She spent more than $110k on drug rehab. Her son still died
vox.com
vox.com
A friend of mine's wife is addicted to pain medication.
She was prescribed it by a doctor for years (issues related to a condition she needed serious brain surgery for.) She started getting concerned that she was getting addicted to it, and went to her doctor to try to figure out a solution.
As soon as he heard that she was having issues with it, he cut her off, cold turkey, and marked her down as drug-seeking. Brilliant.
She's since been on black market oxy for years, managed to quit, and, most recently, relapsed. They are no longer on speaking terms.
I feel for the family, but unfortunately there's nothing you can "buy" that can change someone's state of mind or being. Those who want to harm themselves and don't want help will reach their own demise on their terms. Some will even manipulate the feelings of those who love them in order to continue a damaging and deadly habit.
I wouldn't be surprised if Vox published an article titled "She couldn't get together $110k. Her son still died" or "Her son didn't want help. He died because of $110k". These kinds of articles are journalistic hack jobs that don't inform or help the issue of addiction and mental health.
This is news to the medical profession. As it turns out, there are things that you can buy to change someone's state of mind. Methadone, for one. Of course, because we don't treat drugs as a medical issue - and instead as a moral issue, lots of people who would benefit from it can't get it.
> Those who want to harm themselves and don't want help will reach their own demise on their terms.
Ah, right, those degenerates want to harm themselves. /s
Way to oversimplify addiction. This is the sort of thing that leads to toxic ideas, like "Oh, getting people off street heroin, and onto prescription methadone isn't any better - its just replacing one drug for another! Never mind that one of them will kill you, and turns you into a junkie only worried about the next fix, and the other lets you remain a productive member of society..."
When speaking with addicts at my front door in Boston I've found that many of them refuse food stamps or have explicitly told me they do not want help. This is from conversation directly with those in need and struggling addicts.
If you have done the same, I warrant your criticism. Otherwise, you should consider whether your perspective is really as valid as you believe it to be :)
The typical addict is not the hobo sleeping behind my dumpsters. The typical addict is a middle-aged soccer mom. That soccer mom is the reason why all of a sudden, America's in the middle of a drug panic - because people like her have started overdosing.
"America is facing a harrowing opioid epidemic, one that kills thousands of people each year. But the rehab system that could help combat the crisis is failing. It is far too expensive for typical families and often provides addiction treatments that aren’t proven or actually have evidence against them."
In other words, the system is encouraging a reckless amount of money spent on solutions known to not work while evidence-based interventions exist.
We are living in the "leeches and trepanation" era of addiction treatment.
[1] https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/8/30/20833549/v...
http://www.brucekalexander.com/articles-speeches/rat-park/14...
Maybe drugs aren't the problem. Maybe modern life isn't worth living for a significant percentage of the population, and they're bonding with drugs for want of a better coping mechanism?
How many lonely people do you know? How many of them cope using food, sex, video games, work, etc? It isn't just drugs. We're all prisoners, we don't know how to break free (or are afraid to do so) so we settle for copping a fix of whatever will stop the screams inside our heads for a little while.