Realizing how much we depend on relationships with the people who make us feel happy and complete in our lives is a scary thought. It leaves us vulnerable and susceptible to something that will never be guaranteed. When there’s a steady balance in your life it is as if that feeling will last forever, but when you lose someone to drug addiction, life will quickly prove that it can turn upside down at any given moment.
According to Defining the Addiction Treatment Gap, roughly 23.5 million Americans are addicted to drugs or alcohol, meaning an even larger amount of people are affected by the repercussions of addiction.
In school we are taught that drugs are bad; that we should never try them. But nobody ever tells you what to expect when someone in your life falls under the realms of addiction. There is no way of preventing who will experiment with it, who will become dependent on it and who will ultimately give their life up to it. Drugs are a dangerous gamble that will never lead us to a winning streak.
Finding out that someone you love is coping with addiction may not seem so groundbreaking at first. There’s a sense of denial that draws you away from how serious the situation may be. And of course, with the help and support you’re willing to provide they can overcome anything, right?
Well, it isn’t that easy when you realize that addiction is more than just a bad habit to kick, addiction is a chronic disease that alters the way chemical systems function in the brain. A drug and alcohol rehab statistic shows that 50-90 percent of addicts will relapse when seeking recovery.
When you realize this is a problem much greater for you to solve for someone, it begins to overwhelm every inch of you from head to toe. The outcome begins to appear blurry, and the more you try to understand the situation for what it is, the more you just can’t seem to understand why.
“Why?” the question that’s constantly lingering in the back of your mind.
It’s as if you’re being cheated on in a relationship, only they’re not choosing someone else over you, they’re picking something else, something you can’t confront or yell at, something that you can’t make go away because the toll it’s taken has already done it’s damage.
There are times you can’t help but blame yourself. The sense of hopelessness that comes over you leaves you wondering what you could’ve done to prevent any of this from happening.
What makes things worse is when you have no idea how to be there for that person anymore. Knowing how to fix them from this heart-rending issue is impossible, because ultimately, you can’t. In order for someone to receive the help that they need they must be willing to accept it. In the meantime, you’re left anxiously awaiting for what type of news you’ll hear next.
As they sink deeper into their addiction it doesn’t take long before you notice that who they once were is not who they have come to be. Addiction changes people, affecting the entirety of ones existence.
There comes a time when all you can feel is anger towards them for making things the way they are. But then you remind yourself that they had no control choosing to become dependent on the one thing that’s disguised to repair all of the damage.
Now, you’re left with nothing and nobody to blame. When they disappear from your life altogether it suddenly hits you that they won’t be coming back. Addiction had taken them away without a warning before you had even realized it.
That’s the worst part about addiction; watching them fade away from your life while holding onto any chance to get them back; it never comes with a warning label, and it will never bother to answer why.
