|
WHAT DRUG DEPENDENCE DOES TO THE ADDICT'S FAMILY
Gillian was a rich woman with two daughters, Jenny and Isabel. Jenny started using drugs just after leaving school. Her mother tried everything to 'help' her. She found her a place in college, and then another one when Jenny got chucked out for using drugs. She found her new places to live so that she wouldn't have to meet her old drug-using friends. She bought her a new wardrobe to help her morale. She found her doctors, and more doctors, and yet more doctors. These prescribed drugs. Jenny just abused them.
The rest of the family looked on with mounting horror as Gillian seemed to get more and more obsessed with the drug problem. Her other daughter, Isabel, became very upset indeed. Her mother more or less ignored her. It was as if she would only get attention if she started using drugs herself.
Whatever Gillian did, Jenny went on using drugs. She'd make promises, and then she'd go back to drugs. Gillian got more and more frantic. She decided that it was all her fault. Finally, feeling a complete failure, she committed suicide.
Chemical dependence had wrecked the whole family. Jenny the drug user was still taking drugs. Her mother had killed herself. Her sister had lost, first of all, her mother's love and attention, then finally her mother herself.
Most families see what drug dependence is doing to the addict. What they can't see is what drug dependence is doing to them.
*36\116\2*
| 
