My Drug Addicted 21 Year Old Daughter Is Spiraling Out of Control

My 21 year old daughter has been shooting up painkillers and now is doing Meth. She has been having drug problems off an on since she was 14. She has a 3 year old son who we have custody of because of her and her boyfriend's drug addiction.

We recently told her that she needs to go to long term rehab or leave our house. She chose to leave our house and is now doing more drugs then ever.
She used to love taking care of her son, now she doesn't even want to see him.

We thought telling her to leave or go to rehab would have made her make the right choice, so far she has found people to stay with. How can we do an intervention for her to see that she needs to get help? Should we contact the police if she refuses to get help?

Alcoholism-and-Drug-Addiction-Help.com Answer

You've effectively done an intervention of sorts by giving your daughter an ultimatum and forcing her to choose getting professional help, or leave the house. What else could you use as an effective 'bargaining chip' that will make her think again?

You did the right thing ... now it's a matter of giving it time and letting your daughter start to live with the realities of not having a fixed place to stay anymore, having to rely on others, and essentially make her own way.

Hopefully the consequences of that will start to wear her down and she'll realise how hard it is to actually fend for herself, which will make her rethink the lifestyle she's chosen for herself.

Things have to get hard and uncomfortable enough for her before she's likely going to be open to turning her life around and getting professional help, so you're going to have to follow through on your decision and be patient.

For now she's probably determined to prove you wrong and show you she can do things her way. But when friends suddenly start getting sick of having her around and she has no money for food or accommodation, she'll hopefully start waking up to the consequences that accompany the life she's chosen for herself, and be ready to make some changes.

So hang in there and pray your daughter reaches that point sooner rather than later. All the Best.

P.S. If you'd like some more detailed information around what you can do to help your daughter that gets to the cold, hard truth of the matter (that space constraints make impossible here), Help My Child Is An Addict is a book that can help you. Here's the Link that will tell you more ...

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