Patrick (34) has been using drugs since he was 14 years old. He has tried his best to stay clean, but he says that he feels lost without drugs. His sister Betsy became an addict when she was 19 years old. However, she is now doing much better. She is clean and has a steady job at an animal shelter. She thinks that it was easier for her to become clean (and stay clean) because she was not as young when she started drugs.
Last May, Patrick overdosed 4 times in 6 hours. His mother and father shared how every second of everyday can be so scary because they never know if Patrick's overdose is his last. They are so afraid for him to die. They have had interventions and tried countless times to get Patrick to stop drugs. His mother is especially anxious.
"But most drug users do not die. Far more, like Patrick, are snared for years in a consuming, grinding, unending cycle of addiction.
In the 20 years that Patrick has been using drugs, he has lost track of how many times he has overdosed. He guesses 30, a number experts say would not be surprising for someone taking drugs off and on for that long."
I feel that this article is very important because drugs are becoming the leading cause of deaths and this is not okay! Betsy said that one of her biggest motivations to stop drugs is the fact that she finally realized how much she was hurting her family by doing drugs. I think that this is something that drug addicts really need to realize.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/21/us/opioid-addiction-treatment-families.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fus&action=click&contentCollection=us®ion=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront
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