A Message to Families For The Holidays-Waiting is Not an Option
If you are the family member of an addict and are struggling with the idea of getting your loved one help, especially during this holiday season when so much is going on, I hope this message finds you.
This message will contain hope, but it is also accompanied with the harsh reality that has evolved with our country’s addiction problem of epidemic proportions. For a lot of families who decided to play the waiting game, the joys of the holiday season have turned into a mournful time of grief and regret. I know too many families who no longer have hope to cling to this year, and there is only one circumstance that brings about a finality in which all hope is lost. If you are reading this and that doesn’t apply to you, that is why the urgency must be found.
There is a stress created like none other when dealing with addiction. It represents fear. For the addict that fear comes in many forms. Whether it be the fear of withdrawal, the fear of loss, the fear of consequences, the fear of facing said consequences, the fear this will never end, or the fear of dying alone in the world. If you have ever wondered why the addict in your life can be so difficult to be around, that’s a big reason why. However, I guess that it pales in comparison to the fear that accompanies so many that love an addict and have fallen into a pit of helplessness and despair. I’m guessing there is nothing quite comparable to laying your head on your pillow every night terrified that this will be the night your phone rings at 3:00 am with the dreaded news that drugs have claimed yet another life, except this time it’s not someone else’s child, spouse, brother, sister, mother or father.
That is the reality of the world we live in today. If addiction continues to go unchecked there are a multitude of things that will inevitably continue to go south. Despite what the addict in your life will try to convince you of, things don’t get magically better during periods of addiction without the proper attention and care. They get worse. And when it feels like things couldn’t get any worse than they already have, they get worse again. Going back to my previous point, there is only one way in which things can’t continue to get any worse, and that is death. Accidental overdoses are sweeping the country at this very moment. Reckless behaviors with dangerous drugs are being taken right now with the addict’s mentality that ‘it won’t be me’. But that is the mentality of a mind clouded in drug abuse.
This message is for those people whose minds are not clouded by drugs. This message is for those who can see past all the hurt feelings, damages, and reprehensible actions that are driven by a person’s addiction. This message is for the loved one who knows hope remains because life remains. This message is for the person who can see clearly enough to say, “it won’t be me,” not by chance, but by action, because the time is now. There is no more waiting for the knock of death’s door, no more waiting for the phone call you have spent far too much time in constant fear of. Cast aside the fear. Find your hope again and get your loved one some help. The time is and will always be right now because tomorrow is never guaranteed.
Justin P—Narconon Suncoast Graduate
