My relationship with an addict

 Relationships are complicated. That's nothing new, Facebook has a prompt for that. Add to it any outside influences and they become dizzying. When my son's father was alive he was my best friend. He was also my Kryptonite and my biggest antagonist, depending on the day. 

  He was absolutely the sweetest man that you could ever meet. When we were together we could practically read each other's mind. We were completely simpatico. When other people were around us they saw us as a great couple and couldn't understand why we had such issues. He was my rock. The person that I knew that I could depend on forever. 

   When my father was sick he was there for me on more than one occasion to clean up the mess while I helped my dad. When my car broke down he handed me the keys to his and told me he'd take the bus till mine was fixed. If anything needed moving or repairs I knew that I could call him and he wouldn't think twice about doing what was best for me and our son. Two weeks before he died he asked me to pull into the local car wash and proceeded to vacuum, scrub, and shine my truck up. He was a Godsend... until he wasn't. 

   My son's father was an addict. When he was clean he was the best person that I knew. When he relapsed he was a danger to himself and others. He assaulted my father. He assaulted his mother. He kicked the dog. He punched holes in the wall. He never laid a hand on my son or me, but that was mostly because I made sure that we stayed out of the way until he was sober enough and then I would tell him that he had to leave. 

   When I talk about my son's father people can't understand that he was both people. They can't understand how that sweet man that they met could do such horrific things and they can't understand why I would ever let him back. the problem was that he was both people. He was like Jekyll and Hyde. His illness.. and yes, it was an illness.. caused him to lose himself. Once he relapsed he became the drug. Sometimes this was convenient. When he overtook his suboxine he became a fun, playful, cleaning machine. My house was spotless. He'd run around and play chase games with our son.. things weren't actually that bad. At times I would overlook it. I knew that he wasn't capable of making good choices in that state and never left our son alone with him, but it was like a buzzed parent at a family cookout.. it was fine once in a while.. until it wasn't. 

   Unfortunately with addicts once they got the taste the use changed from once in a while to get a buzz.. to constantly booming and zooming. I would always have the conversation with him after the first relapse, after a while I learned his mindset. If he admitted to the lapse there was a good chance he'd hop back on the wagon and we could continue as planned. If he denied it, then I knew we were headed for trouble. Regrettably it took way too long for me to figure this out. We had years of back and forth. Years of him promising to stay sober. Years of him being amazing only to bottom out eventually. 

  The more conversations that we had the more I realized that he had no real intention of changing his ways. I have been studying, learning about, and working in the field of behavior therapy for years now. I started to help understand myself, then to help others. I understand that we are who we believe ourselves to be. We are our thoughts. We are who we surround ourselves with. If we believe that we are screw ups.. we will be screw ups. My son's father was a drug user. He believed himself to be a drug user. He surrounded himself with other drug users. His thoughts, humor, and beliefs revolved around using drugs. He often told me that he didn't believe in the AA reasoning that once an addict you could never use again. He believed that he just had to figure out a way to control his use. 

  Two years ago I finally said enough was enough. He was out of my house for the third time, and back in jail for assaulting his mom when I told him that he had to go to re rehab. Not a 2 week or 30 day dry out, but a real program that really worked on the heart of his issues. He refused. His mother agreed that as long as he had dried out and promised to stay sober that was all that mattered. I knew that one of these days things were going to go to far and I didn't want my son or me anywhere near it.

   I talked to a friend of mine who handled family law and asked him to start the process of setting up monitored visitations. I told him that as much as I loved him and wanted our son to know the good parts of him I couldn't risk him harming us as he had other. At first he agreed.. then he didn't. It was a long battle with many court sessions. I did my best to work with him and he did his best to keep his drug screening information out of my hands. 

   During that time I had to concentrate on every bad thing he ever did. It was the only way that I could keep from caving. I knew that he was living in a sober house. I knew that he was doing well at school and at work. I knew that he was acting like the man that I loved, but I also knew that it was temporary. It was always temporary. 

   Two weeks after we signed the final court papers my son's father overdosed. People don't know how to talk to me about his death. They don't know if I'm relieved or if I'm sad, and to be honest I'm both. It sounds horrible, but I know that he was never going to be clean. After he died his father cleaned out his car and found a bottle of supplements people use to get high that don't show up in a drug screen. No one knows how long he was using them, but the bottle was almost empty so it wasn't something new. 

 I never wanted my son's father to die. I loved him with everything that I am, and my son worshiped him. Losing him has cut a piece of our heart out that will never be repaired. But he overdosed twice in two days. The first time he crashed his car putting not only his life in danger but everyone on the street with him as well. The next night he overdosed in his room in the sober house all by himself. Had I let him back in. Had I given in to our love for him and his love for us our son could have been in that car.. or could have been the one that found him overdosed.. dead... 

   I was the one who found my father when he died. He was 65, and died from complications from diabetes, and I was 39.. but that's a visual I will never get out of my head. I wouldn't wish that on anyone.. especially a small child. 

   I loved my son's father and I will miss him forever. A huge part of my life is over now. But I am so grateful that my son is safe from the damage that he unleashed with every bad decision that he made. Relationships are complicated, but when you love an addict, if you're not careful.. they could be deadly.