We talk about a lot of things as if they didn’t reflect a real person and a real life.
Addiction is one of them. And let me just tell you, every single number is a life and behind every single life is a family.
Statistics are easy to toss around until one of those numbers represents YOUR child.
My son was not an addict. He was a health nut. But he liked his motorcycle and never saw the contradiction between spending hours at the gym then putting that beautiful body on a fast moving, unprotected engine-on-wheels. A helmet was not enough to save him that night.
Addicts don’t start out wanting the life so many of them end up living.
Read the rest here: Child Loss by Addiction
Share this:
thelifeididntchoose 
Melanie, thank you for this post. When my son died of an overdose in 2017 we experienced all the sorrow you would expect along with the “complications” that go along with the loss of your adult child to addiction. Most people were compassionate and kind but there were a few who made his death “his own fault” with it on some lesser scale than someone who died of a “real illness” or in a tragic accident. Some even questioned my surety that he was with the Savior he loved. Death is death, loss is loss, grief never ends. We miss his place in our family and we grieve what will never be for him. I will see him again. Thank you for this empathetic and insightful post.
LikeLiked by 1 person
My son Dylan, who died of an accidental heroin overdose, said to me, “When I started using drugs, I realized it was a choice … a poor one but a choice. Now, it is no longer a choice … I use in order to survive.” He had been clean for six months prior to his death. When people say, “Well, he chose this”… in some ways I have to agree but in others, I cannot. We have all made poor choices in our lives for various reasons. The consequences of some of them are more far-reaching and potentially more dangerous than others.
LikeLike