The Hurricane of Addiction

My dear friend Anna sent me a text this morning…she’s this amazing soul with deep insight.  While watching the news reports of Hurricane Irma, it comes to mind a harsh and strikingly similar feeling of addiction and the powerful destructiveness of anyone or anything in its path.

Addiction is a progressive disease, much like the progressive formation of a hurricane.  Hurricane Addiction can begin like droplets of rain, seemingly harmless, with no one really batting an eye.  Its just rain some say…its just a couple of drinks others say.

But over time, the forces of addiction can grow, picking up speed, and before you even realize it, the intense battle has now begun.

Hurricane Addiction will grab a hold and try to destroy EVERY SINGLE person in its way.  It comes with a force so strong, that it can strip away your home, your job, even your loved ones.

The question is do we hunker down and weather the storm?  Or do we evacuate?  Or does it depend on the category of the “storm?

The future of its path can depend on many things, but one thing is for sure, you must HOLD ON, HAVE HOPE, and NEVER stop the love.

8 Comments

  1. Janis

    Hold on, have hope, never stop the love

    THANK YOU KATIE

  2. Maggie Parris

    Perfect analogy!

  3. Julie

    love it!

  4. Kari

    Thank you Katie! Love this!

  5. Jennifer Puhl

    Prayers for all that struggle to conquer addiction and to the families that lose sleep and grief stricken. Take it a day at a time. I have an addicted 31 yr.old daughter whom is still struggling. 3 of her friends have od in 2 weeks this month. She is sad and trying to stay away from heroin and i worry everday for her not to be next. The fetanyol they are lacing it with is pure murder. Time to find the dealers and put them away! Thanks for listening….”Hasten down the wind”?

  6. Carolyn

    We have struggled for the past 20 years with our daughter’s addictions: first to an eating disorder that lasted for 8 years (and we fear at times still raises its ugly head, if nothing more than in the ongoing battle our daughter has with not being able to see how beautiful she REALLY is…having a struggle with her body image!). She’s a VERY CAPABLE RN with 17 years of experience, but she’s sold herself short with the 3 main relationships in life that she’s had with men – all seem to have taken advantage of her in so many ways: sexually, financially, emotionally, physically! Amd she seemed to choose narcissistic sociopaths everytime!!! She married an overcontroller and gamble-aholic, had 3 beautiful daughters with him. But after 6 years of trying to make life work with him and tired of his verbal and emotional abuse, she divorced him. Next came a Muslim with whom the Bible talks about not being “unequally yoked!” We raised our son and daighter in the Christian faith, and while my husband and I had met in our church’s youth group, and our son met his wife of now 20 years at a Christian high school, our daughter met her ex-husband on Match.com, and she met the Muslim in a bar. He started out to be a romantic, fun-loving nice guy, but ended up getting her introduced to “Spice,” an over-the-counter type of pot!!! He started controlling her, was her drug dealer, and got her to the point she stayed stoned to the point she couldn’t work!!! We had to rescue her from him 2 years in a row, try to get her into rehab, and she’d head right back to him! But she finally got her fill of him, booted him out, and started stalking her! He came by her home, was jealous of a neighbor guy who was trying to protect Trish from the Muslim’s physical abuse, and he pulled out a gun, shot holes in the man’s house, and is now sitting in prison for several more years!!! But that cost our daughter the custody of her beautiful girls…to her maniac of an ex-husband! And losing them caused her to start drinking! And going to her hospital while trying to go cold-turkey off of the alcohol caused her to have a seizure at her patient’s bedside. Her nursing license was suspended 9 months ago…and she us battling back to get her career, her girls, and a drug-free/alcohol-free life back! All we can do is pray that she’s strong enough to be a great Mom to ger girls, live in sobriety and have a great future ahead! We PRAY for God to bring the right Christian man into her life who will appreciate her for the beautiful, fun-loving, caring person she truly is and be the man she longs to have in her life!!! Thanks for sharing your and your daughter’s story! Praying for her longterm healing from her addiction!!!

  7. YVONNE MARONE

    BEAUTIFUL!! I’m in recovery, I haven’t done heroin in over 10 + years. However, as an addict we addictive personalities. We transfer our addictions in which people that love us need to be aware of. My true love is Heroin, however it’s transferred to cocaine, working out, starving myself, drinking alcohol etc;
    Basically, anything that I could feel euphoric is , and always will be my addiction. I will never be like anyone else that can have just ONE drink and put it down. I’ve been on suboxone for 8 plus years now, and it has kept me clean. I ultimately have kept myself clean, but it is a crutch so to speak. However, I can function in every day life using suboxone.
    When I was in treatment there were two ladies there that had gastric bypass just a year prior .
    Now one of them is a full-blown here in attic and the other one is a serious alcoholic who ihas had pancreatitis from drinking. So it goes to show that eating is obviously an addictive behavior that gives you euphoria and their addictions transferred !!
    I truly think there needs to be more research on this Vivitol shot. Once someone feels the effect of heroin, and likes it. One’s life will never be the same. Back then I put my family, friends, and (now) deceased husband through a living hell!!!

    Like I stated , I’ve been on Suboxone for 8+ years.If I decided to get high on heroin / pills whatever?? It would ultimately not work If I had just taken my suboxone in the a.m. But by the end of the day after the Suboxone wore off I would be able to feel the effects of “getting high.” Only because it’s a 24 hour -to maybe 36 hr period for Suboxone in your system.
    After receiving Vivitrol, your body will be more sensitive to opioids. If you use an opioid medicine in the future, you will need to use less than before Vivitrol treatment. Using the same amount you used before ( or more) could lead to overdose or death. In which it makes addicts OD ALL the time, unless you catch them in time. Like you did Katie with Brittany, when she was lay in the hospital on a gurney overdosed. THANK GOD, you showed up !!
    Vivitrol peaks after 2 to 3 days and stays in the system for 2 to 3 weeks and then declines the two end weeks of the 4.
    This shot can be deadly, and a lot of users, families, friends are under the impression that it will stop the craving for opioid/heroin use. Needless to say, that is NOT always true!!
    Addiction doctors make big money off this Vivitrol shot. Some insurances charge up to $1000 per shot or more?? How I came across your side I don’t know but it’s a good place to be and talk
    THANK you for sharing your daughter story . If this stigma of being an addict could be lifted and in society it would be a much better place. Like you said, you didn’t ever think it could happen to your daughter and the devastation is put on your family .
    Unfortunately, there are families out there that werent so lucky, and have lost their boyfriend, girlfriend, son, daughter, mother, father, brother, sister , or best friend!!
    I believe I saw you on WDIV, A couple weeks ago who also showed the family of the Roches who lost her son Ben way to early in life to this addiction .
    My heart is bleeding for them and I referred your site to them to maybe help ?!
    Ben had a saying and the family made bracelets up that you could take at the memorial. They are beautiful. He used to say, YOLO NO FOMO.
    I wear it every day and it means ” YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE NO FEAR OF MISSING OUT! “

    1. Katie

      Everything looks good to me. I like it better when its from the heart and not perfect.

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