An Open Letter To My Family
I am a drug abuser.
I need help.
Don't solve my problem for me.
This only makes me lose respect for you and for myself.
Don't lecture, moralise, scold, blame, or argue whether I'm stoned or sober.
It may make you feel better, but it makes the situation worse.
Don't accept my promises.
The nature of my illness prevents my keeping them, even though I mean them at the time. Promises are only my way of postponing pain.
And don't keep switching agreements; if an agreement is made, stick to it.
Don't lose your temper with me.
It will destroy you and any possibility of helping me.
Don't let your anxiety for me make you do what I should do for myself.
Don't believe everything I tell you.
Often I don't even know the truth - let alone tell it.Don't cover up or try to spare me the consequences of my using.
It may reduce the crisis, but it will make my illness worse.
Above all, don't run away from reality as I do.
Drug dependence, my illness, gets worse as my using continues.
Start now to learn, to understand, to plan for recovery.
Find Families Anonymous, a group which exists to help families in just your situation.
I need help - from a doctor, a psychologist, a counsellor, from some people in a self-help programme who've recovered from a drug problem themselves, and from a Power greater than myself.
1 comment:
Letter from an addict strikes the core of human vulnerability Annemarie. It does bring to mind other addictions that society has written off as the norm:
- the addiction of walking past a park bench and avoiding eye contact with the 'lessor' who makes his bed there;
- the addiction of running with the crowd even though we oppose the thought given;
- the addiction of failing to give mercy to those who lack understanding;
- the addiction of neglect to the aged.
Just a few that come to mind; there are many more.
Bryan Ward from Skype
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