Can a person smoke crystal meth for a few months and then stop without intervention and not be addicted?
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I am worried about my 25 year old daughter. We were told by one of her friends, who has gone into a recovery program, that our daughter smokes crystal meth. She doesn’t know that we know. She still lives at home w/ both parents and a 20 year old brother. She was diagnosed as being bipolar & ADD. Her father and I have never seen the “real her”, so it is hard to know if it’s drugs or being manic. We located a live-in recovery home w/ 12 step program & is linked w/ a great church. We were going to do an intervention but now we don’t know if she is still using, since she has been better the last few weeks. It will soon be Christmas & we thought it would be better to wait after the new year. She has always been secretive and never really talks w/ us, also she lies constantly, so rationally talking to her isn’t possible. She uses confrontation to make any such communication impossible. Could she have stopped using? Do we need further proof of her drug usage to send her to a recovery program?
Tags: addicted, Crystal, Intervention, Meth, months, person, smoke, stop, without
I never tried it before but my school had an assembly and they told us that 3 out of 35 will try and stop but 1 will really break the addiction so i really dont know but i doubt it
This is really not the best arena to find the answers that you are looking for. She needs to be seen by a professional who can determine where to go from here. However, as far as your primary question: Yes, a person can stop using a drug like crystal meth on their own without intervention. People do it everyday. It is possible. But that doesn’t even begin to answer or solve your daughter’s problems.
Since she has co-morbid disorders (drug abuse and bi-polar) she should really get treatment for both- and not all drug rehab or recovery places will take someone who has a psychological disorder as well as a drug addiction. If she is in a manic state right now, and is a danger to herself or others, you can try to get her into a regular mental health hospital where they can assess her and test her for drugs.
Dr. Phil would say that you are enabling her to have an addiction and to maintain that addiction by allowing her to stay in the home. They are able to continue their drug use because you are furnishing everything that is needed at a basic level (food, shelter, safety). First, you should talk to a good counselor. At 25, she is old enough to be on her own and cannot be forced into a treatment program anyway. Most of the time a person will maintain an addiction until they hit “rock bottom” or get a “wake up call”. My sister was a meth addict and didn’t stop until she was arrested. If she is bi-polar then she should be on an antidepressant and mood stabilizer that should be stopping her manic phases. If she is not on her meds then that is an area of concern. But again you can only suggest you can’t force someone to take their meds. Some bi-polar people don’t take their meds because they are addicted to the high from the mania stage. Is she in counseling? If you said she has been better for weeks then the changes you have seen my be due to the bi-polar. Bi-polar is a lifelong illness and must be controlled by medication at all times. This website gives a good list of signs of meth use http://www.adolescent-substance-abuse.com/signs-meth.html. Alot of the signs are similar to a person in mania with bi-polar. Good luck!
i say no, even though she has stopped for now, meth is an extremely addictive drug and it is also one of the worst drugs you can do. start the intervention immediately, get her to the recovery home and in the 12 step program asap. i dont know if she is being treated for the add and bipolar disorder, maybe it’s part of the program you found, but that may cause her to use drugs too so act immediately! good luck, i really hope it works out for you and your daughter.
I hate to tell you this but only 2% of meth users ever recover. I’m sure there are spans of time when they don’t use, they seem to always go back to it. Talk to your daughter no matter how hard you think it is. She may respect you in the long run for being aware rather than being silent.