Ivy, its good to hear from you and to know that your son is making progress. I have thought about both of you so often. Life sounds very tough, as you say, not many people end up with the life they hope for, but this must be very hard for you. Its good, as you say, knowing that your son is not roaming the streets at night, driven to putting himself in danger in order to buy drugs, must give you a degree of peace. Its also good that you can take him out of hospital for time together, that must help him so much, in having time with you doing normal things.
My son has moved back to the city that he was in before lockdown, and he is getting back with the friendship group that he had before drugs. My situation is now a bit like Jeanie’s, in that there is progress while I am here. Yesterday he went to a Smart recovery meeting, while I sat in a cafe nearby doing my work. He has an appointment with addiction services on Monday, so I will definitely stay to make sure that he goes. Over the bank holiday I wasn’t here, my partner and I were just about to go into a restaurant when I got a call begging for money and saying that he would kill himself if he couldn’t get heroin and stop withdrawing. It was awful, he was screaming at me, and completely out of his head. I have been here since then. I know that he wants to engage fully with services and start on a methadone script but I am concerned that in the back of his find he’s just trying to make heroin more economically viable. He has cut down a little bit recently but when I came back from being away there were empty bottles of spirits as well, so he is definitely substituting.
I watched the youtube video about Seattle, having lived with a heroin addict I can see how there is so much mess everywhere. I think in America their medical system has created a lot of their current opiate epidemic. Their doctors were financially motivated to prescribe Oxycontin and similar drugs, so many ordinary people that would never have tried street heroin became addicted, with the prescriptions being withdrawn if you went back to your doctor to tell them that you were developing an addiction – forcing so many then to find drugs on the street or dark web, ending up on heroin/fentanyl. I don’t think anyone has gone to prison over this scandal – from the pill prescribers to the pharmaceutical companies. It makes me so angry, even kids going to doctors with sports injuries got caught up in this. Sorry, I’ve gone off topic, but I believe this is why so many towns in America, especially in the rust belt are going through this.
The Codak centres look very positive in supporting addicts coming out of prison. I have no idea what would motivate someone who has lost everything and only has a friendship group of users, to get clean. It looks like an impossible task, and as you say, with only the hope of low grade accommodation and a horrible job, if you’re lucky. It takes so many people being on the side of the addict, providing support for them to have the will to make the changes and stay on track.
Sorry for rambling on, I hope things continue to improve and that your son can leave hospital soon.
I hope that everyone else is doing okay and has some peace in their lives.