Today I told a friend a friend she may be a drug abuser.

Prisoner_Number_Six

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Sat May-23-09 12:12 AM
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Today I told a friend a friend she may be a drug abuser.

Not an easy thing to do, or pleasant. But you see, I have some experience in this area, and if I've learned ANYTHING over the years it's this: IF YOU KNOW IT, YOU HAVE TO TELL THEM.

As I've talked about here more than once before, I'm an alcoholic. Back in my 20s I tried very hard to drink myself to death. However, at the time I didn't realize it, nor did so much as one single person bother to confront me with it. The fact that I eventually did realize it and manage to quit drinking on my own isn't important. The fact that NOBODY STEPPED UP AND TOLD ME WHAT I WAS DOING is.

And that's not my only close-up experience with such things, either. You see, during my early 20s I was living with an addict. I had to sit there and watch her inject herself then nod off. I watched her take pills. I was in the passenger seat while she drove while blitzed out of her head. And I was the one they had to call when she had a T-bone collision with a car that had an elderly man an woman in it. Even worse, the young lady I had a secret crush on was a passenger in the addict's car. I was the one who had to stand there holding her hand while they picked the glass from her skin. And I was the one who had to tell her that her 2 year old son had been medevaced to Cincinnatti to try to save his live (they succeeded).

This addict was my mother. So even if I HAD tried to say anything to her it would have been ignored. Or so I told myself then. You see, the drugs she was getting wacked on were being supplied to her by her doctor.

Fast forward to today.

This girl needs pain relief. There's no doubt about that- she has crippling arthritis throughout her body, and has also had a recent series of surgeries that have left her in pain. But the problem with that is, her pain doctor is prescribing what I (in my non-medical expert opinion) believe to be vast overkill. Among the pharmaceutical delights she has at her fingertips is everything from hydrocodone to methadone and on. They make what they call a cancer lollipop- anyone who has seen a dying cancer patient knows what and how devestatingly powerful they are. They're for the break-out pain terminal patients suffer from. They're for the point where addiction isn't relevant because it's the only thing keeping the patient even a little insulated from the agony. This girl sucks on 'em like they're candy.

So today I bought her lunch, sat her down and described her symptoms to her. Some of them are:

-A total loss of the sense of time.
-A serious deficit of short-term memory.
-Slurring of the speech.
-Inability to converse without forgetting what you're talking about.
-Crashing into the rear of another family's car.

Yep. History repeats itself. This time nobody was hurt, but that was sheer dumb luck. My stomach is still in knots just from the flashbacks. (I don't believe I mentioned that in my mother's wreck, the old lady in the other car died.)

My friend listened to me today. She accepted it. She was glad I told her. She understood why I did what I did and said what I said. She now plans to call her doctor to discuss her medications. I helped her take a step today that may end up saving her life.

I hope.

If you know someone on drugs. TELL THEM. If you know a drunk who doesn't seem to realize it, TELL THEM. Don't turn your head. Don't walk away. Don't pretend it's funny. Don't ignore it. Don't trust that someone else will do the job, because they won't.

IT'S UP TO YOU.

I should have drunk myself to death all those years ago. It's a miracle I didn't. Nobody told me what I was doing to myself. Not a single person cared enough to look me in the eye and say the words. Not one person tried to help me.

I should have died. Perhaps this is why I didn't.

Do YOU care enough to help when it's YOUR turn?