One day I met my husband at his office. He looked terrible, clutching his stomach, shaking and crying with pain. I asked what was wrong. He said, “I’m not sure; I need to get some medicine.” I had seen him like this twice before. I was sure it was diabetes. Then the bombshell hit. He confessed that he had a heroin problem and was seeing a psychiatrist who has prescribed methadone. He was ill because he was all out. My husband continued on methadone for over a year and we lived in relative normality. Then slowly, subversively, things started getting wobbly. He was using again; anger, tears, and remorse. Then he went back on methadone, followed by a patch of excessive drinking, then heroin again, and on it went. This is the spiral, which I now know is not unusual in addiction. I became as sick as the user…
*The Daily Reading is an extract from the SESH Book which forms part of Nar-Anon’s official literature. To order this book and others, please use this link.