they’d read said that Adam had to be ready, that the only person who could help Adam was Adam himself. He was an adult; they could not commit him to a lockdown treatment program unless he was a danger to himself or others.
And the knowledge that he was using a dangerous drug—crack cocaine, Adam’s best friends confided to the Browns—only added to her stress. Crack is nasty stuff, as Janice discovered in her research. A user can become addicted after just one try, it alters the brain’s chemistry, and it renders the user powerless against an intense need for more. The side effects, both short term and long term, are horrifying: increased blood pressure and heart rate, anxiety and paranoia, insomnia, severe depression, delirium, psychosis, auditory and tactile hallucinations, respiratory failure, brain seizures, heart attack, stroke, and sudden death. One of the most unnerving effects Janice read aboutwas “coke bugs,” a tactile hallucination in which users sense, and sometimes see, bugs moving about beneath their skin and will do anything to get rid of them: scratch, cut, poke, stab, even kill themselves in the process.
When Janice went to bed on New Year’s Eve 1995, the last thing she wondered before drifting off was where her wayward son would sleep that night, or if he would sleep at all.
That night Adam was at a friend’s house on Morphew Road, not far from his mom and dad’s. He had become so addicted that he couldn’t go half a day without experiencing withdrawal symptoms. Several hits of crack were stashed in his pocket to ring in the New Year, and he began smoking them at midnight.
Around two o’clock in the morning, Adam went into the bathroom with a knife. Sometime later, his friend checked on him, and when Adam didn’t answer, he kicked in the door and found Adam crouched on the floor covered in blood, continually stabbing at his neck with the knife.
Instinctively, the friend balled up his fist and punched Adam squarely in the face, disarmed him, and yelled down the hall, “Call an ambulance!”
The first police officer to respond found Adam bleeding profusely from his neck and arm. “Applied direct pressure to wounds until Lifemobile Personnel arrived,” he wrote in his report. “Ran subject for wants/warrants. Subject had an active felony warrant for his arrest and was placed in custody after his wounds were taken care of by St. Joseph’s ER staff.”
Adam being “processed” at the Garland County jail during his dark time.
Upon receiving the call that their son was in the hospital with self-inflicted stab wounds, as well as wanted by the law for forging checks and stealing property, Janice and Larry paid the ten thousand dollars in bail and restitution and requested that an officer drive Adam from the Garland County jail to a lockdown drug treatment center. Months before, they had looked into the center but could not persuade Adam to check himself in—and there wasn’t evidence that he should be committed against his will. Now that he was clearly a danger to himself and bound for jail if his parents hadn’t paid the restitution, he had no choice.
When the drugs left his system and the fog cleared, Adam found himself in a hospital with a staff whose recovery strategy included the twelve-step program of Alcoholics Anonymous. Adam began his first step toward sobriety by admitting he was powerless over the drug and that his life had become unmanageable.
“He couldn’t argue that one,” says Larry, who along with Janice kept their visits to a minimum, stopping in only a handful of times.
Adam began by answering questions in a mini-autobiography highlighting the significant events in his life. “This tends to put your life in perspective,” stated the instructions.
Sitting at the small desk in his room, Adam started with his childhood and preteen years. He noted that he had “always wanted to impress everyone and be the very best. Enjoyed showing off to my parents and
And the knowledge that he was using a dangerous drug—crack cocaine, Adam’s best friends confided to the Browns—only added to her stress. Crack is nasty stuff, as Janice discovered in her research. A user can become addicted after just one try, it alters the brain’s chemistry, and it renders the user powerless against an intense need for more. The side effects, both short term and long term, are horrifying: increased blood pressure and heart rate, anxiety and paranoia, insomnia, severe depression, delirium, psychosis, auditory and tactile hallucinations, respiratory failure, brain seizures, heart attack, stroke, and sudden death. One of the most unnerving effects Janice read aboutwas “coke bugs,” a tactile hallucination in which users sense, and sometimes see, bugs moving about beneath their skin and will do anything to get rid of them: scratch, cut, poke, stab, even kill themselves in the process.
When Janice went to bed on New Year’s Eve 1995, the last thing she wondered before drifting off was where her wayward son would sleep that night, or if he would sleep at all.
That night Adam was at a friend’s house on Morphew Road, not far from his mom and dad’s. He had become so addicted that he couldn’t go half a day without experiencing withdrawal symptoms. Several hits of crack were stashed in his pocket to ring in the New Year, and he began smoking them at midnight.
Around two o’clock in the morning, Adam went into the bathroom with a knife. Sometime later, his friend checked on him, and when Adam didn’t answer, he kicked in the door and found Adam crouched on the floor covered in blood, continually stabbing at his neck with the knife.
Instinctively, the friend balled up his fist and punched Adam squarely in the face, disarmed him, and yelled down the hall, “Call an ambulance!”
The first police officer to respond found Adam bleeding profusely from his neck and arm. “Applied direct pressure to wounds until Lifemobile Personnel arrived,” he wrote in his report. “Ran subject for wants/warrants. Subject had an active felony warrant for his arrest and was placed in custody after his wounds were taken care of by St. Joseph’s ER staff.”
Adam being “processed” at the Garland County jail during his dark time.
Upon receiving the call that their son was in the hospital with self-inflicted stab wounds, as well as wanted by the law for forging checks and stealing property, Janice and Larry paid the ten thousand dollars in bail and restitution and requested that an officer drive Adam from the Garland County jail to a lockdown drug treatment center. Months before, they had looked into the center but could not persuade Adam to check himself in—and there wasn’t evidence that he should be committed against his will. Now that he was clearly a danger to himself and bound for jail if his parents hadn’t paid the restitution, he had no choice.
When the drugs left his system and the fog cleared, Adam found himself in a hospital with a staff whose recovery strategy included the twelve-step program of Alcoholics Anonymous. Adam began his first step toward sobriety by admitting he was powerless over the drug and that his life had become unmanageable.
“He couldn’t argue that one,” says Larry, who along with Janice kept their visits to a minimum, stopping in only a handful of times.
Adam began by answering questions in a mini-autobiography highlighting the significant events in his life. “This tends to put your life in perspective,” stated the instructions.
Sitting at the small desk in his room, Adam started with his childhood and preteen years. He noted that he had “always wanted to impress everyone and be the very best. Enjoyed showing off to my parents and
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