The Most Dangerous Lies Are the Ones You Tell Yourself

 

When people think about addiction, they often picture the obvious lies—the excuses you make to family, the stories you tell to employers, the promises you break to friends. But the most dangerous lies aren’t the ones told out loud. They’re the ones whispered inside your own head, the ones you start to believe because the truth hurts too much to face.

In From Marching Band to the Glass Rose, Kristin Stanton candidly shares how self-deception paved her road from small-town innocence to the depths of addiction and prostitution.

She didn’t wake up one day and decide to become a heroin addict, a crack user, or a sex worker. It happened gradually, one rationalization at a time.

“I can quit whenever I want.”

“I’m still in control.”

“This isn’t who I really am.”

Those lies worked—until they didn’t.

Addiction’s Favorite Lie: “It’s Just One More Time”

Kristin describes how every high came with a promise to stop tomorrow. But tomorrow never came. Addiction convinces you that you’re still in charge, even as it steals every choice you thought you had. The truth is, once the cycle begins, the drug is making the decisions.

By the time she realized that, she was already living day to day, with no plan beyond the next fix.

The Lie of Control in Survival Sex Work

When Kristin first entered prostitution, she told herself it was exciting, maybe even empowering. She liked sex, so why not profit from it? It sounded better than calling it what it really was: survival.

The truth was devastating. Every client, every night, every degrading act chipped away at her self-worth. “To live this life,” she writes, “you have to let part of your soul die.” The lie of control kept her going, but it also kept her trapped.

Self-Awareness: When the Lies Finally Break

What makes Kristin’s memoir so powerful is her refusal to keep lying to herself. She admits to stealing, cheating, and hurting the people who loved her most. She owns the choices she made and the pain she caused. That brutal honesty is rare—and it’s why her story resonates.

The lies nearly killed her. Telling herself the truth saved her.

From Marching Band to the Glass Rose isn’t a glamorous redemption tale. It’s a raw, unfiltered look at what really happens when addiction and desperation take over—and what it costs to come back.

Kristin shares her journals not to shock or sensationalize, but to show others how quickly those small lies add up to a life you no longer recognize. Her message is simple: If reading her story makes one person stop lying to themselves, then it was worth it.

Read Kristin Stanton’s journey in From Marching Band to the Glass Rose -The Journals of Kristin Stanton. Because the most dangerous lies are the ones you tell yourself—and the hardest truths are the ones that set you free.