she came into the clinic with a relative. she seemed kind of out of it, like not fully coherent. i figured her to be about 60, based on her graying hair and lack of teeth.she just looked older. her relative did all the talking, and took care of getting the consent forms signed properly. she didn’t seem to know what was really being asked of her.
with the preliminaries out of the way she was called back for her visit. some time later she left.
the nurse came up front shortly afterwards, some what disturbed over the patient visit. apart from what she was actually being seen for, it was surprising to all of us to hear she was actually younger than the nurse, who is early forty something. but the woman is a meth addict.
this is the face of methamphetamine. aged, distorted, grayed, confused. no wonder, with the plethora of household ingredients that go into the making of this toxic mess. drain cleaner, brake fluid, pine cleaner, bleach, or whatever the current cook has a fancy for.
its not difficult to comprehend addiction. what’s difficult for me to get is why anyone would get started on this in the first place. but the ingredients are cheap. and this makes for a cheap drug, easily accessed. and that, i guess, is the reason so many people begin the descent down the spiral, tangled in the branches of the crystalline entity.
another room 
Meth! What an awful awful drug. I’ve seen people who’ve messed up their lives with meth–it ain’t a pretty picture, that’s for sure.
My youngest did a college term paper w/visuals on meth and the addicts it creates. I helped her write it on a plane trip one night.
It’s amazing and very depressing what humans will do to themselves and each other.
What got me was – not to mention I wonder whor thought the recipe up in the first place – that it was all done for money.
xoxo
I only see on TV about how meth ruins lives. I do not know anyone personally that is a drug addict. I lived in a place where there were drug addicts at every turn but I never knew them before drugs and I certainly didnt hang out with them. I didnt know what they looked like when they were sober or before their world went sour. My mother and father were never on drugs and the people I hang with aren’t on them so my only info is what I see on TV and what I saw for a short time where I use to live. I’d have to say I’m on the outside when it comes to drug info and ruined lives. I’ve heard my g-friend say that she lost her children and her husband over drinking. I’ve hear my neighbor say he lost 3 wives over drinking and a different friend lost 4 wives over drinking. I didnt know them then. I only see the basically addiction free people they are today. I never really understood the attraction to something that would take all my money, all my friends and then leave me with nothing so that I have to rebuild everything. It made no sense to me so I never even cared to try them. With meth and coke the “once and you’re hooked” possibility doesnt rest well with me. I just dont like how it sounds. For most people in this world an addiction would ruin what they tried so hard to preserve. With the rest of the world acting crazy and others hardly keeping above water why even take the chance of trashing all that you worked for or worked to protect?
tx for the info
Austin
I’ve had 3 sons on heroin, so I know the pain and heartbreak of addiction up close. That they are all clean, responsible adults now (and wonderful fathers) absolutely astounds me every time I think of it. I fully expected to have to bury at least one of them, but I was spared that particular sorrow. My heart aches for those who are not fortunate enough to break free of their addictions, as well as for their loved ones who share the agony of its enslavement.