Living through my daughter's drug addition

Living through my daughter's drug addition was the hardest thing I have ever done in my entire life. As a parent you love your children with all your heart unconditionally, you raise them to be honest productive people with values. When they are "using" none of those qualities exist, and it is so hard to comprehend how we got here. I say "we" because it affects the family as a whole. When they are using it makes it very hard to live your life, to provide for other members of the family, it affects every aspect of your life and your family. You fear for the child in the midst of their addiction, and you fear for their siblings. There are no set rules for handling drug addiction; you will hear everyone's opinion. If you have a loved one who is an addict you have my heart felt sympathies; I have felt your pain. Please understand you are not alone.

While my daughter was at home and we were dealing with her addiction there was not a minute in the day that I was not on edge. You just never knew what was going to happen next. She could be gone for days or show up on your doorstep out of the blue. You worry if they will live or die, you try to prepare yourself for anything, the inevitable. You worry about what your other children may have to deal with from their peers; you worry about their mental and physical safety. You wonder if you can possibly provide a normal life for them. As parents you do not always agree on the next step. I believe the addict prefers the chaos they create in the family as it provides a diversion to what they are doing. Everything of value must be under lock and key, or more. We actually purchased a large safe to keep anything of value in, which included car keys.

When my daughter called in the middle of the night to ask for help, there was only one type of help we were willing to provide, long term, in- house rehab treatment. If she would not agree we would not help. She entered Narconon California; it was what we had been looking for.

My daughter is now days short of being 18 months drug free. Although she does not live with us; we do have constant contact with her. She is now a hard working productive, individual. Every time we see her she is 100% better than the last time we saw her. It is amazing the progress she has made as a person.

Narconon California brought back our beautiful, wonderful, loving, daughter.

Kris D.