I have a friend whose mother is addicted to prescription pain pills and has been for 10 years or more. Her mother is close to 50 years old and she lives with my friend, her daughter. She does not work and is totally dependent on her daughter and her husband other than the small amount of money that she obtained from her recent divorce, which is almost gone. She has used the divorce settlement to pay for Dr. visits and prescriptions.
Her daughter had to take her to the hospital last night due to the fact that her mother has quit eating, lost a significant amount of weight, wouldn't get out of bed, and she was not completely coherent. The hospital said there was nothing physically wrong with her so the daughter convinced them to call a social worker from Pathways to come and have her admitted. Her mother, after several hours of arguing and being very ugly finally said she would go. They will only keep her for 5 days. Her daughter is 6 months pregnant with twins and needs her mother to get more help after the five days, but doesn't know where to turn. Would it help if she tried to get guardianship over her mother and is this even possible? She does not have any extra money if it is an expensive process. Please help. She only has 4 days left to get something done before her mother is released!
By Jolie
Add your voice! Click below to answer. ThriftyFun is powered by your wisdom!
You can contact the Legal Aid Society in your state for free assistance using this website:
www.LawHelp.org
I am 61 years old and I am appalled by this story. I realize the woman loves her mother, but, really, a 50 year old woman should be able to look after herself, for goodness sake. If this situation was reversed -- if the mother was looking after an adult child with similar problems, many of us would be giving different advice. We would be urging tough love, and saying that the addicted person has to grow up and take charge of her own life.
Yes, addiction is an illness, but like alcoholism, you can't fix the problem for the addict. You can point them in the right direction, find programs, etc, but if you continually enable them to feed their addiction by looking after them and keeping them from taking responsibility for themselves, you are not doing any favors.
I think this mom should grow up and take charge of her own life, which includes finding her own place to live, finding a job, and getting her life straightened around. Your friend has a baby on the way, and that is where her priorities should be. The woman should be helping out her daughter at this time of her life, not being a burden.
Add your voice! Click below to answer. ThriftyFun is powered by your wisdom!
