Difficult Life Decisions

Without sounding like an asshole...

Jail will not help an addict get clean. At best, if it's a small county jail, she won't have access to her drug of choice and she'll come out white-knuckling it.

If the goal is to truly get your sister clean, your family needs to start making plans to put her in rehab as soon as she gets out of jail.

Heroin is a nearly impossible drug to kick, and you have to understand that it's normal to go to rehab and then relapse. She needs to try again, and then regularly attend NA meetings when she gets out.

There's no point in second-guessing what you did now, but if your goal is to get her clean, rehab is the best answer, whether it has failed before or not.

Good luck to you and your sister.

 

She been to rehab. A lot. Six or seven times, by my count. She goes to detox for a week, comes out on meds (not methadone, the other stuff which my pharmacist girlfriend tells me is good) is clean, then gets back on it.
My hope is that her getting arrested will actually wake her up.
Thanks to everyone for all your kind words. It's getting a little dusty here at the office ...

 

Tough love, man.


Rehab won't help until your sister hits rock bottom - passing out in the bathroom ain't even close - and decides she wants help.

When you are faced with these questions, ask yourself would you rather she be in jail or in the ground?

Coming from someone whose brother in is the ground as a result of his problems, jail ain't such a bad option.


Good luck.

 

I know you may have doubts, but consider the effects of doing nothing. That should ease your mind.

 

Lord, Rhody, I have to stop feeling sorry for myself.

Sometimes tough love is the only love.

I wish you all the best.

 

I don't agree with this notion. How can there be no in-between? If you're not a teetotaler and you're not drunk or high all the time, isn't that in between? My take is that there are degrees of being a drinker or drug user.

 

I think he means that when you're an addict, there's no in-between. You don't go from being an addict to being perfectly capable of being a casual drinker or drug user. It's all or nothing.

 

Thanks, Pallister. That's exactly what I was trying to say. There are no degrees of acceptable recreational drug use for a junkie.

 

The thing is, even if one doesn't buy the strict 12-step line that addicts are addicts and can't ever "use" normally, smoking weed or drinking will likely lower someone's inhibitions to the point where they will return to their drug of choice.

So whether you agree with jg, or even if you're just practical, it isn't a good idea for someone who is addicted to a physically addictive substance like heroin to use mind altering chemicals, even something that isn't physically addictive like weed.

 

Also, when an addict gets out of rehab and decides to "just have a couple drinks" or "just get high this one time," it inevitably leads them back to their addictive behavior and it's almost always worse than it was before.

 

Rhody, your story touched me. My prayers to you and her, and know that you did the right thing.


This Little River Band song off the "Time Exposure" albums sums up your plight pretty well.

 

Truer words have never been written here.