Really Important News

Eight Hundred Days.

That is how long a member of my family has been off of that horrible awful drug Meth. The message here is, it can be done. It is not easy, but it can be done. It is worth it to get off the drugs, life can get better.

Over 2 years ago we as a family were distraught as to how to save our addicted family member. We did not know what else to do. We watched helplessly as the drug turned a once very sweet, funny, lovable person into an unrecognizable paranoid psychotic person teetering on the edge of an abyss we might never be able to reach far enough into to retrieve him again. It was bad. We thought we might lose him to the drug, the streets, the law.

We did not know what to do. We gave it to God. He was the only one powerful enough to reach into that abyss to grab him. We were relieved when he called from jail. We made the mistake the first time thinking two weeks in there was long enough to sober him up, he started using again within hours of us picking him up. No, we could not make that mistake again. The second time he was picked up we knew as difficult as it was, we had to leave him there. We had no choice. It was that or watch his death helplessly from the sidelines. He got into jail, he had to get out.

He did the time, had his hearings, after several months he got out. He screwed up his first week there and decided to whack his cellmate in the face with a sock stuffed with something. The cellmate threw him around the cell for a bit, then the officers broke up the scuffle. Since he was the aggressor they sent him to a different jail, a much meaner jail. The one with all the dudes waiting to go to prison, the one with murderers and rapists, and all around mean men.

He managed to get by in there for several months until he was sent to another jail, it was better as far as jails go. It was horrible to think of him there, it was worse to think of him on the Meth and the people he was involved with. We kept in contact with him. We tried to encourage him. His first letters were jumbled and crazy sounding, it was the drugs in his system. His mind was not right. Meth truly imposes a state of mental illness on a person. He kept trying. All he could do in there was read. He kept reading. We sent him lots and lots of books and letters to read. His letters started making sense, his mind started clearing. His reality was right there before him, he had to make a change.

As much as we wanted to we could not make all the bad stuff go away for him. He had to face the cold hard facts. He had to make amends, repent, be made new. We all could use a bit of that now and then, though preferably not under such extreme circumstances.

In the last 800 days, he has paid his fines, hefty fines that they were. He has been working with a 12 step program. He has a job, has taken college courses, is going to take more. He bought himself a car. He has returned to being the sweet, lovable, funny person he once was. He's one of my best friends in the whole world. He has repaid his debts as best as he can. He cannot take back his actions of the past, but he cannot let that stop him from moving forward. I'm really really proud of him. A whole heck of a lot can be done in 800 days, and he's done it.