Drug Addiction Stories & Info

I found them as we were cleaning up the house to do some changes. We were getting marred soon and getting the place ready to move my things out of storage. I asked him about the pills I found. They were prescriptions and I was concerned about his health. He quickly assured me that he was fine and that the painkillers were old. They were outdated by about a year. I asked him why they were hidden. 

He told me he had a friend from college stay with him for a while and he had noticed several changes in him during the four years they had not been around each other. He had invited his friend to stay with him while he was finding a job and getting his feet on the ground so to speak. It wasn’t too long though, before he began finding things missing and discovered his friend was on drugs and pawning stuff. He got his stuff back and talked his friend into rehab.

He seemed sad as he told me the story about his friend. I asked him what had happened to the guy and why the prescription bottles were still hidden. He said his friend’s mother had pleaded with him to let the guy stay with him after rehab. Things were going good until his friend met a girl who was on painkillers and before he knew it, his friend was back drugs himself and the painkillers my boyfriend had been given following a motorcycle accident were disappearing faster than he was taking them.

“I confronted him again. This time he wouldn’t be helped because his girlfriend kept denying they had a problem.” He ended up asking his friend to leave and had to change the locks on his doors and install a security system.

“The friend I had in college? He wasn’t the same one who was here. It was like they were two different people. He had turned into a stranger.” 

We flushed the prescriptions down the toilet as they were expired. I had only seen that look of sadness on his face once before, and that was when he talked about his parents’ passing. I asked him if he knew where his friend was these days. He nodded. His friend’s mother had called to tell him that her son and the girlfriend had committed suicide together by overdosing. They had left a note saying they couldn’t find jobs and there was nothing to live for.

I held him close to me as he told me the story about his friend. He had helped his friend before, yet this last time he refused help. I knew then what the survivors’ guilt felt like that I had heard about.  My boyfriend cared about his friend, tried to help him, yet still felt bad because of his friend’s choice not to get help a second time.  Now he was drowning in a feeling of guilt he didn’t deserve to have

About a year ago I lost the lady I realized, too late, that I loved.  I was an alcoholic who was also addicted to painkillers.  Sally stayed with me through some rough times but I got mean and took it out on her verbally.  One day, when I came home from work, she was gone.

I called her but she would not answer her phone.  I went to see her but her mother said she had moved to another town.  Finally, she answered one night.  She told me that she had loved me, but that she could not spend her life being put down and belittled, for having a stroke while I was the one killing myself by mixing alcohol and drugs.  She asked me not to call her cell phone again.

I ended up getting help when my brother heard what had happened.  I got clean, got sober and luckily, my job was still there when I got out of rehab.  One day I went downtown to the flea market and I thought I heard a beautiful and familiar voice.  I looked over and sure enough, it was Sally.  She was with another man.

As I walked up to them, she had a worried look in her eyes.  Still, she introduced us and I could tell by the look in his eyes that he knew who I was.  He was a gentleman, though, and did not say anything rude.  I asked Sally how she was doing and she said fine.  She asked how I was and I told her I was doing good and had been clean for about six months.  A look of real happiness washed over her face at that.  She hugged me and said she was glad.

Still, she was walking away with that guy and I was jealous.  I asked how her health had been with her stroke and all.  It was partly out of meanness.  That was when I got the biggest lesson of my life.  The guy she was with took her hand as she said she was doing good and had not had any problems.  Then her boyfriend said “Even if she did, I would be here for her; she’s been the best thing to ever happen to me.”

I realized then that I had hurt Sally with my attitude while on drugs and alcohol but that she had helped me as much as she could till she could not take the abuse any more.  I was clean and sober now, but I had still lost out on love where she was concerned. A girl who had a stroke due to stress had ended up richer and healthier and able to build a life full of energy and love and adventure.  As she walked off with him, I whispered, “Good for you, Sally” and let her go peacefully and with my best wishes.