DRUGS TAKE TOLL EARLY

I talked recently with a guy I'll call Barry.

Barry is 25 years old, is married with two little kids, is an alcoholic a
and cocaine addict and has had two heart attacks. He is trying, at this
point, to stay clean and sober and is on a waiting list to get into a
funded treatment program. He has been waiting four weeks now and has
managed to stay straight. This is the longest period of being straight, he
says, since he was 13.

I guess you know by now, from your own observations or from reading my
column, there are as many types of addicts with as many types of stories as
there are people to tell them. Barry's is worth telling because of the
miraculous nature of his recovery, the timing and perhaps the severity of
his illness.

Barry's family was wealthy, business-oriented and neglectful. Barry was
left to his own devices from the age of 10. He started periodic pot use at
this time and had graduated to cocaine by 13. He was a big kid and looked
older, so he traveled with an older, faster crowd and by high school was
selling both pot and cocaine. He was meeting people who had lots of money
(something he was used to) and people who had little regard for others,
laws or themselves. By 15 he was freebasing (smoking) cocaine and drinking
regularly.

At 15, his girlfriend moved into his house. His parents handled this by
ignoring its existence as they did with most things that Barry did. Barry
recalls one thing his dad would do was buy him beer, take him drinking and
look the other way when he got high. Barry says he knew that his father
knew he was a drug addict.

At 19 he started his own business and with his good business sense and
sales abilities he built a success; so much so that his employees carried
the workload and Barry spent his time in the bar most days and smoking coke
as well. The drug bills mounted, the business went bankrupt, the girlfriend
was threatening to leave and Barry overdosed on coke and had his first
heart attack at age 20. This was not enough to stop him, and two more years
of regular cocaine use resulted in a second overdose and three days in
cardiac ICU.

For some reason, never having thought seriously about recovery before,
Barry decided he desperately needed help and on a night about three weeks
ago, without even really knowing what he was doing, walked into an AA
meeting at a local hospital.

He told me he hasn't looked forward to seeing his kids and being with his
family this much in years.