Justin, 32, says that he has addictions to drugs, alcohol, sex and “anything I could almost latch on to.” He blames his mother, who got pregnant with him when she was 17, and admits that she smoked marijuana in front of him, let him drink at 16, dated numerous men (some of whom treated both of them badly), and was often an absentee parent. “I am the way I am because of my mother and my childhood,” he declares.
But Justin says he wants a better future for himself and his 4-year-old daughter, so he turns to Dr. Phil for help to change his legacy.
In the video above, Dr. Phil compares Justin’s history with his mother’s and finds many similarities. “Legacies get passed on from generation to generation,” he says. “There’s a lot about your mother that you resent, yet you mimic her a lot in your life, right?”
Justin agrees.
“You have zero accountability for what happened to you as a child. You have zero accountability for being born to parents who had higher priorities, that had pathology. You have zero accountability for that. But you have 100 percent responsibility for what choices you make now as an adult,” Dr. Phil tells him. “That hill in front of you may be very steep, but it is still yours to climb. If she is responsible for creating damage in you … fair or unfair, it is your job to clean it up.”
