A Letter to the parents of addicts.
I know it’s hard watching your child throw their lives away to addiction, you keep praying that they will wake up and clean up. You try to not notice their addictive behavior, I get it, I was ‘that child’ to my parents and they watched me destroying myself nite after nite, week after week. They saw me bouncing in and out of jail, they watched me stealing their stuff, they watched me leave the house every time they gave me money. Speaking for all children that are addicts…you can pray for us to change but we won’t. YOU HAVE TO CHANGE! Yes you parents. Every time you give us money, or pay our bills, you are risking our death from overdose. We need tough love. Period. Don’t give us money, don’t let us act out without putting your foot down. You can’t tolerate our behavior. Tough love works. Even if we kick and scream all the way, you would be saving our lives. Keep catering to our addiction and risk losing us forever or do the right thing and stand up to us. If we get uncomfortable then we may take a step towards sobering up.
Moms and Dads, you have to understand that addiction is destroying us, if you love us you will cut us off. Don’t pay our phone bills, don’t pay our car payments or insurance, take our keys and phones away, otherwise you will get that dreaded phone call someday to come identify the body of your child. Addiction is a progressive disease, it only gets worse from this point forward.
Tough love. It works.
JR Weaver