Drug Addiction Stories & Info

Having had 3 older children, I knew how rough the teen years could be. My youngest son actually started out in adolescence on a pretty good note. I began to think he wouldn’t give me the trouble my others did. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

He started to get more and more irritable but he also started acting more bizarre. At one point, when he was 15, he asked me to buy him alcohol. “No, I won’t buy you alcohol! What is wrong with you? You’re not even old enough to drink!” He told me “never mind, it’s no big deal anyway”. If nothing else, that gave me the heads-up that he was drinking, or at least thinking of drinking.

Sure enough, that weekend he came home drunk. He hadn’t expected me to be up waiting for him, but I was. I knew better than to try to argue with someone who was drunk but the next day, I confronted him. I told him I would not have drinking OR drunks in my home and that if he couldn’t quit on his own, we’d get him help. He started ranting and raving about how I was making a big deal out of nothing and he didn’t have any problem. Then he left the house.

I went down to his room and what do I find? A bottle of Vodka under his bed. I didn’t know if I should cry or scream. My little boy was obviously an alcoholic. Not knowing where to turn, I called our family doctor. My son was still a minor, after all, and I could have him admitted to the hospital. The doctor suggested that a holistic rehab may be a better idea but to make sure my son knew that it was that, or the hospital.

I found a good rehab that didn’t use drugs and it was an inpatient center. I had my brother come over for the big confrontation with my son. “Son, you may not believe it right now, but I love you and I want what is best for you”. I had his attention. I had his very suspicious attention. I told him I knew about his stash and that he was an alcoholic. I didn’t let him interrupt. “You can go to the hospital and be strapped to a bed or you can go to rehab and get all of the help you need”. He got up to leave and my brother stopped him. “She’s not playing, sport”, he said. “Make your choice”. After about an hour of ranting, raving and trying to leave, he chose rehab. We had him there in 30 minutes. I honestly believe that had I not taken the steps I did, my son may not be here today.

My mom was always proud when people told her how lucky she was to have the perfect son.  I wasn’t perfect but she was a single mom and she needed a lot of help. I was the oldest of three and she worked two jobs so I had to take care of my younger brother and sister a lot.

The neighborhood we moved to following my parents’ divorce wasn’t the greatest but it was what she could afford.  I quickly became friends with some guys who introduced me one night to cocaine.  Before too long, I was sneaking out my bedroom window and barely making it back in before sunrise.  My mom never had a clue.

Or so I thought.

One night I climbed through the window just as my bedroom light came on.  My mom  was sitting on my bed.  “David, you want to tell me what is going on?” she asked.  I started to make excuses but my mom and I had always been pretty close.  I hung my head in shame and finally confessed.  She told me she had already suspected.  She hugged me and told me we would get through it together.

The next morning my mom talked to me and my brother and sister.  She told us we were a family and when one of us needed help we were a team.  She said I had helped her a lot and now it was her turn, their turn, to help me.  Then she went to answer the door.  It was a man from a nearby drug rehab center.  He came in and talked to my family and told me that I was only sixteen and needed to get help before it was too late.

I was in the program for three months.  My family also sought help to better understand what I and they as my family, were all going through.  That was two years ago.  To this day I have been clean.  The other day I changed a lady’s tire for her while at the grocery store with my mom.  The lady looked at my mom and told her how lucky she was to have the perfect son.  My mind went immediately to my time on cocaine but my mom hugged me and said to the lady “You’re right.  He is the perfect son because he is perfect for me.”  You know what?  I have the perfect mom.