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The Ultimate Mother’s Day Gift
Easter just passed and everyone knows what comes next, Mother’s Day, then Father’s Day. Two very special days set aside to acknowledge our parents. Whether you are a mom or have a mom, if drug addiction or alcoholism is affecting your family, this is the perfect time to give, well, the perfect gift.
If you have a problem, get help. Seek treatment in a Texas rehab program. Imagine this, going to your mother and admitting you have a problem and that you want to get help now. It would be the ultimate Mother’s Day gift. She has likely prayed and begged you time and again to get help. She isn’t doing it to nag. She does it because she loves you.
Now, on the other hand, are you a mother with a drug or alcohol problem? Make a promise to be there for years to come for your children by seeking help now. Give your children one of the greatest lessons you can: that it is not shameful to seek help and that you and they are worth getting that help for.
Whether you are a young man who saw combat in a war zone, a college student or high school student, you have a mother who loves you and wants nothing in life except your happiness. Whether you are a parent yourself, or a free and easy going single young person, or even someone older and supposedly more mature in your 30s, 40s or 50s, if you have a drug or alcohol problem, get help.
A card is lovely, a gift is nice, a trip to the casino is fun but honestly? No mother would take any of those over the possibility that her child, no matter his or her age, is getting help for a substance abuse problem.
This sounds like a good idea but you are not sure just where to start? Call the toll free number you see on this site. We can help you help yourself. Or email us and we will quickly respond. Texas has some wonderful rehab programs and we are here to help you find one and get your treatment started.
This Mother’s Day, show her how much you love her. Acknowledge you need help and get it. Your mother will always love you, and by getting help, you are showing her that you want to make many more wonderful memories together. I promise you, it is the ultimate Mother’s Day gift. Just ask your mom.
Help is One Call Away
This article is especially hard for me to write because it is close to my heart. A few days ago, a friend of mine lost a very special member of his family, a child less than two years old. There were drugs found at the scene according to officials. The details are not all completely known and this article is not about that particular situation but about getting help before it is too late.
Texas offers rehab programs. If you are on drugs, you most likely can not get off of them on your own. Detoxing can even be dangerous if not done under medical supervision. I’m not sure just how to write this other than to be completely open and honest. Drugs can take over control and someone you care about can pay the ultimate price. You are worth more than that and so are the ones in your life who are affected by your decision to take drugs.
If life seems overwhelming, if day to day situations are too stressful, please know that you can get help at a Texas rehab center. Please know that if you are in another state, you can get help, too. The rehab center is not there to judge you, it is comprised of people who want to see you succeed in beating your addiction. Along with detoxing, you will have counseling, group therapy and classes to learn why you became addicted and how to avoid a relapse.
If you know of someone who is addicted, call a Texas rehab center and request help. Most likely, the counselor you are put together with will recommend an intervention. Have a counselor available at this very important meeting.
Whether you are setting up an intervention for a loved one or it is you personally who has the addiction, please get help. You will not only be saving a very special person, yourself (even if you do not see yourself that way, you ARE), and you quite possibly could be saving the lives of others at the same time. Children holler and act up. People on drugs have a higher stress level and can not handle that. Get help for that person and you will also be helping any children that person has or is around.
Help is one phone call away. Please do this for yourself and the children in your life. Do it in memory of a special little boy you never even knew. It will be one of the greatest steps you ever take and one that you will absolutely never regret.
Spare Tires: A New Place to Find Drugs
Spare tires aren’t just a slang phrase for overweight people and they aren’t just a way of being responsible and prepared for a flat. No, nowadays, spare tires seem to be good hiding places (well, maybe not) for marijuana. DPS officers in Texas are finding this out more and more
In September, 73 pounds of marijuana worth over $23,000 was found in Hungerford. In June, 1400 pounds were found in two spare tires in Pierce. Yesterday, 70 pounds was found in a spare tire in Wichita Falls when a car was stopped for speeding.
More and more traffic stops are turning into criminal arrests, not for speeding or seat belt violations but for transporting drugs. Texas shares a border with Mexico and the drug trade is getting bigger and getting worse. Now, let me ask a few questions here to those who have experience in the illicit drug business. Bear in mind that no one knows you are answering these questions except you and the Man upstairs if you believe in Him.
My first question is, seriously, is it worth it? Is smuggling or transporting drugs, dealing them to minors and others who are addicted, is it worth it? Is having a lot of money for a little bit of time until you are busted or one of your workers is busted and makes a deal and turns on you really worth it? Can you truly live with the fact that a pre-teen or teen is hooked on what you sell and you could be intervening with the person who had been destined to find a cure for cancer or solve the great Hoffa mystery or write the next bestseller or break a sporting record?
Maybe you don’t have a spare tire because you do drugs and it keeps the weight off but being a dealer is no less attractive. Do you know what you are missing? You are missing out on walking the beaches and holding the hand of the love of your life. You are missing out on a child looking up at you with adoring eyes and saying “Daddy, teach me to tie my shoe.” You are missing out on the proud look of your mother because you are now walking the stage at the university of your choice, having accomplished the dream of getting your degree.
Drugs being found in spare tires. It certainly beats finding them in the bodies of precious young people who have accidentally overdosed. Texas has a bad drug problem. It doesn’t take such offenses lightly. If you are reading this, it is not too late to turn your life around. Do it for your future children, that degree you dreamed of, that book you want to write or whatever your secret goal is. Because I know a secret that you don’t. You are worth a second chance.
What Does Health Care Reform Mean for Addicts
The health care reform bill passed. Now what does it mean? According to the front page of my local paper it means 13 attorney generals are already filing suit against it. Some people can barely feed their children in this economy. Many people skip meals because they can’t feed themselves and are thankful they do not have a child in this economy. Now the government is saying pay for health coverage or get a fine? What does this mean for someone with a drug addiction or, more likely, a dual diagnosis problem of addiction and mental problems? There is no straight answer. Every link, every meeting shown on TV, shows a different answer.
I can s
ee it now. A person can not afford health care yet finally admits he or she has an addiction problem that has damaged that person both physically and mentally. Drugs take away everything so you know that person isn’t eating or worrying about paying bills. He goes to get help and is told “Oh, you do not have health insurance. We need to contact law enforcement.” Hmm, sort of reminds me of the vet who went to a clinic stating he was suicidal and was told sorry, no room for you here and later killed himself.
The surprising thing about my article? I have always been a Democrat. However, I am turning more and more to a Republican view on this. Women writing hot checks to feed their children because they can not get food stamps, men working honey-do jobs for less than minimum wage just to make enough to keep the electric on that month, the stories are all over the internet and in our society. What will health care reform mean for those families and for the families of an addict? The Texas attorney general has joined in the suit.
Now I would love for every person to have health care insurance but to be penalized criminally for it? People who can not afford insurance are not criminals. I could never afford insurance as a single mother and was thankful that my children were covered under their father’s insurance following our divorce. I made sure to keep myself healthy and exercised and dieted and stayed away from things that could hurt me. That doesn’t mean I’m a saint. It doesn’t mean someone who is sick or can’t afford health care or is an addict is a lowlife, either. Addiction is a disease, cancer is a disease. Being poor should not make one a criminal yet that is exactly what the new health care reform will make those who can not afford it. Oh, and if you think the poor can go get government coverage, well, just ask the injured vet who keeps getting denied or the single mother who can not get food stamps so she goes without eating in order to feed her kids.
What does health care reform mean for addicts? Something tells me we haven’t seen the entire picture in this so-called scale of fairness.
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