Please help me with my aunt?

Question

Okay, I'm 14 and my aunt has been a crack addict for 20 years. I only found out that she has been doing drugs this long since last october. After her husband died about 3 years ago, life has been pretty hard for her. Her drug addiction became worse. She started stealing money from our family, and scamming insurance companies. Last october, my aunts new boyfriend threatened to kill my father. My dad became furious, and refuses to see my aunt. He knows what cracks addicts are like, and so do i, and he does not want to have anything to do with her. This whole situation has really torn my family apart because the rest of my family acts like nothing is wrong and they continue to have her over during family parties, but my dad doesn't want to see her because he thinks its wrong that they are basically enabling her. They think that we can make it through this because we are family, but they are wrong. Its been so difficult not seeing my huge family all the time. My dad is also a police officer, by the way. Anyway, I don't know what to do because basically we are all against each other?

Also, you will probably think that we should put her into rehab; we have tried, she refuses. She has been an addict for 20 years, and we have tried so many times that there is no use anymore. If she wants to get help, she will, but she doesn't. It's not like we can make her fix herself. I also want to add that my cousins and I barely talk anymore...they side with their parents thinking we are the bad guys and that we are being unloving , stubborn and selfish, so we can't get through one conversation without it brought up. But, my cousins do have sleepovers and get togethers with eachother, and exclude my brother and I. Any advice will work...just please help :[

Also, I like to read, so I was wondering if anyone knows any books that I could read about similar situations like this, or something.

Answer 1

I guess the only way to back her to her normal self is by entering her at rehab center. The people there can help her problem.  

Answer 2

With your dad being a cop, this must be very hard on him. He puts people in jail for that. He's using tuff love. The rest of the family needs to use tuff love too and until they do, she will never change. The best thing that could happen to her, is if she got arrested or committed to rehab by a judge. Until then, I think you should avoid her. The rest of the family, by ignoring it, is giving her the idea that it's ok and it's not.  I think it's sweet that you're worried about her and what it's doing to your family. She doesn't care and you can't force some one to care.

Answer 3

You basically stated what needs to happen, "If she wants to get help, she will."

Its perfectly ok for the rest of the family to invite her over for get togethers as she is a part of the family and they would probably like to know how she and the children are doing.

Its also ok for your father to have nothing to do with her as he has probably a lot of experience with drug addicts through his job.