The article doesn't mention if the family is LDS. I was surprised to see a candid article about a family with five kids living in SLC and going financially broke to pay for rehab for more than one of their kids.

The family should be commended for going public.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/after-addiction-comes-families-second-blow-crushing-cost-of-rehab-1520528850

Thank you For finding and sharing this acknowledgment thatFamily experiences of often multi generational addiction are both thrusting at our collective humanity and vulnerability; that there is no culture no church no state separating one from this

I appreciated the Wall Street journal article as well for spelling out financials on rehab attempts (which in my family were parsed through the years of semi annual million birds poultry payments ebbing down like water in an ag well on a drought; and costs more clearly illustrated with articles families ... and illustrated in my own life as my parents gave willingly to keep a beloved adopted son (a drug baby) alive and back in recovery sort of line backer style or like playing volley ball no matter how hard the hit nor how hard the fall never give up never give in get up and try again
(Family motto) but they seemed to afford it, like the landscape if they didn’t like it they rented a dozer and leveled it, pulled out trees and sold 1/4 mike if okives to landscaping to pay for stints in rehab unlike the folks broken financially in the Wall Street journals parenting life journeys.

I wonder wonder wonder. What if some folks in commandment non alcohol religious —— culturally or biologically or cognitively —— are just like me with no pedigree; their health history or s partial they don’t know their risks or inherent addiction risks (if they exist genetically by the way are some bodies more at risk than others? I thInk so) and based on the obfuscation factor of relief society primary priesthood temple songs maybe some folks in the l d s flow don’t know or recognize generational addiction behaviors; defense mechanisms flow like analytical flow chart down some family lines punted like a football down the yard lines generations to wide receivers standing further down the family .

All in love notintended inheritance masked in Mormon cultural clothes for who knows how many years; no judgement here, broken powerless into some acknowledgment & acceptance; stiffer sterner sorrier / yet less arrogance’s left so squished out of life’s temple type l d s testimony; only now am I capable : to find love inside not fear at one of life’s capricious terrorizing vulnerabilities where random family members succumb to lifelong addiction as randomly as unexpectedly as were a toddler tooth h random piano keys . Why not me? It could be anyone of us munched by addictions just like a piano key under a toddlers fist; if you or I haven’t seen or been it’s as random as the piano keys missed by a baby at the keyboard.

Dont you hate wow smugness; blame? Shameless shaming of biological variants response to environment! Perhaps wow & church activity is self segregating generational adaptations among folks fazed by addiction? I’ll never know but I’ll always care; thinking of the losts dead now homeless afflicted and addicted in my adopted family to yours: beloveds

I have known people trying to overcome drug addiction without any help from rehab because they could not afford the rehab.

When I become king of the world I would support legalizing many of the currently illegal drugs if they would tax the newly legalized drugs heavy enough that the price stayed slightly under the current black market price. Then they would need to use the bulk of the newly found tax revenue to fund top quality rehab programs that would be free for anyone needing them and use the remainder of the money to fund education efforts to try and stop people from becoming addicted in the first place.

Good working class citizen becomes an addict--it's easy to do. Addict loses good paying job. End of story. There is no good free rehab. There is barely affordable rehab even if you have insurance. Most state/county legal defenders offices are overburdened with theft cases that are all the same--addicts who can't afford rehab and can't make it on their own. To exist they need their DOC, to get that they need to steal. The money spent to defend and incarcerate addicts with theft charges could fund really really good rehabilitation efforts. But no--then they are ex cons who are clean but can't get a good job. Because they have a criminal record. And the cycle repeats.

In my lifetime, I have seen America's pendulumn swing several times. During one era Addicts have a disease and need help. Suddenly, they are again the most evil of criminals--lock 'em up and throw away the key! This will never end. The U.S. grew from Calvinist roots and wants to criminalize. But every now and then they soften up and want to save their addicts. What would Jesus do? they think. But the benign attitude never lasts and before you know it, they are back to throwing the "druggies" in prison right and left.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/14/2018 12:07AM by brigidbarnes.