Ice Meth that is
As I have posted, my brother died a year and a half ago of pancreatic cancer. It was a very difficult time for all of us. My nephew (my sister's oldest child) had lived with him for a while in Texas before striking out on his own. He loved Texas and decided to remain in the same state as my brother while getting started. After my brother died however, he found himself down there alone (the rest of us live in Illinois). He had problems coping with the death of my brother and got mixed up with Ice, a form of Meth. He was addicted from his first use.
We suspected and feared he was involved in drugs but of course he denied it and there was little we could do. Eventually though it became more and more evident and a friend of his confirmed our fears. We hired an intervention specialist and on Thanksgiving Day, the first one without my brother, we did a drug intervention and flew him to California for treatment. He spent 90 days in rehab there, then wondered a bit in Chicago and Michigan.
My dad had been like a father figure to him and the two were very close. All this was extremely hard on my dad and just burdened him more though perhaps distracted him a bit from his grief. Eventually my nephew asked if he could stay with my parents while getting back on his feet. He's living there now under a lot of AA and NA inspired rules and doing fairly well. The success rate for staying off Meth is very very low but for now he is clean.
It's been hard to imagine that we'd be in this place. Who'd have thought we'd have a drug addict in the family. I'm not one given over much to image and appearances so it probably bothers me least of all. I'm not a very judgemental person and having worked in mental health I've learned to refute social stigmas. It's been harder on my sister's family though but they know the important thing is not what people think but that he is getting clean.
I thought I'd learned enough about AA and NA from working in Psych but now I've got it coming out my ears. Good luck to anyone dealing with drug addiction either themselves or in their families.
We suspected and feared he was involved in drugs but of course he denied it and there was little we could do. Eventually though it became more and more evident and a friend of his confirmed our fears. We hired an intervention specialist and on Thanksgiving Day, the first one without my brother, we did a drug intervention and flew him to California for treatment. He spent 90 days in rehab there, then wondered a bit in Chicago and Michigan.
My dad had been like a father figure to him and the two were very close. All this was extremely hard on my dad and just burdened him more though perhaps distracted him a bit from his grief. Eventually my nephew asked if he could stay with my parents while getting back on his feet. He's living there now under a lot of AA and NA inspired rules and doing fairly well. The success rate for staying off Meth is very very low but for now he is clean.
It's been hard to imagine that we'd be in this place. Who'd have thought we'd have a drug addict in the family. I'm not one given over much to image and appearances so it probably bothers me least of all. I'm not a very judgemental person and having worked in mental health I've learned to refute social stigmas. It's been harder on my sister's family though but they know the important thing is not what people think but that he is getting clean.
I thought I'd learned enough about AA and NA from working in Psych but now I've got it coming out my ears. Good luck to anyone dealing with drug addiction either themselves or in their families.
posted by SonSon at 7:34 AM
2 Comments:
We need to appreciate your nephew on his determination. Its very, very difficult for any one to come out of any addiction let alone Ice. I pray he stays away from it for ever.
Too true. Thanks
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