Photo Credit: Davood Madadpoor

Dr. MacAfee, our beloved addiction therapist, wrote: Allowing addicts to stand accountable for their behavior and consequences is difficult for families in the beginning; staying close and out of the way is often reported as feeling “unnatural.” However, complaining, threatening, and hand wringing rarely succeeds. Staying close to the addict and out of the way of the insanity is encouraged. For families dealing with active addicts, I recommend offering them roads to recovery, not more money or bailouts. Watching a loved one who’s failing is terrifying, but enabling them to avoid the consequences of their actions only prolongs the sickness.

My reflection: Our family did a whole lot of ‘complaining, threatening, and hand wringing.’ As Dr. MacAfee mentions, these never worked with our son. It wasn’t until Jeff had to face the natural consequences of his addiction that he made a decision to change his life.

Today’s Promise to consider: I can’t force my addicted loved one into health, but I can allow him to face the repercussions of his addiction. For fourteen years I feared Jeff would die – the single most horrifying outcome for any parent – but in the end I could only offer roads to recovery, continue to love him, and pray for a better future.

The Washington Post, October 15, 2017: When you’re selling half a million pills to some pharmacy and you’re telling me that you don’t know what the rules are for a suspicious order?” said Geldhof, who is now working as a consultant to lawyers suing the (pharmaceutical) industry. “All we were looking for is a good-faith effort by these companies to do the right thing, and there was no good-faith effort. Greed always trumped compliance. It did every time. It was about money, and it’s as simple as that.” by Scott Highman and Lenny Bernstein 

My reflection: The Washington Post’s recent expose on the drug industry’s collusion with politicians to reduce regulations so opiates can flow more readily into the market is yet another glaring example of corruption and money reigning supreme. This is totally disgusting, unjustifiable and pathetic.

Today’s Promise to consider: When is enough, enough? How many kids have to die before our politicians and our society as a whole face the gravity of the situation of rising deaths by overdose. When will these young people get the help they need instead of being marginalized by those in power? MacAfee’s words ring in my ears, “Only when we take addiction out of the shadows and into the light can it be healed.” Kudos to the reporters who brought this story – out of the shadows and into the light.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/investigations/dea-drug-industry-congress/?tid=a_inl&utm_term=.c50508dee7b4