On most days, many families around the U.S. can't relate to Mary Forsberg Weiland, the ex-wife of the late Scott Weiland, the lead singer of Stone Temple Pilots. They don't have to deal with the fame and fortune that comes along with being related to a famous rocker. However, for those families who struggle trying to cope with drug addiction, her words never hit home more than they did when she wrote to RollingStone magazine.
"Over the last few years, I could hear [Scott's] sadness and confusion when he'd call me late into the night, often crying about his inability to separate himself from negative people and bad choices," Weiland wrote.
The consequences of drug addiction extend beyond the victim to his or her family.
She continued on about her ex-husband's drug addiction saying, "Spending so many years immersed in Scott's multiple illnesses led to my own depression; at one point, I was misdiagnosed as bipolar. I feared the same would happen to the children. There were times that Child Proctive Services did not allow him to be alone with them."
Scott was found dead December 3 on his tour bus. Cocaine was located in the bedroom just a few feet away. And although autopsy reports have yet to confirm cocaine took Weiland's life, drugs certainly played a major factor in the type of relationship he had with his family—a fact Mary Weiland felt she should explain.
For many families, the Weiland's situation is much like their own. A loved one becomes dependent on drugs. As they take more drugs, his or her body becomes more tolerant to it. To offset this tolerance, the victim consumes even more drugs until they've become completely addicted to it. By this stage, the victim's entire life depends on the substance. Effects of addiction include chronic relapses when trying to quit, a lack of awareness or, if aware, the inability to help yourself recover, destruction of personal relationships, injury, disease and even death.
The consequences of drug addiction extend beyond the victim to his or her family. Families have a remarkable ability to maintain homeostasis, or the ability to maintain a stable environment among interdependent elements. However, once drugs are introduced into the equation, homeostasis begins to collapse, and the results are often catastrophic.
"When Scott did move onto another relationship," wrote Weiland," I hoped it would inspire him to grow instead, when he remarried, [our] children were replaced. They were not invited to his wedding; child support checks never arrived. I don't share this with you to cast judgment, I do so because you most likely know at least one child in the same shoes..even though I felt we had no other choice, maybe we never should have let him go. Or maybe these last few years of separation were his parting gift to us the only way he could think to soften what he knew would one day crush us deep into our souls."
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the number of overdose related deaths per year from 2001 to 2006 for cocaine rose from 4,000 to just under 8,000. From 2007 to 2013 that number dropped to about 5,000. But in 2014 that number jumped again to close to 6,000 per year.
If you know someone suffering from cocaine addiction, don't wait to help them. Make sure they receive the proper treatment immediately. Call Fairwinds Treatment Center. Founded 25 years ago by Dr. M.K. (Khal) El-Yousef, our staff of full-time psychiatrist, nursing professionals and licensed therapists uses a Dual Diagnosis method to treat patients with drug addictions.
