One Little Fall

Recently my elderly mom took a little fall. That one mishap triggered a whole series of events, people, surgeries, long stays at rehabilitation, and events due to the surgery itself. For those of us around her that love her, it became consuming and demanding. Our schedules changed, the focus of our attention changed. There were barrages of conversations and phone calls with doctors, nurses, facilities, and friends and relatives.

Navigating through all of this, I thought, “WOW, all of this because of one small fall.”

That is how addiction and mental health work! It starts as one little fall. It could even be a series of little falls, some of which by themselves did not amount to much, but together they become consuming and devastating like my mom’s small fall did.

This short video gives some insight into one aspect of how our “Angel” girl, one of our favorite nicknames for Lauren, her mom used all the time, ended up addicted.

I think Lauren’s first small fall was the decision to experiment with drugs at a young age in response to pain. I do believe the pain was common, struggles with friends, losing someone you love (her grandfather passed away when she was young, they were very close), and maybe some things I never knew, things I wish she was able to put on the table. It started with adoral, maybe a little pot, but the fall came when she said yes to being offered heroin. She once said, “I remembered what morphine I was given in the hospital and prescribed Oxycodone felt like several years earlier, and I liked it.” BOOM, on that day, at that moment, LaLa never saw the outcome coming. An avalanche of issues, challenges, problems, treatments, therapists, arrests, fear, guilt, shame exploded in her life over the next several years. Other small falls along the way dramatically and quickly compounded things until it was beyond control. Well, at least that is what it felt like. There is always the chance to get well and whole.

Lauren once said an important and powerful truth: “I chose to do drugs, but I did not choose to be addicted.”

Nobody does, I guess if we could see where it might end for us, we might not choose to do drugs, but we just do not know.

Most times in life, we can not know the results of a small fall, but we can always decide how we want to react and respond to them. My mother is now in the care of people that over time and with effort, will get her back to where she was, maybe better. You or your loved one can do the same in spite of a little fall.

This weeks featured image is by Brooke Shaden; I am not sure of the title.