We are the oldest and youngest sister of a drug addict. I am Heidi (the oldest) and also writing on here is Ashley(the youngest). Our brother is the middle child and a drug addict. In this post I am going to give you a little background of our brother in post to come I will be sharing the struggles our family have gone through while my brother slowly dies of this disease called addiction.
When our brother was 13 or 14 he started dabbling with marijuana. Where we grew up outside of Baltimore this was prevalent. However, as time when on and he got older his addiction got worse. I should mention that he is been diagnosed bi-polar we have been told his addiction was a way to self medicate. He was not diagnosed until his first stint in rehab. As they say and is oh so true marijuana is the gateway drug. As that drug was not good enough any longer he began using whatever he could to get a high. I am not even sure to what extent his addiction was for about 10 years.
And of course this disease has caused him to be front page news in our community paper wanted for theft and drug charges. Which of course our last name is very uncommon and everyone knew that's our brother. We were mortified. But as expected nothing ever came of those charges just a slap on the wrist.
As he became addicted not only to the drugs but to the lifestyle. I am not sure what is so exciting about not having a place to sleep or not knowing where you next meal is coming from let alone steal.
We were all able to handle this pretty well until about 5 or 6 years ago (maybe longer its all a blur to me) a drug came into his life and turn our lives upside down and into a downward spiral... CRACK that's right our brother is a crackhead in the worst way.
Last night our family decided to take our lives back quit living in silence and learn to live again and let him go be with his addiction. We can no longer live it for him. These posts will be our raw and full of emotion I encourage you to share these with your friends and family to maybe help them. We started going to a support group and there was never a relief like I felt when I realized we weren't the only ones feeling the way we felt. YOU ARE NOT ALONE.
Please feel to email us anytime sistersofadrugaddict@gmail.com
Lots of love and healing,
Heidi
One of my greatest frustrations is the "slap on the wrist" from the justice system. I want a stiff consequence! Something that will discourage them from getting into trouble again. A stiff consequence imo would, in theory at least, save them money in the long run, because we all know the decisions that the courts make are really more about money, rather than saving a young drug addicts life.
ReplyDeletetotally agree Annette. Thank you for reading our blog. Im heading over to yours now!
ReplyDeleteHi, my little brother just told me that he is addicted to CAT and asked me to help him. He told me t take his money away and keep him away from his friend who give him the drugs. I told him that he has to accept the fact that he is addicted, and me doing those things will only help in the short term. So I told my parents. he is the youngest in the family, 7 years younger than me ( I have two other brothers). It broke all of our hearts. We all discussed it and he agreed to go rehab. I am so scared, I am so scared that it wont help him and that he will move on to worse drugs... I feel helpless. I want to help him. i am so scared he will end up like my cousin who is a heroin addict. I wish i could carry this burden for him, but I cant and it kills me. Im so scared, Im just so scared. All the drug counsellors say he has done the right thing coming forward and going to rehab, but i feel like drug addiction never gets better..and there is only one end to it. I have been reading your blog and I feel for you both. I wish this never happened in your family. Im so so sorry..
ReplyDelete