#* canon.

not a happy thing to be birthed with, but since today is anne’s birthday, let’s talk about this. anne was born with NAS, commonly known as  neonatal abstinence syndrome.  neonatal abstinence syndrome is described as  ‘a group of problems that occur in a newborn who was exposed to addictive opiate drugs while in the mother’s womb’.  anne, specifically, was born addicted to  heroin.  the symptoms of NAS depend on: the type of drug the mother used, how the body breaks down and clears the drug  (  influenced by genetic factors  ), how much of the drug she was taking, how long she used the drug, whether the baby was born full-term or premature. symptoms begin within one to three days after birth, but can take up to a week to appear. anne’s symptoms started around the  second day. 

anne’s symptoms were:  excessive crying, high-pitched crying, irritability, problems breastfeeding, tremors, diarrhea, vomiting, seizures. now, less is known about the  long term  effects of heroin use in utero, but some studies show that exposure is associated with the following later in life:  behavioral disorders, difficulties with concentration and attention, hyperactivity, aggressiveness, lack of social inhibition. as far as anne is concerned, she can be a bit  hyperactive, mostly. physically, she has  some  vision problems, and while she owns a pair of glasses, they’re mostly for reading ; eventually she’ll make her way up to needing glasses even in normal day tasks. it is also believed by her doctors that her NAS could be the cause for her gastrointestinal problems. she struggles with  IBS  (  irritable bowel syndrome  ). 

along with these ailments, when anne was young, her birth mother regained custody. her birth mother was still very much into drugs, and anne wound up contracting  hepatitis C  from a needle that was lying around on the coffee table. she is on medication, goes through the proper treatments.