Drug Addiction Stories & Info

I remember my sister’s spiral into oxycontin drug addiction like it was yesterday, although it has been more than two years since the day our worlds turned upside down.  Following a car accident in May 2007, she was prescribed oxycontin as a way to reduce her chronic back pain.  Having never really indulged in anything other than smoking cigarettes, we did not really think anything of it except relief that she had a pain reliever to help her get through the after effects of the car accident.

Then one Sunday afternoon, my brother-in-law called and asked if I could come over immediately.  My sister was not acting like herself and he was concerned because their two sons were witnessing behavior from their mother they had never seen before.

I drove over and found my sister to be slamming doors and screaming things at her children I had never heard her utter before.  Concerned, I took her into the bedroom and tried to talk to her.  She kept going on about being unappreciated. This was not the sister I had known all of our 30 plus years together.  As she walked around, I noticed her pill bottle turned over with the cap off.  It was empty which was a surprise because she should have just barely been halfway through it.

That was the day our family discovered my sister was addicted to oxycontin. After she settled down for a nap, I went home and did some research.  The following morning I called a successful drug addiction rehab and they advised me on how to do a family intervention.  I got together with my sister’s husband, my two brothers and their wives and my sister’s sons and together we did just that.

It has been two years since my sister went into drug rehab treatment program and today I have my sister back and more importantly, her sons have their mother back.  The drug rehab center helped us help her when we were in uncharted territory having never had a family member with a drug problem.

It was a scary time for our family and I do not think we could have gotten through without the help of a caring and professional drug rehab center and their wonderful counselors.  They educated us and helped my sister face her addiction.  They introduced her to others who had walked the same path she had and showed her that there was no shame in what had occurred.  They gave us back the lovely woman we love so much.

Pat is a lady I more know of than know, but due to circumstances I feel I know her very well.  Pat’s son was married to my stepdaughter, Erica.  His name was Anthony.  I didn’t like Anthony.  In fact, no one really liked Anthony.  He was a thug and a cocaine addict.  He was cruel to Erica and half the time ignored his own children.  Anthony had one brother and one sister.  Again, they were not the best of people to know and certainly not as sweet as their mother Pat.  Of course, the grand kids adored them all so that was just the way it was.  The series of events that were about to unfold were incredibly coincidental not just in one way, or two, but three.  The most important of these was drug addiction.

I got the phone call right after I had seen the nightly news.  Anthony had been in a car accident at a bad interstate intersection and had been killed instantly.  Although he and Erica were divorced, I knew she and the kids would be having a hard time.  Drug addiction had killed their father and now three small children would have to deal with that.  Of course, the kids had no idea about the cocaine addiction, but nonetheless, they may have to worry about it in the future.  A child never gets over losing a parent just as a parent never gets over losing a child, but after a while, Pat, Erica, and the kids had moved forward with their lives.

Fast-forward two years and it is like watching a rerun on the news.  It was the same intersection that Anthony was killed at, but this time, it was his brother and his sister that were killed in the crash.  Both of them were high on cocaine.  I must have sat there for 5 minutes just numb.  Poor Pat.  Not one or two, but all three of her children killed at the same intersection and all high on cocaine at the time.  Drug addictions had taken all three of her children from her.  My grand kids lost their father, aunt, and uncle because of addiction to drugs.  I cannot imagine the sorrow that Pat felt burying the last two of her children.  Here is a mother who never intended for her children to become drug addicts, but they did.  Their drug addiction ultimately lead them all to the same place to die in an automobile accident while high on cocaine.  At one time, Pat had three beautiful children playing at her feet.  Thanks to drug addiction, then there were none.