]<i> If Dallas calls my mom
and wants money,</i> my mom will literally
drive wherever she is and give her money. Where are you going now? Do you want to just do it
in the car? [Dallas laughs]
That's [beep] crazy. -What?
-You're crazy, Mom. [Lisa]<i> I offered for her
to use in the car</i> because I feel like it's safer
for her to use in the car than to go off wherever
she's going to do it, and she might get caught
or something. [Jason]<i> She loves me that much</i> that she's willing to share
her drugs, and what she has to go through
to get these drugs is terrible, but this is the life
that we live right now. "Dear Dallas, I love you,
but I'm worried. I need you to know that
as much as I care about you, if you continue to use heroin
I will not talk or hang out with you anymore." "My amends to you is less about
saying I'm sorry, but about becoming the mom
that you really need." Are you going to treatment
today? -OK.
-OK? All right, everybody.
She said OK. [Dallas laughing] OK. I've been sober for 72 days,
and it feels really good. <i>Two months ago, I didn't really
let myself feel anything,</i> so I guess I just had to deal
with all my feelings and dealing with all the stuff
that's just piling up, so that's been helpful. Hard, but helpful. Dallas has been working
on boundaries with her mom. She's been working on detaching
in a healthy way, <i> figuring out who are
safe people</i> <i> for her to have in her life
and who maybe aren't.</i> <i>It's really hard, like, setting
boundaries with my mom,</i> but I did it, and... And I've got amazing results. <i> This is a huge opportunity
for me</i> <i> to actually do
something different</i> and to never have to live
like that again or just be unhappy like that.
