The Path To Addiction

While this book is technically a sequel, the hope was that there would never be reason to continue the first books storyline. That book was left open-ended because we can never be sure of an addicts long-term sobriety. Given the longevity of his addiction, his drug of choice andhistory of failures, the probability was high that my son could relapse again. He had been clean and sober for 30 months (18 months in prison and 12 months back home) before his regression was triggered by aprescription pharmaceutical. Vicodin wasprescribed and that led my sonback to the streets for methadone and from there it was just a matter of time before reconnecting with his old friend, heroin. My sons meltdown and the mind-numbing ugliness of the fallout are documented in-depth, during the early chapters of this book. In an effort to better understand the profound difficulties that addicts struggle with, and why they seempowerless to control their lives, the mid-section of the book is devoted to research. The book covers addictions in general, the history of worldwide drug usage, the pros and cons of the various treatment programs, the debate over the difference of opinion regarding the numerous models, the causal triggers andthe pharmaceutical companies. Every addict has two personalities, but the general public only sees the manifestation of the unsightly onethe good one goes unnoticed, even when theyre clean and sober. The indistinguishable one is no different than you or me; hes just overpowered by his unwanted tenantaddiction. Imtrying to point out that no one wants to be an addict.Once clean, the addictknows that he must always be strong and vigilant because his co-pilot is always waiting in the wings for his chance to once again, take over the flight controls.