Sister Addicted to Meth
My 36 year-old sister has been struggling with drug addiction for over 10 years.
Ten years ago, she was busted self-medicating (she was a pharmacist) and completed a treatment program. We believed her to be clean for many years.
Just in the past 2 years she has lost everything (job, house, car) and is now addicted to meth. In the past 2 months she has been admitted to several treatment centers but has left them because of severe paranoia.
Her behavior is comparable to schizoprhenia much of the time. One treatement center wouldn’t even admit her and another sent her to the mental health center at a hospital. The hospital in turn, found nothing wrong with her and released her.
She is very manipulative. She recently completed a 10 day treatment program but it is obvious she is using again although she strongly denies it.
My family is getting ripped apart by this and it breaks my heart to see what this is doing to my parents. She has stolen from my parents in the past to support her drug addiction and because her unemployment is running out soon I am scared she will attempt to do so again and in the process physically harm my parents.
My family is running out of options. We cannot make her go to treatment because we cannot, nor can the treatment center make her stay.
Can we get her committed just based on drug use??
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Commitment
However, stealing and the threat of physical harm is against the law. If you cannot find satisfaction with the treatment centers, you might want to have a civil commitment procedure on the grounds that she is a threat to herself and others. It’s a difficult process, because the law doesn’t necessarily see what you see. You need to save her from herself, but you also need to protect your family. It isn’t easy. She will fight you all the way. She can’t be allowed to decide whether or not she will go through treatment, and she can’t be allowed to manipulate the system and get thrown out of treatment centers. The meth addiction will eventually kill her, so you and your family are in a fight for her life. |