I'm missing my sisters today...a lot.
More than usual.
Which really, missing them at all is completely unusual, so missing them in the slightest would in fact be missing them more than usual, but you know what I mean.
For those of you who don't know, Bug and Nessy are in rehabs.
Yeah.
Remember how I said my family makes for good blog fodder?
Quick background:
my dad died in a car accident when I was 15, and none of us really handled it well. Que downward spiral through alcohol, then pot, then pills, then snorting oxycontin, leading to a full-blown heroine addiction.
Not me, obviously, the other two. I stopped at the second step, and then back-tracked to normal. Ahem...it is high school people.
Now don't forget that in reality this is a very long story that covers several years, and you got the very nut-shelled version.
My sisters are beautiful, wonderful people who got very, very lost. But they are doing really well now.
This is actually their second ventures into rehab. The first time they both went to separate 30-day programs which did a little, but mostly did diddly-squat.
Now they're in 15 month programs called Teen Challenge. One here in good old Washington but up north about 2 hours, and the other in Kansas City. Which Kansas City? I'm not telling. But either one is pretty far if you look at a map.
So anyway, when we were kids we were eachother's everything. We played together for hours on end everyday. We drove eachother nuts, but we were also eachothers best friends. And we had a great family. A mom who stayed home and did an amazing job keeping our family together, clean, fed, and happy. And a dad who worked tirelessly, only to come home and play with us until we went to bed. It was a charmed life really, although we didn't know it. The dream of the American middle class.
But when we were all grieving (badly I might add...as in we didn't grieve the way people are supposed to), we grew apart. We were all mean and hurtful, because we were hurting.
And after I moved out and got married, things got worse here. The girls eventually weren't going to school, stopped hanging out with old friends, started sleeping all the time, and had the worst attitudes ever. If they ever told us where they were going or who they would be with, which they usually didn't, there was a 99.9% chance it was a lie. Then Nessy turned 18 and moved out and got really bad, and Bug started running away...things just escalated until we finally found out what was going on.
Oh, and Bug is a diabetic so the fact that she spent inordinate amounts of time in the hospital wouldn't normally be odd for her, but it was always for really weird reasons. And then we found out and realized it had all been because of drugs. Even Nessy spent a lot of time in the hospital.
Looking back we feel blind. But the truth is, they were just really, really good liars. Drugs do that.
Actually, writing all this has helped a lot. I would write more, but monkey is awake and its time to head to Freddy's, so I'll bid you adeu. But before I do that, I just want to say that I love my crazy, insane, beautiful family with all my heart, no matter what happens. And that is saying something.
I find odd to detain teenagers at extreme religious programs like Teen challenge when they are more 15 years old. Here in Denmark youth can buy alcohol when they are 16 years of age and most responsible parents start to serve alcohol to their children when they are confirmed.
ReplyDeleteSome marginalized youth don't drink alcohol because they are heathens and in fact they are the troubled youth most people are afraid of because they don't want to be victim of a suicide bomb.
We are in war, so the risk is very real when you don't have an Atlantic ocean between you and the terrorists.
I hope that your sisters can make it out of this fate-based program and still be productive members of the society being able to socialize and parties.
I read the article linked and it is interesting. Here, we don't condone drinking among minors. Drinking under 21 is illegal, so even if you are 18 and an adult you cannot buy, or consume any alcohol legally. Hence the 21st birthday blowout. And it is not only religious groups that feel this way, it's a pretty common thing even amongst secular persons. I myself am an agnostic, meaning not part of any religion, but not against religion, and I don't drink at all. In fact, many non-religious adults I know don't drink at all either.
ReplyDeleteTeen challenge here is not exceptionally religious. I'm not sure about in your country. It is christian based, but not extreme.
Also, if it were only alcohol it may not be such a problem, but it is hard drugs. They lied, stole, cheated, and commited countless other crimes, and so they did need a place like Teen Challenge to help them to change their lifestyle.
Your point of view is an interesting one, and one I've never heard before. Where you live must be very, very different than America. I think I would like to visit someday to see what daily life is like. =)