My son overdosed Friday night. He is 34 years old and is an addict. He survived because his girlfriend, who does not use drugs at all, found him unconscious after arising out of bed to check on what she thought was a blown circuit breaker. She called 911 and an EMT revived him.
He has been addict for nearly a decade. It cost him a marriage and the trust of his mother and father. Meanwhile we have been raising his daughter for over a year and a half now. We are delighted to do so, as one can only imagine we would feel better if our son was capable of doing so. However we know better and have protected our her.
We were glad to see our son go through a six-month in-residence recovery program. He graduated last spring. It was our hope that he would stay strong and stay clean. We realize it is not uncommon for an addict to relapse, and we also know That it is up to the addict to identify their problem and to be vigilant in pursuing steps to recovery.
His girlfriend is in shock and says she has PTSD from the experience of him being overdosed and virtually dead. She said she has no idea how to handle anything like this, and were shocked to discover that he was using drugs again. I suggested she find a nar-anon-meeting and also gave her the link to this chat-forum as well.
My wife and I have many years under our belt with this, in addition to an alcoholic daughter. She had abandoned her children. This weekend I again admitted her to an inpatient program for alcoholics. Meanwhile we also assist her ex with her children, as we have done each of the past two weekends.
It has been a long and painful road, yet we find great joy in the wonderful grand children that we have. We often look at ourselves and wonder will the nightmare ever end, the relapses, the neglect of parenting, theft, poverty, despair… We can only pray to God for strength and wisdom, as well as to look to others who share such experiences. Thank you for listening.
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