Today, Dayton’s mayor opined that opiates are a “natural disaster.”
Two days ago, a “Commission” asked the President to declare opioid addiction a “national
emergency”. The American Society of Addiction Medicine reported more than 20
million people suffer from addiction to opiates. They conveniently omit that the suffering is self-imposed. By my unscientific reckoning, I calculate this would result in more than 60 million people being effected by the sycophantic muck
every addict leaves in their wake. Husbands, wives, children. Mothers of the
addict. Fathers of the addict. Every day they dodge the slime carelessly flung
by the addict's every move.
Because the addict is family.
Millions of family members must deal with the addicted because it
is the right thing to do. But so many are doing it the wrong way. Just as the
media overflows with stories focusing on the woeful addict and how sad their
condition is, placing blame on anybody except the addict, family members are
secondary in the struggles of the addicted. And that is wrong.
These family members, I pause here remembering also the
stout heart friends of the addict, alter their own lives in hopes of changing
the life of the drug abuser. To carry-on, these saints must come to realize putting themselves first
is not a sin nor an act of selfishness—it is a necessity!
Their love for the addict will become obligation by taking a secondary
role. Their servant’s heart will instead bleed the pain of a slave. A slave to
the obligation. A slave to the addict. The sacrifices made will become forfeitures
forgotten.
Hug your addict but not until you have put yourself first.
I learned this lesson the hard way. For years I chased the
hopeless dream of one day hugging a drug-free wife. I consistently made too
many addict-first decisions. My day of realization came when I recognized I was
losing everything...because of something I had already lost—myself.
My transformation came through God. My conversations with Him didn’t
require choosing words carefully so as not to offend or provide an ill-perceived
reason for her to go numb. If you are living with an addict and have come to a
crossroad where one sign reads “Them” and the other reads “You” know it is time to take
the high road. Yours.
Some who read this may not choose the same path I did, a
path forged by God. I pray that you would, but if there is another path you
prefer which leads to recognizing the foremost importance of being true to
yourself before the addict, then take it. Take it with no hesitation, with no regret
with no looking back. You will be stronger. You will survive.
Then, hug your addict.
You can read my story at
