Love the Addict, Not the Addiction
—Written and shared with permission by an Anonymous Mom
Although we generally focus on posts that give readers a message of hope, this emotional reality check is a “must-read.”
If you’re one of the lucky ones who doesn’t understand addiction because of firsthand experience, I hope you never do. I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy. But please don’t judge or talk down to someone who does.
It’s not so easy to understand why if you’re not in that place.
Don’t say you hope “they all overdose and die” because you don’t understand what it’s like to fight a war with your mind and body.
You don’t know what it’s like to lose sleep because you don’t know where someone you love is, or whether you’ll get the call that they lost their battle.
You don’t know what it’s like to witness a mother throw herself over a casket, screaming and holding on for dear life, because her only baby boy took one too many pills a week earlier. You don’t know what it’s like to see a little girl run down the aisle of a funeral home, screaming, “My daddy, my daddy.” You don’t know what it’s like to see the look on a father’s face when doctors tell him, “We’re sorry. We did all we could. She’s gone.”
You don’t know what it’s like to have nightmares about never hearing your brother’s laugh again.
You don’t know what it’s like to sit and wonder what you could have done, or what you can do, to save them.
And I hope you never do.
But for those of us who understand, don’t down the people we love or us.
Don’t wish death upon them. Someone out there is fighting so hard to find a way to keep them alive, and you just wouldn’t understand. Anyone who does prays you never do.
