family members addicted to meth-is there hope?

by freein89 9 Replies latest social family

• 

  freein89

  I have two family members who have been addicted to methamphetamine for a long time. Can they kick the habit themselves, do they need treatment? I believe they are trying to stop on their own. What should I do or say. They have both been living a lie for so long, their lives have been a web of lies for so long that I don't know how to act or what to say around them.

  Anyone know anything about it? How much damage does long term use cause? I have so many questions. I have looked at some websites about the subject and they seem to describe worst-case scenarios and violent behavior on the part of the addict, I haven't seen that kind of behavior, but I know the problem is very serious.

  What can I do?

  Deb
• 

  blondie

  Deb, a rare, very rare individual may kick the habit on their own, but my friends at NA say they don't know of anyone. I would check in your area for a Narcotics Anonymous group or AA or Al-Anon.

  Blondie
• 

  freein89

  Blondie,

  As always, thank you so much for your response! Perhaps I should contact an NA group for advice? I am afraid of being an enabler, but these are people I love very much and I want to be there for them, but in a way that will genuinely help them.

  Deb
• 

  patio34

  Deb,

  Believe me, I KNOW what you're going through. The person I know was addicted to meth for years, but finally got caught and the courts forced the person to either go to jail or go to a drug rehab. Now they've really gotten their life back on track for the past year. But admittedly they said it would have had to be thru rehab and Narcotics and now, Alcholics Anonymous.

  I would strong suggest that you start going to Al-Anon for family members of addicts. There are so many ideas on how to cope and "what you should say," etc. I went for quite a while and some people go for years.

  There's a lot of help out there for these problems. Good luck. It CAN turn around, but you can cope better either way with help.

  Pat
• 

  Stacy Smith

  Meth is super addictive and I doubt you can kick it without help. The people I know who kicked did it while serving jail sentences. Long term meth users screw up their systems bad. One obvious side effect is calcium loss. Look at their teeth.

  Good luck
• 

  blondie

  Deb, go ahead and check into it. That was the role I played in my family, enabler. Not any more, but I have learned how to help people help themselves. Al-Anon is great in a situation like this. They've been down the road a bit farther. Even if there isn't anything YOU can do to help the addict, they will help you see you can cope with it, stay mentally, emotionally, and spiritually healthy. In the end the addict has to want to stop and they have to do a lot of hard work after that. But I can't begin to put a price on the help I got at Al-Anon and ACOA at a time when the JWs in my life just walked away.

  Good luck. Let me know by PM how it goes.

  Blondie
• 

  shamus

  Sounds like a horrible drug, Stacy. My god, that is how you see them.. with they're teeth all rotted out!!!
• 

  lisaBObeesa

  Deb,

  I, also, am very close with a former meth user.

  I will tell you it is very, very difficult, and in many ways painful to the brain, to stop using meth. The person I know who quit went to 30-day treatment once...and ran away after 3 days.

  A year or so later, they went to 30-day treatment again, stayed the whole time, and re-lapsed after three weeks out in the real world.

  A couple of years later, he had lost EVERYTHING: job, family, home, everything, he looked like death and I thought he would be found dead any day.... but he went into 30 day treatment one last time. (He said it was either that or kill himself.) That time, he had a real spiritual experience and really changed. When he got out of treatment he got very involved in recovery and went to AA meetings every day. But even with that, he relapsed one more time. A few months later he got sober again (with the help of his recovery support system that he had built up after leaving treatment for the last time) and he has been sober almost 6 years. Thank God.

  Can it be done? Yes.

  Is it easy? No. None of this person's using friends or family has been able to get off the stuff, though many have gone to treatment or been in jail for periods of time and even lost all they have including their kids.

  What can you do? Learn about addiction and codependance and take care of yourself. Remeber that only they can make the choice to get sober. You can't make it happen.

  Feel free to email me, I know what you are going through.

  Love,

  -LisaBObeesa
• 

  sf

  This drug does terrible things to your body and central nervous system. It eats at your muscles and causes hyper sensitivity when anything touches your body. Extreme paranoia sets in with long term use. You think everyone is against you and it's easy to become someone (violent) you never would if not addicted to the substance.

  Keep doing your research!

  It is not easy getting off this drug alone. Isolation doesn't mix well with the hope you seek.

  Wishing you all well in this endeavor, sKally
• 

  freein89

  Hey, appreciate the wisdom, advice and support. I will pm some of you and check out alanon. This is scary stuff and I was afraid to hear how bad it is. But I can't stick my head in the sand anymore, it is time for me to get real and honest information even if it hurts, which it does. Thanks to all.

  Deb