*shakes head*
I just don't get it. I don't get how people can let their loved ones get that way. I completely understand that there are a lot of addicts that hide it (or try to) from their family, and it can come as a shock when the family finds out that their loved one is really shooting heroin every day. Or they know their loved one is doing drugs, but feel helpless to do anything about it, and so stand aside and let it continue on.
What I don't get is get enabling these people, to aid them in continuing their addiction. To me, it's not love. The father in this episode kept going on about how much he loves his daughter, and while I never doubted his love for her, what he was really doing was trying to assuage his own guilt over his daughter's addiction. So he gave her a place to stay rent-free, he gave her money for food, he drove her to her job as a stripper. That's not love; that's him trying to make himself feel better for the wrong he feels he's caused her by divorcing her mother.
Just for the record, I don't tend to buy the whole "pity me, I come from a broken home" sort of thing as a general rule. Of course, there are extenuating circumstances (especially molestation and abuse), but Mom and Dad splitting just because they don't get along any more is no reason for the child to go crazy. My parents have been divorced since I was two years old; I have no recollection of having both of them in my life at any point, with the exception of my wedding. I have one wedding photo of just me and my two birth parents; it's the only one I own in the 27 years I've been on this planet. That said, my parents' divorce was the precursor to the best thing (besides Kurt) that ever happened to me, the marriage of my father and my stepmother.
But anyhow. This girl started using meth at 14. That totally floored me too. How does a kid start using such a heavy drug at such a young age and the parents DON'T notice? Apparently a lot of kids experiment with weed and booze before they're 18 (I never knew any, but then I was a nerd, and we got high off studying), and I can understand that, but meth is serious stuff. And the show said that meth leads to delusions and hallucinations. How do you not notice your kid having delusions and hallucinating? Apparently this girl's drug use was completely a shock to her mother when she found out after the daughter turned 18.
I guess I don't understand a parent's oblivion because my parents were stuck so far up my ass when I was in high school sometimes I didn't feel like I could breathe. I wasn't allowed to go to someone's house if their parents weren't home (although I did break that rule nearly every day, but then Scott's mother got home 15 minutes after we did), I wasn't allowed to stay out late (curfew was 11pm on the weekends), my parents had to know where I was at all times and who I was with. I was so scared shitless that when I was at Scott's house and we took his dog for a walk, I called my stepmom first so she wouldn't call his house to tell me to pick my baby brother up from school only to find out we weren't there. I desperately wanted to go to the cast parties for the various school productions I was a part of, but again 11pm was my curfew, which was right around when the party started. It didn't matter that there were probably 20-30 teachers and other adults at the party; curfew was curfew.
I tell you what, had I even smoked weed once, my parents would have known. And I would have gotten in serious trouble.
Now I'm not saying that folks ought not to have compassion for addicts. Addicts are addicts for a multitude of reasons, each one unique to the person. We all have an addiction of sorts; some folks just happen to have one that may kill them. I have a great deal of sympathy for people who are addicted, and I think there need to be far more programs to help them than there are currently in place. I'm just not one who could stand by someone who refused help over and over and over and over again, and give them what they need to continue their addiction. I won't give an alcoholic beer. Maybe it's selfish, but I won't have someone's death as a result of my actions on my conscience.