Ashley McGlaughlin
More and more families are experiencing the loss of a loved one to drug abuse. The drugs being abused could be street drugs, or even prescribed narcotics from doctors. There is a wide range of reasons why people hurt themselves by doing this. Some intend to experiment ‘just once’, but end up becoming addicted forever. While “high” on drugs, you most likely have a different personality. It is completely horrible for a child, or a parent, to see their family member act differently because they choose to use these drugs. It is heart breaking, especially because this is something the abuser can control. We, meaning each and every one of us, need to take action now!
Peer pressure, personal problems, and even a reliance on something that is supposed to help us—pain killers—can lead a person to turn to drug abuse. We may be related to someone who is already demonstrating the example of substance abuse, we may see it on television, or we may be a friend of someone who is exhibiting the example. Peer pressure shows us that sometimes the people using drugs may appear to be popular or admired, so we try to do the same thing so we can also be admired and popular and accepted by others.
Painkillers are prescribed from a doctor, but the patient could easily take more than what they’re supposed to, trying to ease their pain. This leads to the patient’s painkillers running out, causing them to withdraw. Symptoms of withdrawal from drugs include aching joints, nausea, hot flashes, and even a short temper. The prescription pain pill abuser may feel so disturbed when they run out of their prescription, that they actually go buy illegal substances like heroine to ease their pain and cravings. Sometimes, without even realizing it, this becomes a recurring cycle every time their prescription runs out. Soon, this one mistake leads to a life time of disappointment.
By being addicted to heroin, cocaine, LSD, or even methamphetamine, whole families are impacted. Buying drugs is a waste of money, when the money runs out, the addiction causes financial stress. Soon, the abuser is using the cheap drugs to maintain their high. Street drugs that consist of unnatural materials that we put in our bodies will break down our natural body functions because our bodies don’t know what to do with the pollution we put in it. Drug abuse is at an all-time high. Couple that with the fact that the drugs on the streets are more deadly than ever, and we have a huge problem that has some impact on each and every member of our community.
At a Mackenzie’s Light Bereavement and Awareness Support Group meeting at the Thurmont Library in September, a father of a Thurmont girl who died from a heroin overdose said, “It [her death] blind-sided me! I thought she was drinking and I might get a call to come pick her up somewhere. But, I had no idea that she was into anything harder.” His daughter was a talented 20-year-old with a sunny personality. Like this father, your loved ones could be doing drugs without your knowledge. Your children could be taken away if you are a parent or a guardian who is found abusing these drugs. This affects your own children you have raised and the entire family unit.
There are children under the age of ten years old that have seen more drugs around them than what a grown man has seen. These children get placed in unfamiliar places like foster care, which changes their lives forever. Some don’t even get away from the drugs, they grow up thinking drugs aren’t that bad, so they also become addicted. It becomes a way of life and coping for them.
Here in our home towns, there have been multiple cases of heroin overdose, death, and other drug abuses. If you are using drugs, this is the time to stop, and to change your life. You don’t realize it while you’re under the influence, but every decision has a consequence, and it affects more people than you think. All of our lives involve choices and we all make hundreds of choices on a daily basis. Communication, observation, awareness, support, and sometimes even policing are of utmost importance.
Mackenzie’s Light Bereavement and Awareness Support Group meets monthly at the Thurmont Library. People impacted in any way by addiction are invited to attend. At the next meeting, Thurmont’s Police Chief, Greg Eyler, will talk about the statistics of suicide resulting from addiction. Stop by on Monday, October 27, 2014 at 6:30 p.m. Also, during this meeting, a recovering alcoholic parent will talk about grieving the loss of their child who committed suicide related to drug addiction. These are real problems, real losses, real people. Please call 301-524-8064 for more information or check them out on Facebook.
Project Hope in Thurmont, helps youth with positive reinforcement. They are an anti-drug group with the goal of helping addicts find whatever resources that are available to help them get into recovery. Project Hope will be there as a support team for anyone who needs help. Check them out on Facebook or read about them in this issue.
Our local health department is another source of help. If the individual is on state insurance through medical assistance in Frederick County, mental health and substance abuse is covered under that policy. Our local rehabilitation center accepts that insurance (i.e. United Health Care, Amerigroup, Riverside, Priority Partners, and Maryland Physicians Care) for inpatient treatment of substance abuse, to educate and assist addicts with the withdrawal process, as well as train them to deal with addiction as an illness.
All walks of life are affected by this disease.
