I’ve written before a friend battling addiction, and today I remembered another thing she told me:
I don’t remember her exact words, but her point was that some (or many) people may think that addicts don’t want to recover, but once they get to a point where they DO want to recover, it’s still a very difficult battle because the chemical addiction is so strong. She mentioned several times that she felt nearly suicidal because she WANTED to stop, but could not stop, at least not without a lot of help and support. She told me this while she was crying so hard she could barely stop.
Fortunately for her, in those times when she did feel suicidal but couldn’t stop on her own, she did reach out for help, and eventually made it past that point.
On a personal note, my friend was a very nice person; she just didn’t have a good situation growing up, and made some wrong turns on the road of life. My experience with her opened up my eyes about people battling addiction.