re: About to put my son in drug rehab. update page 20

Congrats on getting him into treatment. I hope & pray that it works for him.

I have experience on both sides of the fence with addiction, both as an addict & a parent of an addict.

From my experience as an addict, he isn't going to quit until he is ready to quit. Something dramatic will have to happen for him to wake up & decide that he is done with dope. At least that is how it was for me.

I cleaned up about 10 years ago & met my wife. She had a son from a previous marriage that was pretty much a carbon copy of me when I was his age. I saw the writing on the wall and did everything i could think of to try to get him to quit. It just caused huge problems at home with my wife & her family. It was a very tough time.

2 days after Christmas of 2007 I told my wife & mother in law that they had to do something & get him help. I actually printed out some paperwork for a rehab & I point blank told them...

"He needs to go to this place. If not here, somewhere, anywhere, but he needs help. If we don't do something, we will be putting him in a box."

I went offshore the next morning. I got a phone call on January 4th, 2008. He OD'd & had passed away.

Not a day goes by that I do not wish that I would have done more to prevent this from happening. Losing a child is something that no parent should ever have to go through & I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy.

My advice is this: DO NOT ENABLE HIM!!! Do not bail him out of jail, give him money or anything else that will enable him to continue to use.

I can't even begin to tell you how it feels to lose a child like this, but I can assure you that you do not want to find out. it's been almost 7 years & it still feels like it happened yesterday...

RIP Nic... I love u man...