Fortunately, I have never been in the position of having to turn in a family member or even a friend. Although I have refused to lie on someone's behalf. It must have been a difficult decision. How did your mother feel about you doing this?
Did your brother benefit from his time in jail? Did he stop using?
On another note, how are you feeling? Do you feel like you are recovering from your health crisis? Take care not to do too much too soon. It takes time for the body to heal. During the acute periods of my wife's health, when she was in and out of the hospital many times, I was told that for each day a person spends in the hospital, it takes a week to recover.
My brother was committed to a state hospital and through therapy made clean. Alas that he committed suicide but other than getting drunk enough to shoot himself in the head, he was clean. No drugs at all. My mother still has a shrine to him but that is understandable and she does not blame me in the least. My father was an alcoholic and one night I heard them arguing upstairs and then the sound of him hitting her. I went up the stairs so fast that when I arrived my momentum and "retard" strength were through the roof.
I grabbed my father by the throat and raised him up off the ground and slammed him against the wall and read him the truth. If he ever struck my mother again I would snap his bones. He knew my strength and calmed down. Of course the next day he shoved a gun up my nose and said he would kill me if I ever did that again.
I calmly told him he would need more than a 22 short to take me out. He had seen me hit with high amps/voltage a couple of times and nodded his head then left the hallway. I forgave him on his literal deathbed.
I love my father and had no problem forgiving him. My older sister still can't stand the thought of him but to be honest, I took probably 95% of any punishment in our home because I could. My mother understood that I could have snapped my littlest brother into many pieces but chose instead to have him incarcerated and then hospitalized. She was thankful for that and for me going full 'tard on my father.
I was at the doctor's yesterday and today am covered in bruises. Therapy is fun. I am looking to prove them wrong as it was projected I would die within the year, which is fast coming up. I am being closely studied and monitored by two different teams for different reasons. If any good comes of all this for other folks, I will be happy for them even if I am gone or never meet anyone that has benefited from what happened to me. Am I scared? Despite my physicians' thinking otherwise, I am only human so yes. I am scared. My last death I saw nothing but what I heard remains with me. Over six minutes and I am thankful my brain is about the same, which is to say borderline moron, LOL!
Thank you for asking, brother.
