I heartily recommend that you stop by Kevin Smith's online diary, and soon. He's up to the third part (of four, I think) of his heartbreaking account of Jason Mewes' downward spiral into, and then recovery from, a massive drug addiction. Parts of it are funny, because it is Kevin Smith and, say what you will about his movies, he is a funny dude. But much of it is sad, in a helpless sort of way.
I've never had a friend who abused himself to that extent, so I've never had to rationally be harsh to someone I love. I do, however, know all too well what it feels like to have a family member struggle with a condition that, essentially, only they have the power to reverse. And I've learned all you can do is give them every erg of support you can muster, every possible resource you can enlist, and remove every obstacle set before them so that, in the end, salvation is only a matter of will.
1 comment:
heartbreaking stuff. too often the vortex of addiction just quietly sucks somebody down. this happens after the people that love you and try to help have decided "if he's going to kill himself, he can't make me watch." i was one of the lucky ones and got cleaned up nearly 13 years ago. it took more than will however. if it was about will power somebody with arms that look like mine wouldn't have a chance. i have these tracks on my upper arms that look like charcoal tattoos. that's from not being able to wait long enough for the dope to cool down before shooting. for me it was hospital detox, treatment facility (not the first one i went to, just the first one i did the stuff they said to do), then years of AA/NA meetings and stuff after that. don't know what would work for anyone else, that's just what happened for me. i couldn't do it for my career, my marraige, my kids, my friends or family. it came down to i got tired of it all. so i cleaned up. i'm one of the lucky ones. i had to give up being special though. now i'm just another guy trying to muddle through life clean and sober. it's hard to watch to folks who seem determined on killing themselves right after they wreak havoc on the lives of anyone who cares. if they stumble into a meeting we do try to help.
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