Addiction is a Disease

Gina’s Journal, Entry 2 –

I got a referral call from federal probation on the 24^th. The referral was for a young woman, who is heavily pregnant, with an addiction to methamphetamine and suffering from breast cancer, undergoing chemo treatments. Wow…what a heavy load for this one woman to carry. After her intake, I learned she had 4 other children, and that she was thinking of giving the one she was carrying up for adoption. What a stressful time in such a young person’s life. Can you imagine not having a place to live while battling 2 toxic diseases – yes, addiction is a disease, all while pregnant? In many addiction rehabs, treatments and courses they often compare addiction to cancer, as far as the ‘disease’ is considered. It makes me emotional thinking about her struggle. Besides giving her a safe place to stay with support in place to help her through the addiction, what is an organization to do? She is actively sick from chemo treatments – how could the fetus be doing? This is a situation that truly makes me tear-up and that I could only dream of making her life a little easier.