> I'm sorry I haven't had the opportunity to
> answer before now. I am so sorry you are
> going through this with your daughter. I
> have a similar situation with my daughter
> who is close to the age of your daughter.
> She is not on meth (that I know of) but has
> used just about every other kind of drug
> that there is. This has been going on for
> over 10 years now. There are times when I
> have really feared for her life.

> I hope and pray that the intervention is
> helpful to your daughter. I think it is the
> one of the most horrible things there is to
> have to watch your child on drugs and not be
> able to do anything about it. We have tried,
> we have talked until we are blue in the
> face, cried, begged, everything. She seems
> to go through periods where she does drugs
> and then she will stop for a while, and then
> start up again. And it's awful. We can
> hardly stand to have her around like that -
> her brothers and sisters just feel like
> smacking her when she is doing drugs, and I
> do, too.

> Her drug of choice is shooting up
> oxycontins, but if she can't aford that, she
> will take just about anything. She has (in
> the past, not recently, thank the Lord) used
> cocaine, crack, and heroin. I have had 3
> other kids experiment with drugs (mostly
> weed and ecstasy), but not to this extent,
> and they all stopped after a couple of years
> by their own decision. Almost all of my
> daughter's friends have died from drug
> overdoses, including the father of her only
> child which she lost to his family because
> of her drug problem and because of our cult
> history. Thank the Lord, the guy she has
> been with for the last two years does not do
> drugs, and they ususally have a huge blowup
> when she is using them. It doesn't stop her,
> though.

> I have to honestly say that the ONLY thing
> that has helped at all have been the times
> when I was on my face crying to the Lord to
> spare her life and stop her. (I am very much
> interested in reading the book you
> suggested, Woodie.) She has been to
> court-ordered substance abuse therapy and
> court-ordered AA/NA groups, but she managed
> to stay clean while doing that so they never
> believed she had a problem. But at the worst
> times, prayer is what got ME through it all,
> and I know prayer is what has kept her
> alive. Without drugs, she is one of the most
> sweet, loving, caring people you would ever
> want to know. With drugs, her only focus is
> getting more money to get more drugs.

> I have had to go and rescue her so many
> times from dangerous situations, and one day
> when she "disappeared" for a
> couple of days, she came home after having
> been horrible raped by two men all night
> long, with bruises all over her body, and
> she ended up in the ER. That straightened
> her up for awhile. Right now we are battling
> her xanax problem. She has a horrible
> reaction to them, and it drives us
> completely nuts. We just have to be mean and
> rude to her to get her to leave us alone
> when she is abusing xanax, because we can't
> stand to have her around.

> And Meme, you are right. It is so easy to
> feel so guilty because of things we put our
> kids through in the past, even though
> unintentional. And we do have to take the
> blame for that, which I know you have done,
> too. But there also comes a point where we
> have to realize that it's not ALL our fault.
> Who knows, this same child may have had this
> same problem no matter what the
> circumstances of her childhood were. It
> happens to the best of families. So when
> guilt and condemnation begin to rear their
> ugly heads, you have to be able to stand on
> the promise that God has forgiven you for
> those mistakes and that your child is making
> these decisions now as an adult. It isn't
> easy. But if there is one thing that I
> absolutely do know, God does care about you
> and about her. It is not His plan for this
> to be happening. He has thoughts and plans
> for you that are GOOD. Jeremiah 29:11 is a
> wonderful verse to hold on to - "For I
> know the thoughts that I think toward you,
> says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of
> evil, to give you a future and a hope."
How long were you in the COG? Was your daughter raised in the COG?