I can't speak for everyone, but I was a bit like this when I was younger. Stress out about a test coming up, ignore it and drink too much. Wake up hungover and late for work, speed to get there, get a ticket. Get fired for being late, no money to pay the ticket, get in more of a mess...and on and on.

For me it was just getting super overwhelmed at the prospect of handling small problems, and deciding to ignore them. Which, of course, just spirals into a bigger problem. And you can't possibly admit that if you had just done the right thing in the beginning that you wouldn't be here. So you blame everything/everyone else along the way.

It took a big wake up call for me to start just being responsible and being proactive about everything that was in my power to control. Lots of baby steps. But dealing with your problems head on, envisioning future consequences and admitting when you messed up is a whole hell of a lot better than being in jail, sent to collections or homeless. It just takes time and a lot of eating crow to change.