I need advice about cocaine addiction

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My son in law is 36 years old. He and my daughter are expecting their first baby in 3 months. I'll call him David. David was a cocaine addict when he was in his early 20's and got caught stealing items from someone's home, got arrested and was offered rehab in lieu of jail time. He went to rehab for 3 months. A year or so ago I started to see signs that he was using cocaine. The constant runny nose, etc. He adamantly denied using cocaine. He fell asleep on our couch and I cut some of his hair and had it tested and yes it was positive for cocaine. They were engaged and the time and my daughter was furious with me. She believed him. Once faced with the truth she broke up with him. About 9 months ago he called her to apoligize for all the wrong he had done to her, lying etc.....one thing led to another and she ended up pregnant. I didn't want them to get married and neither did his parents but they insisted. They live with us because they together don't make enough money to be on their own. My daughter is 24 years old and works full-time. David floats from job to job, claims he has alot of bills, claims his check only covers his bills and his gas. July 11th we went to Floriday for 10 days. After we got home we got a bill for a "sex line chat call ($3.50/min) for a total of $125.00 I asked my daughter. Where were you guys at 9:00 pm on the 19th. She said mama that's the day I had my root canal and I had taken a pain pill and was knocked out for the rest of the day and night. He never said he didn't do it but implied that he didn't. He then said "well I'm not admitting any guilt but since it happened while we were here I'll pay it" (Good luck to me trying to collect). My daughter now realizes that David did make that call. I told her it was equivelent to cheating. Talking to a woman on a live sex line. Also how inconsiderate to make a charge like that to us who have been so good to them and given them a roof over their heads. There's also been an issue with him saying he was outside asleep on the hammock the other night at 0300 but I had let the dogs out and he was not in the hammock. I think he was gone doing/buying cocaine. When I confronted him he denied doing any drugs. (He denied it a year ago also when indeed he was guilty) I said you have not been to any rehab, you don't go to therapy, you don't go to NA meetings. How did you just quit cold turkey and never gone back to drugs? Don't you have cravings to use? He said that our daughter and his

son who is on the way is all he needs to think about to keep himself off of cocaine. He said I swear on their lives that I'm not doing anything. That's a very strong statement but I don't believe him. What are the chances that a cocaine addict can stop using without rehab or anything? I am going to ask him for a drug test. If he refuses, of course he's guilty. What is the best method of testing. I know he can get around the urine drug screen because he did before. Should I demand hair or should I draw his blood. If it's positive I will throw his butt out and I am 99% sure my daughter would not go with him. I have already told her that if they do move out with the baby that I would go to court to get temporary custody of the baby and that I would win because judges don't leave babies with coke addicts. I know my daughter would come home with the baby. I have been a basket case for a week or more and don't know where to turn or even what to think? What do I say to my daughter. She said she believes him and she doesn't think she's being naive. She's only 24, pregnant, and she does love him. I do believe he loves her too. I think he's an addict and cannot help himself. Please help with any opinions or information that you have. Thanks so very much Joanna

I'm so sorry you are having to deal with this...and I know you don't want to lose your daughter. Sometimes we just want to shake our kids...they don't know what they are getting into, but WE do. She is setting herself and her child up for a huge heartache of a life, and you will be heartbroken watching.

My own son was engaged to a girl in and out of rehab since her teens for crack abuse. I of course was having a nervous breakdown.... He kept believing she had changed, til the next time she ran off and disappeared for a week with her crack buddies. He didn't want to 'abandon' her but finally he figured her game out, and told her 'next time you take off like that, just don't come back.' And she tried, but he finally realized this is what his life would be...and he said NO. (he had our full support and all the addict information he could stand from me as well...so give your daughter ALL the positive support and reality orientation she can stand!) Hugs to you.

Specializes in OB, M/S, HH, Medical Imaging RN.

Yesterday was my husbands birthday and our daughter called us on the cell phone while we were at Red Lobster having dinner for his birthday. She asked me where we were and I told her. She didn't have much to say but called back 5 minutes later and was crying and sobing about not having been invited.

We didn't think to invite her because she had said she wanted to stay with her husband and that doing anything else would be "not fair to him". We definately didn't want to invite him so we didn't invite her. We felt if she felt so strongly that she wanted to be with him and things like that are not fair to him that we shouldn't invite her only and that she wouldn't come anyway.

Later that evening she came to the house to give her father a birthday present and was crying again. We told her that we were changing the locks because we didn't want her husband in the house. She cried "why are you punishing me because you don't like him?". I explained to her that she could come home at anytime. She was not being punished but that she had chosen to stay with him and that she was going to have to live with the consequences. She said when will I ever be able to come home again and bring my husband? I told her when he proves he can support her and when he can be man enough to come into my home and apoligize for everything and not until then. I told her if these things did come to fruition that I would gladly welcome him and start from scratch.

It is so difficult to maintain this tough love but I am doing the right thing? Tell me I am. I'm having a difficult time with this. She is so sweet and I love her so much, she is 6 months pregnant but does'nt she have to pay the consequences for believing his lies and putting up with his drug use?

Specializes in Public Health, DEI.
It is so difficult to maintain this tough love but I am doing the right thing? Tell me I am. I'm having a difficult time with this. She is so sweet and I love her so much, she is 6 months pregnant but does'nt she have to pay the consequences for believing his lies and putting up with his drug use?

These are not consequences you're assigning to her as punishment, they are the natural consequences of his behavior, and her's. As far as her being 6 months pregnant, let's just hope that her impending motherhood helps her to see the light sooner rather than later.

Specializes in Med-Surg, Geriatric, Behavioral Health.

The only possible difficulty I could forsee is his using her as HIS scapegoat and making her feel guilty for it...therefore, her needing to plead for his defense. She is in a difficult spot, no doubt. But, again, she will need to make her decision if he continues to use. It is not her fault, nor yours. Your doing the right thing. Addicts can be great manipulators, especially with significant others. It helps them justify the using. No, you are doing the right thing, changing the locks, letting your daughter know she is welcome, and trying to be considerate of their marriage vows in that if he is not welcome that it may not be fair to invite one without the other. Sometimes, standing for one's principles can be difficult, especially when they're being questioned and/or emotions are involved. Hang in there. Just continue to be Mom to your daughter. But being Mom doesn't necessarily mean that when they married that you also married into his drug abuse. No, you didn't agree to that, nor should you. I wish you well.

Specializes in OB, M/S, HH, Medical Imaging RN.

Thunderwolf, Mercyteapot and others who have been so kind.......I wanted to fill you in on whats going on. First and foremost my daughter is back home !!!!

Now to how this came about was a shock. My son-in-law never pays any of their bills because he obviously has other things more important to him to spend his money on. When my daughter got him a cell phone and added him to her plan and I heard him say he would pay the bill, I thought right away.........he is hiding something. The bill came in the mail and I opened it (Mama's gotta do what Mama's gotta do, sorry). I noticed this one particular number that he had called and each call lasting 30-60 minutes. I called the number. It was a sex line for men searching for other men !!!!!! OMG !!!!! OMG !!!!!

I had to tell my daughter, who asked her husband and of course, he didn't make those calls and didn't know how they got on his bill. She did come home, mainly, because I insisted. She still loves him and wants to give him another chance. I talked to her and made her understand that she needs to think more of herself and her child than to live with a person like that regardless whether she loves him or not.

She told him he had to go to therapy, he had to find the therapist, he had to do all the work, get a job, get an apartment and when his therapist could tell her that he was clean and that he was financially repsonsible that she would go back to him. She knows this could take even a year. I truely don't believe that he will go for help voluntarily. I don't think he'll change. As an addict of several things he puts his needs before anyone else's and those things will always be more important than my daughter or his child. I plan to get her in therapy also for her apparent co-dependency. I told her that even 10 years or more from now he could still just one day out of the blue leave her for another man. He may struggle with his sexuality and I don't care if he's gay, I hope he finds another man to be happy with I really do. I just hate that he has put my daughter and grandchild in this situation. He married her under false pretenses. Sad very sad. Any opinions gladly accepted. Thanks

Specializes in Med-Surg, Geriatric, Behavioral Health.

Congrats to your daughter in her beginning to see the light. Great that she will also go to counseling in that it will help her to see the light more...and not just from Mom.

Congrats to your daughter in her beginning to see the light. Great that she will also go to counseling in that it will help her to see the light more...and not just from Mom.

I agree...and I hope she resists the temptation to return to him. Counseling will help her understand why she wants to stay with such a man. Good luck to all of you!!

Specializes in Urgent Care.

I am concerned how this is all turning out for you. my family has had to deal with similar problems, and I know know how overwhelming it is and how things can change so much from one day to the next. It always seems like lightning striking, things can change so quickly. Let us know how you and your daughter or doing.

I haven't read all the responses, please excuse if I repeat someone's input. Young adults who are making babies need to be 'grown-ups'. A programmed transition from your home to their own is mandatory. Over the next several months, with combined participation, set enough $ is set aside for getting into an apartment: first, last, security, utilities, etc. Need a strict budget w/ accounting so all can see where the $ comes from and where it goes. Move them progressively toward the goal of independent living but with a buffer, always staying a month or two in advance of expenses so if they fall behind one months bills it's not really late. Your daughter or you should be the banker/accountant. Wouldn't trust the boy. He needs his own seperate accounting from which he must contribute to the budget. This keeps $ safe. Also need a career and/or educational plan for both. Again, small steps at first but in the least a commitment to the future. In return for your investment in them, you get to be a grandma, help with childcare and enjoy this part of your/their lives. You're the boss though, remember, you hold the cards. Help them mature, to realize their potentials by demanding good outcomes through small incremental successes. Build self esteem yet, be unyielding, keep to a tight program in which performance is mandatory. And try to preserve your home as a sanctuary for your daughter but NOT for her man. Make that clear. He might fold under this pressure but God forbid you loose your daughter too. God bless.

Specializes in OB, M/S, HH, Medical Imaging RN.
I haven't read all the responses, please excuse if I repeat someone's input.

My daughter's husband has been out of our home for about 6 weeks. I asked him to leave. My daughter left with him but came home a week later when she found out that the sex lines he was calling were men looking for other "men". She lives here but still spends alot of time with him. She thinks they are going to move out on their own once the baby is born in 6 wks but it's not going to happen. They applied for an appt and his criminal background showed up and she doesn't have enough credit in her name. She realizes that this is a losing situation but I think she is too proud or too embarrassed to call it quits just yet. I have not said a thing to her in over a month about her marriage or anything that is or isn't going to happen. I have only made it clear that if she does get an apartment with her husband to understand that I will not give her any money. It's a sad sad situation but we will get through it. She and I are on good terms and that's all that matters to me. She knows she always has a home here and I don't think it will take long after the baby is born for her to see the light. She thinks the baby is going to mature him (he's 36 y/o!) but I say it will only make things worse. Having a new baby is difficult in a good marriage. I've never heard of a baby fixing a bad marriage only making it worse.

Dutchgirl, I just now saw your post and can totally relate. Your son-in-law sounds a lot like my ex-husband. I moved in with my parents when I was 23 years old and 5 months pregnant, while my husband, age 35, went away to rehab for coke/crack addiction. Gary didn't finish the program because he wanted to be with me for our son's birth, but it wouldn't have made a difference if he had. My son was 2 ½ months old when I kicked Gary out for good. Before my son was born I was willing to put up with a lot, but I was not willing to subject my child to the lifestyle I had been subjected to since Gary and I had been together. I got full custody of our son, of course, and Gary got supervised visitation.

For the next 10 years Gary was either in rehab, transitional housing, or homeless. Two years ago he finally cleaned up for real. I am happy to say he has completely turned his life around, but it was a long time coming. Many years were wasted, and although my son always knew his dad, they didn't build a solid relationship. They spend every Sunday together now. I think the relationship is still strained, but not bad. My son usually looks forward to the time with his dad, but is glad when it is over too.

You did the right thing by making your son-in-law leave. There is nothing you or your daughter can do to "rescue" him. He may actually mean the things he says, but he is incapable of following through right now. Your daughter should plan a life for herself and her child without this man. He may straighten up, but even if he does it may take 10 years. She can't wait for him. Perhaps when the baby arrives she'll realize what she needs to do. Babies have a way of helping us put our priorities in their proper order. She's very lucky to have such an understanding and supportive mother.

In addition to the aforementioned therapy, I recommend a book called "Codependent No More" by Melody Beattie to both of you. My ex-husband actually mailed this book to me when I was pregnant and he was in rehab. Her (and your) situation is not unique. Reading about the dependent-codependent dynamic may help you look at the situation more objectively and clarify next steps.

My best wishes to you and your family. Please keep us posted.

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