Newcomer...

I will follow up.
Today was tough - he called his mom this morning scared out of his mind. Apparently there was a big fight last night at the end of his bed over a pillow. He's smart enough (when sober) to mind his business and stay out of stuff like that - but also a giant wimp. The other guys there scare him - the ones who think the rehab facility is a piece of cake compared to the few years they did in the house of correction. At first I felt awful - I know that despite the face he puts on, and the craziness when he's high - he really is a wimp. That is he truly is scared out of his mind right now.
But then I thought about it. Is he more scared than I was when I had to run from him Friday night? When I started having to make those phone calls to find a place to sleep each night this weekend? When I walked into the utter disaster of my apartment Saturday morning after he trashed it Friday night? When I got the call that he was arrested and in jail? Or when he told me, out of his mind on pills, that he just wanted to be with his dead father?
So he's scared. Good. So was I - terrified in fact. I still am in a different sort of way - terrified of the future and what it will bring. Let him be scared. The goal was to scare him straight - that's why I did what I did.
As awful as I feel to say it - I'm glad he's scared. Maybe he can have a taste of what I felt for the past 6 days...