Forrest Poindexter, a CSUN junior English major and former A.S. senator, suffers from bipolar disorder. D.C. It is a little after three in the morning. Roaches are roaming the floors of this family's home and glass is heard shattering against the kitchen walls.
Voices are louder than the blaring music.
The youngest children remain in bed, while the two older children wait patiently for the sign that their mother has passed out. They wait, wondering if their mother plans to leave them alone in order to go out and purchase more medicine, or fight with anyone she meets while roaming the streets in another one of her drunken episodes. Living in a house where your parents are both alcoholics, I don't think anyone who hasn't experienced this can truly understand the pain and horror we were having to go through. We were having to help our parents, clean up after our parents and having to watch our parents. Poindexter, now 27, said that he cannot remember a time when his mother didn't drink.