littlebird77

I'm reading more and more posts about people dying from this horrible disease. It is just coming to me more because of what is going on in my life, or is it true, are we all just loosing more and more loves to this?

I am saying prayers for you all. I am so terribly sorry.

tjp613

I think we're losing more.

dollydo

So many of the 80's drug culture are still hooked and entering their 40's and dropping dead, one after another. The body can only take so much.

Then we have the younger generation, who can find drugs on every street corner, every school yard, they are so available and crack is so very cheap, meth, you can cook it up yourself, what a deal! If you don't blow up the neighborhood everything is A-ok.

To me, this all started slowly, when men came home from fighting in WW2, the parents wanted their children to have everything they never had, the baby boomers were spoiled, they passed that attitude and the right of total freedom (drugs, rock n roll)onto their children, the ball was rolling. Only no one realized for the most part it was rolling down hill, drugs took over, and we baby boomers thought we could solve all of our childrens problems through enabling them, we could make it right...we were wrong and now that sense of entitlement is passing to the next generation and now drugs are so cheap and accessable only the strong can stand up and say no...the lambs can and will follow.

It is so sad, I have no answers, I have sat back and watched it all happen and am powerless, too many lives lost to this stupid disease and many more to come. What a waste.

cece1960

I am told that heroin is the here and now party drug in my area. And that starts in high school.

How do you fight that?

It is sad, its an epidemic and its not slowing down.
I don't have the answers either...

littlebird77

heroin has blown up here in New York

Chino

Some use not to feel and some use to feel better.

I drink coffee to feel better.

I've been saying for a while now that most of us are not living authentic lives, the lives our bodies are hard wired for. People used to work hard and sweat their asses off, just so they could eat and live. Now we go to the gym to get the same effect, to counter our sedentary lives.

If our endocrine systems could talk, they'd probably ask what in the hell are we doing to ourselves???

Angelic17

We are losing more and more people to this disease. Everyone runs to the doctor if they get an itch these days. Years ago if you were depressed, you cried, and got over it. Today if your depressed, you need all sorts of drugs. Depression is a human emotion. Just like happiness, and anger, and all the other things we feel. We cannot take pills for everything. I know that some people are truly sick and depressed and that they need help. Some depression is severe, and it must be treated. But not everyone needs to be on something. People try to fill a void in their lives with all sorts of drugs. I have learned to fill my soul with my faith. I tried drugs, sex, doctors, therapists, you name it. Nothing worked.

When I started praying, I found a great comfort. I know it's not for everyone, but for me it was helpful. Prayer helped me recover from the drugs. I found myself praying and asking my higher power to ease my suffering and keep me on the right track. Prayer also helped me when my son was out there. It's what kept me together. I trusted GOD and kept my faith. Everyone is looking for instant gratification. That's why alot of people can't get clean. They don't have the patience it takes to wait it out, and let the brain heal. It takes time. Almost everyone in every age group is on something these days. It's really sad.

ElegantlyWasted

Scary and true. At one of the first meetings I went to a speaker said to get a suit if you stick around AA cause your gonna go to a lot of funerals. That at the time was not enough to scare me sober.

Spiritual Seeker

I lost my son to heroin in June.
Drugs changed him and destroyed him.
Thank you for bringing up that we are losing loved ones to this
terrible epidemic.

I am suffering greatly with the loss.

Freedom1990

My heart hurts for those of you who have lost a loved one to addiction.

stefanie

My 23 year old son died from a heroin overdose June 22nd. i'm devasted and my heart breaks for all the others who have lost the battle.

Spiritual Seeker

I know your heart aches Stefanie...they say time will heal.
Let's hope there is some bit of truth and some bit of healing for us who lose our children long before their time.

Impurrfect

My dad says that my generation (I'm 48) was raised with the idea of "got an ill? Take a pill" and I think he's right My almost-17-year-old niece thinks she needs lortab 10mg for cramps, though she doesn't get them.

My heart breaks for all those who have lost loved ones to addiction. I've lost 2 people since Dec., too, and it really is heartbreaking.

Hugs and prayers!

Amy

sofacat

What so many of the new generation doesn't realize is that "party" will eventually become a "problem".

As a former youth of the 80's and then onto the blasted Rave scene in the 90's... no one was using the word "addiction"... NO ONE.

The drugs became part of the routine...like the outfit you were going to wear. I was in the scene pretty hard for about 3 years. And then things just got darker....and I moved away to get away from it. But that was just geography....'cause the drugs are everywhere.

Fast forward 20 years.... some of my old friends are now in their 40's and struggling with addiction... and some of them never lived to see 40.

When I hear people making light of "popping a painkiller"... my heart just sinks.
Little do they know this can be a life sentence for them. The doctors should change the name of the painkillers to "heroin". "Here ma'am, I am prescribing some heroin for you to help you with your pain." I wonder how many of them would actually take them then?

It is everywhere...I'm a hairdresser, and even the middle aged clients of mine talk about drinking, or their nightly wine intake. Most of them are probably washing down a med or two with it as well. When they discover that I don't really drink, some of them **** their heads to one side and look at Me like they've just seen a UFO! I was even scrutinized this way at a dinner with some old friends on Friday. I was drinking iced tea...and they couldn't figure out what was wrong with Me. Wrong with Me?

Makes me sad.

wicked

For Spiritual Seeker and Stefanie,

Thank you for coming here and sharing your heart ache.

Two of my children, one on heroin, the other, alcohol have finally made their way back to a zero tolerance program and jail, rehab respectfully.

When I speak to my soon to be 18 year old daughter about this rehab (her third) I will remind her that there is no coming back from dead.
No redemption, no more chances, it is over.

When I mentioned to both of them the losses that have occurred on this board alone, the looks on their faces said "not me, it wont happen to me."
Yes, it will happen, it happens to someone just like you everyday.

I must be a little crazy to be elated they are locked up. Or a mother who has seen the loss.
I hope there is truth that with the passing of time your aching hearts will begin to heal, and I am praying for that for you.

Beth

ElegantlyWasted

Great thread that speaks to the larger cultural climate in which individuals become addicted. The only thing I can add is that our medical system is a cost sensitive disease treatment model (blame for profit insurance, hmos, and ppos, and drug cos to an extent) instead of a prevention model. Accordingly it is our duty, right and responsibility to be be wise consumers.

Chino

I've recently decided it's also my duty to inform others who don't know how to navigate those waters or even that they should, when they ask. There are a lot of trusting people out there, until they get burned.

Chenowth

We lost our beloved 21 year old daughter on the 19th of June to an apparent overdose of methadone and xanax, two days after she had been released from jail. I'm sure she didn't think this would happen to her either, but it did.

You are not crazy to be elated that they are locked up! I always felt a bit more peace when she was in jail as she was safer that if she was out and using. Just sad now that the judge didn't sentence her to two years as he had threatened, we might have had a different outcome.

Angelic17

SpiritualSeeker Stefanie Chenowth :ghug3

My heart goes out to you mothers, and I am so very sorry about the loss of your loved ones.
That is the worst and most painful thing any mother could ever have to deal with. I wish I could do something for you to help ease your pain, and yet as a mother I understand that nothing I do will ever help you with the loss of your child. I sit here crying for you, because life is not fair.

Heroin killed my brother, and my son was involved in very heavy opiate addiction. I was terrified that I would lose him. He is my only child. Not that it matters how many children I have. I heard from other mothers that you love them all the same. I feared that I would lose my son. I can't tell you what that fear did to me. If I didn't place him in GOD'S hands I would probably be in a mental hospital right now. It really took it's toll on me.

These drugs are an epidemic, and most of these kids start out with the oxycontins and percocettes. When they can't afford them anymore, they turn to heroin, because it's cheaper and much more powerful.

I want something done to stop all of this. And yet, I feel powerless. I want to get Oprah or Somebody who is very powerful in the media, and try to get the word out. We all need to rise up, and do something. March in the nations capital or whatever it takes. I think if every mother who has lost a child to drug addiction stepped up, it would make a difference.

To all of the mom's who have lost a child to this disease it hits me so hard in the pit of my soul. I talk about how my son's addiction hurt me so much, and yet any of you mom's would trade places with me in a minute. I just want you to know how sorry I am for you. Words aren't enough. So I'm sending my prayers up for you and your children. GOD always takes the good ones. :ghug3

Angelic17

Wicked, Your not crazy to be happy that they are locked up. They are better off and sometimes thats what it takes to straighten them out. Look at Chenowth, if the judge had given her daughter the 2 years she would still be here. She might have had just enought time to get over the craving and the constant desire to use, and her brain would have healed in that time in jail. Instead, she is gone, and her mother is dying with a hug hole in her heart that will never heal. It might get easier to live with over time, but it will never heal. The sorrow surrounding this epidemic is unreal.

All of us mothers need to do something, and quick. How many kids have to die before something is done? I told my son, that I would run him over with my car, and go to jail for life, before I saw him on drugs. He didn't care. He was out there using those pills, and snorting them. Or whatever he did with them. I wouldn't give up on him, and yet, I wouldnt' enable him anymore.

He was told get clean, or I'm done. This whole family was exhausted from his drug runs. He wore us all out. And the terror involved still makes me shudder when I think of it.

This time he decided to go and try again. This is his 6th time in treatment. The terror a mother goes through watching her beautiful child destroy is unreal. And life just goes on. Nobody in the entire world of politics is talking about this epidemic in our country. This should have been brought up on election year. I would have voted for the person who said, something needs to be done about the drug problem affecting our country. It affects everyone. Everyone in this country is touched by the pain of addiction one way or another. And yet, nothing is being done to stop it.