Inside the Life of a Mother and her Teen Addict

 This is probably going to be the hardest thing I have ever written, for I have never written it anywhere.  It was part of my subconcious denial.  To any parent who has a child as an addict my prayers are with you and don't give in.

My daughter I will call Marie was an exceptional child. Smart Intuitive, curious with a personality that was unmatchable. She started school when she was 4. I had originally tested her for pre-K but she tested high enough to go on to kindergarten. By Second grade Marie was put in the Academically Gifted Program where she did more work and it was at a higher level. All students in the AGP were sent to one school, where they spent everyday, every class together until she would reach High School.

I was hesitant about it as first because the the classroom was small and very few minorities. I guess they picked the rich hopefuls and then the real smart ones. That was the always the rumor anyway. I figured well if the parent's are smart and well behaved then so will the kids> huh?

When Marie was 7 I put her in baseball. She was a natural and good at it. She had always preferred outside and riding bikes with the boys that staying inside p laying with dolls. In her 7th year of ball she was an Al-Star. She kept the same coach for 7 years upon my request. He was making a hell of a ball player out of her. She played first base the first seven years, and she was feared. By the time she turned 15 she had started playing fast pitch and with a coach became a great picture and pitched every game every inning. This is when she tore her rotator cuff at 15. It was at the end of the season so she was at least happy to have a while to heal before it was time to play again.

Marie had surgery and more prescriptions of pain killers I have never seen one Orthopedist give someone so young, so much. She was on the pain killers for 6 moths.

That fall Marie started High School and suddenly went back to practice. She could no longer pitch but she held her first base position until she graduated. Marie was taking AP courses, which are college prep, and in her sophomore year she scored high enough to take evening college classes which she did around ball season.

You would have thought that it would have occurred to me that Marie was taking Honors Classes, spent endlesss hours on homework, college courses, going to the gym and working a part time job that that was just too much for one person to handle. Marie disagreed and kept going through school like a breeze. She never felt no pain, I never wondered I was just thankful. Little did I know, her AG friends supplied her with pain pills for 3 years. It was so easy to find, everyone trusted her and never thought she would abuse them, so they say. If Maire told her coach her shoulder was hurting, he would give her something if it was before a game.

My Beautiful smart daughter was an addict.

When my sister died of opiate abuse I would have thought that Marie would not have touched that crap in a million years. It does not discriminate.

This is when I intervened. I went to her orthopedist and threatened a law suit for prescribing narcotics to an underage patient while the parent wasn't there and he wrote a note asking the school board for her to take leave of absence for 6 months,praying it would work. Time was wasting, she was losing her life both physically, mentally and her education was going to suffer as well.

With Marie's AP credits and credits from college her leave of absence was granted. She went to school twice a week to pick up her work, she was not allowed to play on the baseball team but remained a uniformed member. She could play her senior year.

I immediately got on the phone and the Internet looking for an intervention program or a rehab or someone to give me answers. Everywhere I called recommended I take her to a Methadone clinic and they would wean her off. Sounded good, sounded simple. I called the closest clinic an hour and a half a away to set up an appointment. Once arriving they took a urine test from Marie to make sure she did have opiates in her system, told them about how much she took a day and spoke with a social Worker for 15 minutes. They then asked for 300.00 cash and gave Marie a does of Methadone as her daily dose. It was twice the amount she was used to taking. For 4 and a half months I woke up every morning at 5 am, packed up the baby and took Marie to the clinic an hour and a half giving them 20 dollars for her daily dose. She couldn't drive, she would nod off in a matter of minutes and this continued for weeks.

As a last result I talked with my MD and he told me this was almost a money making scam and if she continued, she would die. Die, she would die. He recommended me to a Doctor in another town that prescribed a drug called Suboxone that helps with cravings and acts as an opiate blocker.

I got her to that doctor and in order for her to start the new medication she had to be in withdrawal. So we had to go home and wait for two days until she was in full withdrawl then come back and get her prescription.

Marie was bound and determined that she was not going to purposely go into withdrawal just to get medication. As much as she wanted her life back, withdrawal was so bad she would tell me. I never witnessed it until then but I had noticed mood swings and her just feeling sick. The next few days would be probably the worse I have ever had. To watch your daughter sweat bead of sweat while freezing and throwing up, cramps. It was if I had to treat her like a baby. I bathed her, held her, let her scream, cry, we prayed and after three days and no leep we both went back to the doctor for her medicine. Marie was way enough into withdrawal that the suboxone would take fect soon. It made her withdrawal symtpons subside. She became more active and started to get back in shape. She was my old Marie again. She is doing well now, I know that it is an everyday battle for her and I refuse to give up on her having a happy life mostly continuing her education.

Marie finished high school six moths earlier than the students in her class. Along with the leave of absence and the drug addiction she never let her grades drop or her baseball skills be effected. i think they helped her, more energy etc. If there is one thing I can thank God for it is that she didn't give up and never let anyone get her down.

She leaves in 2 weeks for her second semester at WFU. She is there on a full academic and athletic scholarship. I am so proud of her hard work and proud to say she is my daughter, a Recovered Addict at age 20.