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I don't know where to begin. My oldest daughter, 25 years old, still lives here. That is when we see her. About a year ago, she was at the wrong place at the wrong time and was involved in a drug bust. 5 felony charges later due to different pills and parafanalia. We bailed her out. She has to go to drug classes and pee in a cup 4 days a week and is on probation. She is still on drugs, opiates are her drug of choice but lately I am seeing signs of possible crystal meth, coke or crack, she won't admit. she lies at the classes and all the AA N/A meetings and says she is sober and she uses other peoples clean urine. I don't know how she passes this off but she does. I know she is still using and it's getting worse. She totalled her car almost 3 weeks ago. I thought that would be a wake up call because they said they didn't know how she survived. But she walked away from it with cuts from the glass and bruising from the airbag. The only thing I can think of doing is getting a court order for a Marchment Act and they will put her in rehab. But I don't know how that will affect her probation. If they will put her back in jail?? Please if anyone can help me or give any advice, I would really appreciate it. I am so confused. I am afraid she will hate me . I just don't want to see her die. Please any opinions, suggestions,stories of similar problems. All posts or emails will be great!! I also need a chatroom to be involved in. I couldn't get into the one for tonight, I don't know what happened. Thank-you to all!! :)Mom182
If you can watch todays Dr Phil DO IT!! It was about enabling and being tough to save your childs life. He said to the mom that she was assisting her son in killing himself ( or something like that) by bailing him out and that he would be safer in jail than out at her house shooting up!
I am no expert and I know how hard it is to see your own child suffer ( I have 3) but if that is what it takes to save her life I would say do what you have to to make a change now. Can you tell someone she is using others urine? I know they can usually do a urine test where there is no way she can do this if they know it is happening.
Good luck with it. I am sure you will get great advice from others. I am just new myself!
Thanks for giving me the info about Dr. Phil. I will see if I can watch it online. Yes it's very tough love trying to do this but we've talked to her over and over and it has done no good. I think it might be time to not give her time with options and stick her into rehab. Again thank-you and hopefully we will be headed in the right direction soon. If you hear or see anything else that can help, please let me know. Thank-you so much. :)mom182
Aloha Mom...your daughter certainly isn't a child anymore and has already been down the road and still heading that direction if you are right about her still using. One of the things that means is she has violated her probation and in even more dire straits with or without your help. Your trying to help your daughter and your daughter is an addict. I did the same with my addicted/alcoholic wives and eldest son and I knew nothing about addiction and how it worked even with my own addiction to alcohol. Getting the information and new awareness from inside the face to face rooms of Al-Anon was for me the very best place to start and then I learned how to get out of the way between those I was enabling and God...my HP. HP has done a much better job than I have and the one person I need to control and take care of today is me.
Your daughter and you are under the influence of a cunning, powerful and baffling disease. It's running your both at the same time. Give the face to face rooms an opportunity. ((((hugs))))
Thanks for the input. I know I gotta get involved and a few people told me alanon would be very beneficial for me. I understand what you're telling me, but it will be extreme tough love and I am so afraid that she will never talk to me again. But I have a feeling that there can be 3 scenarios: 1. She ends up back in jail. 2. She goes to rehab either on her own or by force of court orders(which is me doing it to her) or, 3. She will end up in a casket. I would pick either of the first 2. Again, thanks for the input and supportive note. mom182:)
It's harder to lose an addict than you'd think. They threaten to cut us off so they can keep their addiction going. In most cases I've known, they can get furious if you try to stand between them and their addiction, but sooner or later they turn their fury onto someone else and then they're back again.
But most of all you need to take care of yourself. When we keep at our own recovery, that's when the miracles start happening.
Hi... hope you get the necessary answers here, and there is a great book you may want to get your hands on - "Getting Your Children Sober", written by Toby Rice Drews - you should be able to find it online at major bookstores, or directly from the Getting Them Sober website...
One word of caution about the recommendation of Dr. Phil - only my personal opinion, but to me he is one of those egotistical "tv" shrinks, and likes to say/do things for television ratings.... his message might be somewhat accurate, but he can be almost "Jerry Springer like" in his delivery.... He has a tendency to lay blame at your feet (all in the interest of exciting tv) - whereas the reality is that you truly "have done the best you could with what you knew at the time".....
Take care Tom
__________________
"He is either gonna drink, or he won't.... what are YOU gonna do?"
"What you think of me is none of my business"
"If you knew the answer to what you are worrying about, would it REALLY change anything?"
So sorry you are going thru this. My son is an addict. he has tried several drugs before he decided hallucinegins were his drug of choice. It went from recreational user to full blown addict in record time. He also lived at home. We made it clear to him from the get go if he ever got in trouble with the law there would be no bail coming from us or any other family member. before i found alanon that was the one boundary we actually stuck to. One night he took to much of whatever and it put him into a psychotic ( spllng) state. We couldn't control him so we called 911 they came along with the police. My husband search my sons room and found his "magic mushrooms"we turned them over to the authorties who in turn charged him with possension ( felony). AT first they put him on probation yet the kid was getting high everday and passing his pee tests. Found out he was taking cold medicine with Dexamesasone ( called dexing ) and was taking it in such large quantities it made him hallucinate. Ha he thought he beat the system. But no we called his PO to give them this news so they would know what to look for. The judge gave him chance after chance to clean up his act. Each time he didn't we called his PO because they must investigate every complaint they get. He was in and out of jail for probation violation a few days here an few weeks there. Each time telling us he was on the right path now etc each time we believed him. We finally sat him down one day ( in a sober moment) and explained exactly what was going to happen if he violated his probation again. We would no longer tolerate his behavior he was drowning and taking us under with him. We were literally gasping for air to survive. he said he understood what we were telling him and was agreable to it. Within hours he was out getting high. We cried a river of tears when he came home high and we started packing his things to take him to a shelter ( this was winter time btw), He had lost all his jobs and friends due to his addiction so he had no where to turn. But he was an adult and with no money a shelter was the only answer. I had to call his PO as by law they must be notified of any address change. I sobbed uncontrollably as I spoke with his PO. The PO advised us to keep him there and he would be by to pick him up. He did come and took my son back into custody. This time the judge was a little tired of my son snubbing his nose at his rulings and sent him to the jail rehab unit. That was 10 months ago, he is scheduled to be released in a little more than 2 months. As per the boundaries we put up he knows coming home this time is not an option. We have told him what we are willing to do to help him and that is getting him into a sober living home. If he choses something different than he is on his own. We finally realized that just allowing or giving him a roof over his head was enabling his disease and that as long as he had us as a safety net he would never hit his bottom. It may sound cold and uncaring but I can tell you my husband and I cried and prayed endlessly before realizing what we had to do. We to fear our sons bottom may be death and that breaks our heart everyday. But truth be told he was killing himself anyway even when we were here to watch over him. I have gone for days without sleep to make sure my son was still alive. He while under our roof OD'd several times and we were powerless to stop it. My point thru all this is beside understanding exactly how you feel. Our son has never gotten mad at us for turning him in time and again and finally ending up with a considerable jail sentence. Oh at the time he may have gotten a little angry but as he sobered up he understood the reasons we did what we did. we keep in very close contact with him but have learned how not to feed into his disease anymore. Anytime you step between an addict and thier addiction there is going to be conflict. In joining Alanon they are not going to appreciate the new coping skills you will learn as how to deal with addiction. But I can tell you without reservation it will save your life and your sanity. At this point your daughter in order to hit her own bottom has to endure the natural consequesnes of her own behavior. As long as you continue to cushion her bottom she will never hit that bottom. It took me a good long time in the program to be able to make the choices that we have made so I am not trying to rush you into something you may not be ready for. I urge you in the strongest sense to find alanon meetings in your area or join us here online for our meetings. Listen and learn what others have done in your situation. You are not alone, we are here to love and support you in whatever decisions you make. Also on another note your daughter like my son may be abusing over the counter medications that will get her high and allow her to pass a pee test as those meds are flushed out of the system in a few hours. If you suspect this you may want to express your concerns to her PO then they know what to look for. There is nothing wrong with speaking to her PO as she is living under your roof and they can't help her if they don't know what is going on. This may sound cold but I believe it was God's plan that put my son in jail. He is in a safe, sober enviorment, has a roof over his head and food to eat. And everyday he is sober I pray helps him to think more clearly about what he has done to get himself there. Jail may very well be your daughters bottom who knows. But it is time to get out of god's way and your daughters way and let her feel the natural consequenes of her behvior. I wish you peace and I wish you embracing your own recovery so you are better able to deal with this disease and save yourself. Blessings
Thanks for all the posts. I went to mt first NarAnon meeting last night. I liked it and it is helpful but most everyone there is past the hard stuff and in the healing process. I am still not for some reason trying to do the right thing for both her and myself and say I am going on with my life and she is still using. I need that boost to let her go and for me to heal. I am fighting with should I call her P.O. or make her go to rehab by the court. I need my hubby to go with me for a court order. My decision is put her into rehab but my husband doesn't think she is that bad. I know she is. He is away alot due to his work. He hasn't seen all of what I have seen or even deal with. He comes home from work and sleeps on the couch and isn't up at 3am when she is going out the door looking for more drugs. He thinks she is lleepy because she attends those drug classes and then works. She was in bed all day yesterday and the whole night before and still looks messed up because the first thing she does after waking is going out the door and then coming back high. I don't even know what other drugs she is using besides opiates. Any feedback??