How do you help an addict? How do you get them to see there is another way of life?
For several years now we have been on a complete roller coaster with our oldest son. We have dealt with lie after lie. We have made sacrifice after sacrifice trying to get him help. Nothing seems to get through to him. If you name it we have done it trying to help him in any way possible. We are exhausted, hurt, mentally and emotionally drained.
The question is what do you do next? Do you walk away? I have never walked away and there were times that he was so mean and cruel that I should have but I could not. I just kept telling myself that is not my son saying those things, this is not the boy I raised. The boy I raised was smart, handsome, athletic, loved the Lord and might I add he can quote his Bible better than his mom.
What did I do wrong, how did this happen? You start questioning everything that you have ever done concerning how you raised him to how did you let this happen. Why God has not answered our prayers? Why are we continuing to go through this?
For years we have prayed and prayed for him to beat this addiction and to be who God created him to be. I know God created him for a purpose and this is not it.
The Bible tells us that God will use whatever pain you go through for good. Oh, how do I cling and hope to see the good come out of years and years of pain and hurt?
How do you reach someone that does not want to be reached? How do you walk away from your own son?
I have spent a lot of time reading and researching addiction and mental illness. It is hard for me to understand because I have never dealt with it myself. Listening to my son explain what it is like for an addict is so hard to hear must less watch. When your an addict and struggling with mental illness it takes a lot of work and determination to pull yourself out of the hole you have put yourself in. I know everybody needs someone to love and encourage and to help them to get to a better place in life but how do you help, how do you reach them?
We are at a point that we just don't know what else to do or how to help. We are praying that somehow, something or someone will get through to him. I pray for the people that may cross his path that God will use them and their words to help our son in any way possible.
Until going through this with my son I never viewed homeless people on the street as I do now. I have always tried to help everyone in any way I possibly can but now when I see a man on the street I think that is someone's son, brother, or husband and immediately start
praying for them and their family because it truly affects your whole family.
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