Tell them before it’s too late

If you haven't sat down with your children and told them to stay away from drugs, it's time.

Tell them it will lead to nothing but absolute hell, heartbreak and misery for them and your family.

Tell them they won't just get high and have a good time – because with every good time there's a crippling withdrawal behind it.

Tell them they'll be pacing the house for hours at 2:30 a.m. because after days of trying to stay clean their body and the withdrawals won't care.

It won't matter that they haven't slept in days. Or that you haven't either.

The withdrawals are so strong they take over lives. They destroy lives.

Tell them there is no future in drugs. Tell them they will regret the first time they tried them, because they won't get the chance to rewrite history if they became immediately hooked.

Tell them as a mother you will remember the time and place of every time in the past six months they have had genuine laughter because it is so rare in this life of absolute heaviness.

When it happens, laughter is a gift.

Tell them you will fear for their safety every time you're not together.

That trust will be replaced by suspicion. That peace will be pushed out by chaos.

And if they are using drugs to self-medicate to get through depression, it will only launch a vicious cycle that feels is never-ending.

If your family has to travel down this miserable journey, one that will go on for years, you will ask yourself a million times: “Why us?”

The truth is, no family is immune, so don't let things give you a false sense of security.

A drug addiction doesn't care if you were the perfect hockey family. It doesn't care if you were there for them every step of their life. That you didn't neglect them, abuse them or abandon them.

Drugs don't care if you were a good mom. And keep reminding yourself, you were a good mom.

You still are.

You will listen as your child sits next to you, sobbing, as they tell you how much they love you and appreciate you and how you're the only reason they are still alive. It will break your heart.

And less than 24 hours later you'll be sitting next to this same person and they're yelling and telling you to leave alone. It'll rip your heart out.

You will shed a million tears with a million more to come, especially when they tell you “I'm still me.”

You will cry alone and you will cry together.

Because while there are many days that you see that “me,” there are other days you don't recognize this person at all.

It's like mourning someone who is still alive.

Other times you'll be astonished by how much “me” still exists. They are caring, thoughtful. They even still have their manners on the darkest of days. They'll tell you “thank you” for the littlest thing you did and it almost leaves you speechless.

You will read stories about people who have recovered and pray that happens for your child.

Again you'll ask: “Why us?”

But why not you? Somebody has to go through this hell. What makes you so special? You can't say no family is immune and then question why yours was singled out.

Maybe it's so you can save a life as you battle and fight for the one closest to you.

Maybe it's so others can learn from your experience and avoid the same heartache in theirs.

Drugs don't care if you've gone to rehab four times. If you've done counseling. If you've been clean for days or for weeks. If you've nearly overdosed more than once. If your friends have died.

Drugs don't care about people. They certainly don't care about your kids.

This is a battle no one wants to be in. Misery. Hell. Heartbreak. Fear. Frustration. Hopelessness. Sadness. Numbness. Chaos. Despair.

And on it goes. It is all so exhausting.

And the sad part is growing up you did tell them to stay away from drugs. You told them not to put these poisonous substances in their body. You drilled it into their heads. Tell them again.

Just because it didn't work for your family, you can't give up hope that it won't work for others.

So please, if you haven't today, tell your kids not to do drugs. Not even once. But don't just say, "Don't do drugs." Tell them why.

The high isn't worth the hell.