Reconstructing Rick

Heroin.  I cannot tell you how destructive it is but more importantly how many friendships it ruins.

One of my friends in NA has gone back to using and each time I ask him about it he tells me he is stopping. I ask him when is the last time he used and it’s always “2 hours ago”.  He wants to stop but he isn’t stopping anytime soon.  Everyone in NA who knows him knows he is using again.  Up to recently he had over a year and a half clean but then one day he thought that a drink won’t hurt him. The drink lead right back to using because it was acceptable to do so in his mind.

This is the thing that kills me. Some of these “so called” friends now says they want nothing to do with him. They are worried that hanging around him is going to make them want to use again. Also they know that heroin addicts steal and they don’t want their stuff stolen to pay for his habit. Again, these are fellow addicts!

This is not my opinion at all. This is the time when he needs us the most. It’s not going to take much to disconnect from everyone. Then he will be in isolation of all his friends. Next will come the overdose and then his death.  Everyone will say it’s all his fault because he had his own choice. Some friends.

I called him up the other day and offered him a job. That’s right. I am going to hire him. I am going to create normalcy in his chaotic brain. I told him his friendship is not conditional on his using and nor will be his job unless he lets it effect his job. I am also putting him in a position where he has to use his brain and creative thoughts. In effect, I am going to give him a little of what heroin has robbed from him… control of his life.

If I am wrong, he will crash. If I am right, then he will get clean again. I am not in control of that. All I am doing is opening the door to recovery. He has to walk thru it all by himself. I pray he will.

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