Teens Addicts Relapse

“He had a beautiful heart and was a wonderful young man. One of the most frustrating things throughout all of this was, rehab gives them the tools but then they come back to the same situation. There is no after care or support for families dealing with this.” Reading this story is so frustrating. It is a sad fact that getting an addict clean can take years. You read story after story that describe the trials undergone to save addicted teens. Program after program, military teen boot camps, outpatient and in-patient drug rehabs, and specialty schools. The teenager takes a few steps forward, than immediately backtracks. Finally they are in complete despair. “At one point after an arrest around Thanksgiving 2004 he just sobbed that he can’t make it stop…It was heartbreaking. He’d say I just want to be a normal kid, but when he was using, his behavior was anything but normal.” She refused to give up on him. When he was released from treatment, she’d drive him to Narcotics Anonymous meetings. “It was part of our schedule, like soccer practice”

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Gilbert had been clean for more than eight months between prison and treatment despite a short relapse…He had gone back to school, was working two jobs and had even started speaking at meetings… He had told me that he was afraid if he used again he would die.” …police officers turned up at the family’s home hours after Gilbert and a friend were shooting up heroin in a Hartford hotel on July 6. She and her husband identified his body.” (Unknown source) By Ann Walker