Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

The Face Of Addiction
The Courier-Tribune ^ | 5/20/18 | Annette Jordan

Posted on 05/22/2018 8:27:51 AM PDT by OneVike

click here to read article


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 101-114 next last
My prayers go out to Anna in her time of sorrow and pain.

Addiction comes in many forms, and there are many reasons one may fall into them. My son and daughter in-law are addicted to anything they can get a hold of, and only God knows what they do to attain the drugs they desire..

My sons name is Jason also, I have not heard from either in many, many Months. His mother and me divorced when he was 3. I was lost in those days trying to deal with many personal, emotional, and physical abuse troubles. I was lost, and cared about no one and nothing but myself. So, I was absent during Jason's upbringing. I learned years later about his struggle, try as I did, there was little I could do. As far as he was concerned, who was I to give him advice. So the space he desired I gave.

Who's to say why he became addicted to drugs. Maybe his addiction happened because I was an absent father. Maybe because his wife was using hard drugs when he met her. Maybe it's a combination of both, or none of the above. All I know is his life could be snuffed out already, or his wife's life. Only God knows, and he is estranged from his mother and sisters. So even they have no clue of his position or where about's. He is always in my thoughts and prayers though.

God has hot wired every human with a special faith component to our souls, even agnostics and atheists have faith in what they believe. Another way to explain this would be to say we have all been created with an addiction gene. It's that ever yearning desire to find something that will make us feel like we belong, or comfortable in our own skin if you will.

From the moment we become conscious of our self, we begin searching for that One Thing our soul craves. For each of us it could be a different point in life. Some find it when they are 10, some at 14, and yet others may take years before they find it, even into their 90's or on their deathbed. Sadly, most humans never find it until it's much, much too late. However, each and everyone of us are in search of it, even though we don't realize it.

This search could take us on journeys far from home and away from loved ones, or it could consist of a life long search in the little town we were born and never leave from. As we search we will go through trials and tribulations from thinking we found it just to realize, that for which we search for has yet to be found. So we try to fill that empty cold spot with things like drugs, alcohol, sex, eating, television, work, money, shopping, and sports. We will go from one addiction to another, never feeling as fulfilled or satisfied as we were created to feel.

Not until we find the One True God of the Universe, our Creator, our Father, will we stop searching. That's because God wanted us to be addicted to Him. Sadly, the vast majority of humans will spend their life addicted to the wrong things. Only when we find Christ Jesus, will we truly be free of the addictions the world has to offer..

My prayers go out for Anna, and in her struggle to understand and to get beyond her tragic reality of the moment. God knows all our hearts. After all, He is the only one we can never hide our deepest darkest thoughts and fears from. All He asks is for us to be honest with Him, and ask for His help. Doesn't mean we will not continue to struggle, it Just means He will give us the out we need. If we would only take it.

1 posted on 05/22/2018 8:27:51 AM PDT by OneVike
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: buffyt; persistence48; Hanna548; DvdMom; leftyontheright; FrdmLvr; jblann1; SendShaqtoIraq; ...
Religious/Political
Opinion/Commentary

Ping List



Send FReep Mail to OneVike to get
[ON]
or [OFF]
Ping List
I am still working on finding
the best image for my ping. Let me
know what you think of this image.
Good, or should I keep looking?

2 posted on 05/22/2018 8:29:39 AM PDT by OneVike
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: OneVike

Except in a few cases of doctor-caused addiction, it is a CHOICE made by the addict. Nobody pinned him down and forced a needle into his vein, or forced a powder up his nose, or lit up a lump of stuff and forced him to inhale it. I do feel for you and the others affected by addictive behavior and its inevitable results, but they bring it upon themselves with little or no thought of you or others.

My partial solution? Execute drug dealers, from street level to kingpin. No plea bargains, one appeal, then kill ‘em!


3 posted on 05/22/2018 8:36:28 AM PDT by JimRed ( TERM LIMITS, NOW! Build the Wall Faster! TRUTH is the new HATE SPEECH.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: OneVike

My prayers for your son and daughter in law.
I never had children, but I grew up in a loving family.
So I know how strong that bond can be, no matter how old or how bold we get as adults. A piece of my soul is out there.
Maybe that’s how you feel too.


4 posted on 05/22/2018 8:37:22 AM PDT by lee martell
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: JimRed

I don’t believe in addition. I believe in choice. People enable drug users when they allow them to claim they don’t have control.

Why is it that a drunk can go to an AA meeting and not drink when nothing physical happens there? No one holds them down or takes a drink from their hands. Because it is a choice not to drink.


5 posted on 05/22/2018 8:38:50 AM PDT by CodeToad
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: JimRed

Well stated.


6 posted on 05/22/2018 8:40:33 AM PDT by Hulka
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: CodeToad

“I don’t believe in addition.”

How do you feel about subtraction?

.


7 posted on 05/22/2018 8:40:44 AM PDT by Mears
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Mears

I can take it or leave it.


8 posted on 05/22/2018 8:42:52 AM PDT by CodeToad
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: OneVike

But for the grace of god there go I.


9 posted on 05/22/2018 8:45:51 AM PDT by freedomlover
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: JimRed

You don’t understand addiction at all. There comes a time when it’s not a choice and I do not expect you to understand that at all. We’re not just talking about heroin, booze, pills, cocaine...People will always find what they are looking for. The most destructive of all? BOOZE and you can get that at your local corner convenience store.


10 posted on 05/22/2018 8:47:04 AM PDT by Hildy (There)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: OneVike

Such a tragic story. I hope their kids don’t end up in the same lifestyle.


11 posted on 05/22/2018 8:48:49 AM PDT by GnuThere
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: CodeToad

I wouldn’t be so quick to judge. My son started heroin to ease back pain. He said in a week he was hooked. The drug dampens your willpower to stop and to even think rationally. He ended up in jail for 60 days, which he was thankful for because he was able to detox and take back his life. It has been 3 or 4 years of him being clean with no desire to go back. For that I thank God!!


12 posted on 05/22/2018 8:48:57 AM PDT by JPII Be Not Afraid
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: OneVike
Your testimony is very, very powerful.

You love your son, your daughter-in-law, your family, but you know as well as anyone, that you don't love them as much as God loves them.

Savior is His Name. Pray, hold your head up. I will pray. He can save even in the last nanosrcond of a person's life.

13 posted on 05/22/2018 8:49:33 AM PDT by Mrs. Don-o (Tell the truth and shame the devil.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: JimRed

“Except in a few cases of doctor-caused addiction,”

it’s not a few, it’s a lot.

https://www.drugabuse.gov/drugs-abuse/opioids/opioid-overdose-crisis

prescription opioid pain killers like Oxycodone and Fentanyl are EXTREMELY addictive, with most people being addicted after using for only two weeks, and many after only a week.


14 posted on 05/22/2018 8:49:54 AM PDT by catnipman ((Cat Nipman: Vote Republican in 2012 and only be called racist one more time!))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: OneVike

““I started using with him,” she says, drugs like Oxycodone, cocaine, whatever they could find. “We started shooting up together. “

Classy.


15 posted on 05/22/2018 8:54:57 AM PDT by Blue House Sue
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: JimRed
My partial solution? Execute drug dealers,

You're an emotion-driven idiot. First, the dealers are killing each other, and their customers, at a very decent rate already. Second, once you allow Government to start lowering the bar on who can be executed because they "aren't good for society", you open the door permanently to the worst tyranny imaginable. Thirdly, you lack of compassion for those in a living Hell from their own choices is despicable. We all make mistakes. Further, many (most?) who run to hard drugs have some emotional pain they are desperate to escape (rape by parents being the most common for young girls).

16 posted on 05/22/2018 8:59:56 AM PDT by Teacher317 (We have now sunk to a depth at which restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: JimRed

“Except in a few cases of doctor-caused addiction, it is a CHOICE made by the addict.”

Drug use is always a choice and addiction is a consequence of that choice.

People chose to be addicts.


17 posted on 05/22/2018 9:00:38 AM PDT by Blue House Sue
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: JPII Be Not Afraid

I’m not so sure. I was in a terrible accident some years ago (42 fractures) and was on Oxy/Percocet for five months. When the pain eased I had no desire to keep taking it. I was not addicted to it. “Addiction”?


18 posted on 05/22/2018 9:00:57 AM PDT by pabianice (LINE)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: JimRed
Most of the Kingpins are: pharmaceutical company CEO's (or downstream operatives), government officials and/or operatives, leaders of cartels, warlords, etc.

Talk is cheap, how do you implement your solution?

19 posted on 05/22/2018 9:01:27 AM PDT by Aevery_Freeman (Idiocracy is Prophecy!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: CodeToad; JimRed; Hulka

I understand and have sympathy for addiction.

What really bothers me is this push by society to treat addicts as if they have a birth defect or cancer.

I am willing to have tax money spent to help these people. I have sympathy for them and their families.

But I get angry to see them treated as unfortunates who had as much control over their condition as someone who has bone cancer or a traumatic brain injury.


20 posted on 05/22/2018 9:02:32 AM PDT by rlmorel (Leftists: They believe in the "Invisible Hand" only when it is guided by government.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 101-114 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson