I have spent more time than I would have ever dreamed sitting in a group with parents of kids who abuse alcohol and other drugs over the last year. I am so very lucky because my daughter didn't veer off into the deep ditch of addiction but she sure could have and we both needed support.
I've learned a lot. Enough to know danger when I see it. My oldest daughter's sister-in-law has had a chronic drug problem for years. Finally, Becky and a couple other family members confronted their sister today with the bottom line that her 16 and 5 year old daughters would be taken from her if she didn't do enter rehab. They had an inpatient drug rehab facility picked out and her insurance would take care of it.
The s-i-l was furious. It didn't take long for the inpatient to become outpatient and the girls would stay with her when she was working (as a nurse!) and with others when she attended treatment on her days off.
Sigh.
Why is it so hard for us to stick to our guns even when we know children are being harmed or neglected? Why do we worry about someone keeping a job? Why are we so concerned that by naming the addiction that we expose them to others - as if everyone doesn't already know?
We are losing our teenagers to a drug culture that most parents don't even know exists. The bottles of Boone's Farm and bags of Mexican we remember from high school and college are so far from the prescription pills and doped up pot kids use now it makes your head spin.
Other important things I learned:
In general people who do not have someone close to them affected still mix up the words recovered and reformed.
Nutmeg is an hallucinogen and mimics LSD - most often mixed with marijuana.
Relapse is a part of recovery. Four times in rehab is not unusual.
Heroin is cheaper than oxycontin. The creepy addiction is necessary when the cool addiction becomes out of reach financially.
Water pills and lots of water can often prevent marijuana from showing up on a tox screen.
Drug use is progressive. So is the rotten behavior of the person using it.
Denial is a warm fuzzy place. I know. But it doesn't serve us and it sure doesn't serve the user.
Comments