I Married a Meth Addict

These days you can't go through a single hour without hearing about drugs and how they've ruined families in one way or another. While the news is always disturbing, it takes on an entirely different feeling when it happens to you. I had grown up in a sheltered existence. No one in my family smoked, drank or did drugs. In fact, I didn't even know anyone who did drugs, so I had no idea how to recognize someone when they were high.

Of course it was good growing up without drugs around, it left me totally unaware and inexperienced with the drug culture. That's the reason, I suppose, that I had no idea I married a drug addict. Of all the drugs, he was addicted to methamphetamine. I'd married him within only three months of meeting him, so it's partially my fault for not finding out more about him first. I didn't know what signs to look for or what to expect, but after a few months, his personality changed. He started acting differently. It started slowly and then got out of hand.

At first, I took his word that he was working late or had to suddenly run out to the store for something, but after a while, I became suspicious. He'd mentioned a few times that he used to snort cocaine, but he said he'd given it up years ago. I believed him. It never occurred to me that he would start doing drugs again. As things became more hectic in our lives, I was pregnant and had to stop working, he would be away from home more and more, leaving me to fend for myself. His excuses also sounded weak.

One time I was out grocery shopping and came home to find him lying on the couch watching TV. I asked him why he wasn't at work and he said he didn't feel well and came home. Another time, on pay day, I called his employer to ask him to stop at the store on his way home and found out that he never showed up at work. Hours later, I got a call from the hospital saying that my husband was in the emergency room claiming he had a tremendous headache. They'd given him cat scans, blood work and x-rays and the doctor said there was absolutely nothing wrong with him. I was angry and told my husband to get up and come home. Miraculously, he did and never once complained about the mysterious headache. It was an excuse not to go to work.

Then one day, I walked by the bathroom and heard a sniffing noise. By now I was reading up on drugs and learning about the signs. My husband had many of them. Lying, staying up for days without sleeping, irritable, violent. I confronted him and he confessed that he'd been doing meth because he couldn't handle being married and being a parent. Then he walked out on me, calling me a very unflattering name. It was a horrible time, but he was unwilling to change. The only thing left for me, and my children, was to get a divorce and move away from him. I filed the papers, but when I tried to collect child support, he disappeared.

It took the courts and police more than two years to track him down. He'd gotten remarried, which I figured was good because he would hopefully be more settled. It took another two years to get the courts to garnish his wages. To this day, he claims that he's off meth, but I have my suspicions that he still does drugs. But, so long as I get my child support, I don't need to worry so much anymore. In fact, as my children grow, they see by his example what meth can do to a person.