To recognize Overdose Awareness Day on August 31st, we will be sharing insights and experiences from past and current participants this month to help us all better understand the current and urgent addiction crisis. Today we are focusing on the questions and statements that ask ‘why do people use’. You can read a young mom’s story of using to escape everything but at the same time desperately grasping at reasons to stop. One major reason being her son. Last year Alberta saw 1,144 opioid related deaths, so far in 2021 Alberta has seen more than 105 people taken each month. At The Doorway we see long lines of addiction and overdose in families. It is sad and common for participants to have lost a parent to overdose. Some participants are parents themselves, ashamed and angry they are continuing the cycle of addiction despite knowing exactly how their child feels. We provide support to these participants by helping them think through their plans and break them down into small steps towards a better future. In this mom’s case she’s starting to plan her path to being ‘super-mom’.
The last few months have been very bad for me. I have been having a very hard time with life. My son recently has moved to a different city for good and it is a struggle every single day waking up without my little boy. His father also does not let me speak to him on the phone. He doesn’t let me do anything for me to be with him or in his life and it breaks me and I want to escape. I started using down drugs to make myself sleep all of the time because I just have no motivation for anything anymore. I just want to sleep, be in bed and I have nothing good going for me right now. But recently I have been trying to have a little bit of a different mindset. I have recently decided I want to get a job and that I want to work for a house. I love when I am working and making my own money. I also am very happy when I have my own home to go home to. It makes me confident and my son deserves a mommy who is confident, a mommy who has a home that he can come home to, a mommy that can provide food and basic needs for him. He deserves a mommy who can be physically, emotionally and spiritually there and teach him in this hard life. Slowly I am going to face all my demons and battles and be that amazing super mom my son looks up to.
– Shy
