Drugs addicts are...
...excellent liars. They lie to themselves and to others in pathetic attempts to hide and support their foul habits. Their skills at manipulation are topnotch, especially when they’re manipulating those who love them. They take the love that others have for them and they use it, abuse it, trample it and push it to the very limits of the heart’s endurance. They burn bridges in a blitzkrieg-like manner, leaving casualties by the wayside.
Drugs addicts are so wrapped up in their addictions that they place drugs above everything else. Every single thing that they have ever cared about takes a backseat to the drugs. They plan their days around the next fix. Whether it’s a bottle of beer or a hit off of that crack pipe...the drug and obtaining that drug is the most pressing issue of moment. Once the drug is secured and only then, can the addict can stop searching long enough to do something else. And then, anything that they do is done half-assed because the addict is either high or preoccupied with getting high again.
Drug addicts try to get the people around them to do drugs with them. They share their own personal stash with other people in hopes of creating a drug buddy who can buy the drugs next time. Somewhere in their twisted minds, they realize that drugs will end in death, jail or some other negative consequence yet they want to create fellow drug addicts. They don’t care if that potential fellow drug addict is a stranger, a family member or someone else’s young son or daughter...if the person has funds, or access to funds...they are fair game.
Drug addicts cause the people closest to them to worry constantly. The addict never considers the mother, father, spouse or other loved one who spends countless evenings sitting at home waiting for that knock on the door that comes with an invitation to identify a dead body. The truth can’t be as bad as the images that someone conjures up when they’re worrying about a loved one at 2 AM...or could it?
Drug addicts ask for gas money to go job-hunting, to pay for prescriptions or to pay the rent. When that doesn’t work anymore, they sell things that will fetch cash. Family heirlooms aren’t safe in their hands. They steal from neighbors, friends and elderly parents. When the doors are all locked and the bridges all burned, they sell themselves. Consequences are foreign notions to them. Every move they make can potentially drive away another loved one, send the addict to prison or even end their life but they continue on course as though the world will be ending in 10 minutes.
Drug addicts get angry with you when you don’t give them what they ask for. They see your refusal to buy the dangerous drugs as a selfish, mean and nasty action. They don’t understand why you don’t believe them when they tell you another stupid story about a lost wallet, an impending tax refund that should have been delivered last week or another bank error. They argue with you when they’re wasted and misunderstand everything that you say to them. They start arguments over nothing and can actually carry on an entire fight all by themselves. They justify everything they say or do and nothing that you can say or do matters nor does it make a bit of sense to them. When they’re sober, they either don’t remember what they did or they laugh it off as another meaningless thing that they did while they were using. They don’t consider the fact that you were sober the entire time and therefore you felt the acute pain that was inflicted and you remember every single moment of it.
Drug addicts push away everyone that cares about them one at a time. They lose their jobs, their homes, their friends and everything else that they could possibly lose. Most people would say that they made their bed and they should lie in it. Those people are right. But when the drug addict is someone that you love very much, how do you close the door in their face in the middle of the night? How do you say no when they’re hungry? How do you sit by and watch as they pay the price for their behavior? How do you forget the person who they used to be and see the drug addict standing in front of you? When they walk out the door, how do you refrain from worrying that this might be the time that they encounter the wrong person, do too many drugs or get picked up by the police and sent away for a very, very long time? And when something like that does happen, how do you deal with the knowledge that you saw it coming yet you couldn’t do a damn thing to stop it?
Drug addicts were born to mothers that loved them. They grew up with siblings that care about them. They went to first grade and learned to write their names. They played Battleship, watched Gilligan’s Island and waited for Santa Claus. They said their prayers at bedtime, trick or treated and loved the family dog. They had dreams of being a teacher, a lawyer or an actor. They went out to play, walked to school and played hide and go seek. They said the Pledge of Allegiance, sang Mary Had Little Lamb and had a crush on the hottie who sat next to them in 7th grade math class.
Drug addicts must want help before they can be helped. But, chances are that most of them will end up in jail or worse before they ever decide to get help on their own. So, when the drug addict is someone that you love, you have very few options. But, something dreadfully dramatic needs to be done. I just found out that someone that I care deeply for is a drug addict. I’m going to do something...something extremely drastic. And then I’ll have to live with the consequences of my actions and that won’t be fun. But, it won’t be any worse than sitting by a grave knowing that I could have down something and didn’t.
Meg
...excellent liars. They lie to themselves and to others in pathetic attempts to hide and support their foul habits. Their skills at manipulation are topnotch, especially when they’re manipulating those who love them. They take the love that others have for them and they use it, abuse it, trample it and push it to the very limits of the heart’s endurance. They burn bridges in a blitzkrieg-like manner, leaving casualties by the wayside.
Drugs addicts are so wrapped up in their addictions that they place drugs above everything else. Every single thing that they have ever cared about takes a backseat to the drugs. They plan their days around the next fix. Whether it’s a bottle of beer or a hit off of that crack pipe...the drug and obtaining that drug is the most pressing issue of moment. Once the drug is secured and only then, can the addict can stop searching long enough to do something else. And then, anything that they do is done half-assed because the addict is either high or preoccupied with getting high again.
Drug addicts try to get the people around them to do drugs with them. They share their own personal stash with other people in hopes of creating a drug buddy who can buy the drugs next time. Somewhere in their twisted minds, they realize that drugs will end in death, jail or some other negative consequence yet they want to create fellow drug addicts. They don’t care if that potential fellow drug addict is a stranger, a family member or someone else’s young son or daughter...if the person has funds, or access to funds...they are fair game.
Drug addicts cause the people closest to them to worry constantly. The addict never considers the mother, father, spouse or other loved one who spends countless evenings sitting at home waiting for that knock on the door that comes with an invitation to identify a dead body. The truth can’t be as bad as the images that someone conjures up when they’re worrying about a loved one at 2 AM...or could it?
Drug addicts ask for gas money to go job-hunting, to pay for prescriptions or to pay the rent. When that doesn’t work anymore, they sell things that will fetch cash. Family heirlooms aren’t safe in their hands. They steal from neighbors, friends and elderly parents. When the doors are all locked and the bridges all burned, they sell themselves. Consequences are foreign notions to them. Every move they make can potentially drive away another loved one, send the addict to prison or even end their life but they continue on course as though the world will be ending in 10 minutes.
Drug addicts get angry with you when you don’t give them what they ask for. They see your refusal to buy the dangerous drugs as a selfish, mean and nasty action. They don’t understand why you don’t believe them when they tell you another stupid story about a lost wallet, an impending tax refund that should have been delivered last week or another bank error. They argue with you when they’re wasted and misunderstand everything that you say to them. They start arguments over nothing and can actually carry on an entire fight all by themselves. They justify everything they say or do and nothing that you can say or do matters nor does it make a bit of sense to them. When they’re sober, they either don’t remember what they did or they laugh it off as another meaningless thing that they did while they were using. They don’t consider the fact that you were sober the entire time and therefore you felt the acute pain that was inflicted and you remember every single moment of it.
Drug addicts push away everyone that cares about them one at a time. They lose their jobs, their homes, their friends and everything else that they could possibly lose. Most people would say that they made their bed and they should lie in it. Those people are right. But when the drug addict is someone that you love very much, how do you close the door in their face in the middle of the night? How do you say no when they’re hungry? How do you sit by and watch as they pay the price for their behavior? How do you forget the person who they used to be and see the drug addict standing in front of you? When they walk out the door, how do you refrain from worrying that this might be the time that they encounter the wrong person, do too many drugs or get picked up by the police and sent away for a very, very long time? And when something like that does happen, how do you deal with the knowledge that you saw it coming yet you couldn’t do a damn thing to stop it?
Drug addicts were born to mothers that loved them. They grew up with siblings that care about them. They went to first grade and learned to write their names. They played Battleship, watched Gilligan’s Island and waited for Santa Claus. They said their prayers at bedtime, trick or treated and loved the family dog. They had dreams of being a teacher, a lawyer or an actor. They went out to play, walked to school and played hide and go seek. They said the Pledge of Allegiance, sang Mary Had Little Lamb and had a crush on the hottie who sat next to them in 7th grade math class.
Drug addicts must want help before they can be helped. But, chances are that most of them will end up in jail or worse before they ever decide to get help on their own. So, when the drug addict is someone that you love, you have very few options. But, something dreadfully dramatic needs to be done. I just found out that someone that I care deeply for is a drug addict. I’m going to do something...something extremely drastic. And then I’ll have to live with the consequences of my actions and that won’t be fun. But, it won’t be any worse than sitting by a grave knowing that I could have down something and didn’t.
Meg
posted by Meg Kelso | 8:26 PM
1 Comments:
This is an excellent piece on drug addicts- but what makes you write it?
I grew up in the 80's - a time when anti-drug advertising was at its peak. The programs must have worked, because everytime that I think about anything involving illegal drug usage, I think about brains and eggs frying on pans, little pills singing, "We can make you delirious", and cracked-out totally spaced-out people living in abandoned buildings with missing teeth, dirty clothes, HIV infected sharing dirty needles, and with no money prostituting themselves.
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