Mother Shares Photos Of Her Oldest Son, Showing What Heroin And Meth Addiction Can Do In 7 Months
Addiction ruins lives. Those of the addicted, as well as those of their loved ones. Fortunately, however difficult life might get, there are people out there who care about us and do their darndest to help us in our hour of need.
Jennifer Salfen-Tracy turned to Facebook to share with everyone how her oldest son Cody Bishop, who is suffering from heroin and meth addiction, is doing. According to his mom, Cody is homeless and she hasn’t heard from him in weeks. The photos she shared of him are shocking, especially when you realize that they’re only 7 months apart.
A desperate mother shared photos of her son Cody…
…who has completely changed in 7 months due to heroin and meth use
Cody’s mom wants her son to come back home and get clean
Cody’s mom, who is from Missouri, hopes that her son will return home and get his life sorted out because of the major negative impact that drugs have had on his life, health, and outlook on life.
Salfen-Tracy also drew attention to the fact that this sort of addiction is far from rare; it affects more people than you’d expect. Heroin, which is an opioid, is part of a larger problem of addiction in America and elsewhere.
In the United States, addiction— of all types — is widespread. Addiction Center highlights that 21 million Americans “have at least one addiction,” however, only a tenth of them receive treatment. The Center also notes that out of those, 2.1 million have an opioid use disorder and almost half a million Americans are regular heroin users.
Over 700,000 US citizens have died from overdosing on a drug (any drug) from 1999 to 2017. Drug and alcohol addiction is a heavy weight on the US economy: it costs the country more than 600 billion dollars each and every year.
What’s more, around a fifth of Americans who have “depression or an anxiety disorder also have a substance use disorder,” according to Addiction Center.
Around 130 US citizens die daily from opioid overdose. Since 2017, 15,000 Americans have lost their lives because they overdosed on heroin.
An astoundingly large number of people in the US have used heroin at least once since 2017: 886,000 individuals have tried it and around a quarter of them will go on to be addicted to heroin. All we can do is hope that Cody gets the help he needs and doesn’t become just another statistic.
People who read Jennifer’s story encouraged her not to give up
I'm sorry, but reading over and over again, that people only trust in god and that someone changed his life just because of the help of god sometimes really makes me wonder. Especially the part when someone manges to turn his life around and stay sober, that people say, that it's "by the grace of god" - why not say, that this person found his strenght and was able to change his life by himself.
I don't do the God thing... I got sober on my own & stayed sober.
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Exposing your son like this on a public platform won't help him; only he can help him self. God can't help either. Sorry to be harsh but I've struggled with addiction and only you, yourself the addict, can seek help and work hard to obtain and keep sobriety. If God had anything to do with it, there wouldn't be overdoses or addicts at all for that matter. Offer him resources and help and if he accepts it, that's for him to decide.
I agree, and above all I agree on the exposure part. He's on FB, name and surname, and I feel he could be damaged in the future by this exposure. Imagine he finds the strength to get over his addiction. This pic will stay forever on the web. This is exposing a weak subject. Not nice.
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I am so sorry for the mother and hope her son can be saved. I lost my daughter ( as in I had to get an AVO against her), and as a consequence my first grandchild due to my daughter’s drug addiction and her resulting paranoia.
Mom of Cody Bishop..Stay strong and Believe in God to turn things around for your son,yes ultimately God does not force anyone to turn to Him,but He is the source of your very existence. Your son needs will power yes and that is when u step in and ask God to open Cody's mind,to give him God's infinite Wisdom,Knowledge and Understanding to be able to make that change. God is Real,God is Great and God is Good...No- people can do things without God.
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I could have saved myself 3 years of HELL if I had not listened to my family and gone to a medical based treatment onstead of a Faith based one. Down vote me all you want nut until you have lived it
IMPORTANT: If you live in the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky area and want more info or need help go to facebook and find Heroin Doesn't Care (So We Have To).
All that religious c**p made me stop reading, honestly f**k off.
Nothing to worry about here, she turned it over to God, so it's his problem now. And everyone else is praying, so it's going to be fine. No need to go there and actually help him.
the point you missed is that you can't help other people with this, they have to want help first otherwise it wont work. Your judgment does nothing , your virtue signaling does nothing
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I know she meant well, but I'm not sure sharing the picture of your son in these conditions would help HIM. I mean it's really exposing him. I know we're so used to being public and social all the time, but sometimes I wish ppl would think twice before posting relevant info and pics of weaker subjects, like this young man is.
May be irrelevant and I'm in no way advocating heroin but this looks more like meth than heroin.
After doing a little FB digging, I read that he was located and has been in touch with his mother. That was all the way back on July 8th. I hope he keeps in touch and get's the help he and his girlfriend needs. They have to find the strength to get the help they need.
If I was on drugs and a pic of me went viral, it would push me over the edge!! That's just me though, fingers crossed it has the opposite effect on him...
Completely agree. I would never post something like this about my son online unless it was in such a way that someone would have to try hard to make it go from private to public. It's not as if she were relaying some silver bullet that worked and could help millions. Then maybe you'd want it to go public.
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To those of you downvoting comments about not naming these people publicly: Have you ever had a loved one who was/is an addict? Have you ever watched them die? Or, felt absolutely helpless because they refused your help? In just the past 4 years, we lost 3 family members and 1 friend to opioid addiction. I watched helplessly as my best friend since 9 years old, went from being one of the most beautiful women I'd ever met, to being toothless, elderly looking, and nearly bald. Had we publicly named them prior to their deaths, it would've only hastened it. Also, if someone has been sober, it isn't up to you to bring up their past. If they want to, they'll do it themselves.
Why is she airing dirty laundry in public? Certain issues deserve privacy. Why name him publicly?
Exactly! It is NOT her story to share. It's his if he wants to. Shaming him publicly WILL NOT WORK. Most (If not all) people downvoting have never gone through this. They just think it's PC to downvote.
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I see a great deal of people use their faith to help them clean up. I won't doubt that they thank God for helping them find strength. A great deal of people find strength in themselves through faith. While I believe the strength is within yourself, it is always good to know that someone is praying for you to find it. I'm not religious by any means, but when I have found myself or my family in dark times, it is comforting to know that people are thinking of us. I hope he finds his strength, either with God or his own will power, and gets better.
I am going to say a couple of things that may be unpopular, given all the comments I've read so far. The first thing I want to address is why this mother posted her son's photos. Several of you have criticized her for this. But she clearly states that she hasn't heard from him in a while. She is seeking help from others in finding him. This is one of her reasons for the pictures (in addition to warning others about the extreme costs of addiction). The second thing I want to address is the anti-religion trend in the comments. In reality, none of us knows why any person chooses to destroy himself on one day........and then turns around and chooses to retake and remake his life on another day. What mysterious inner forces cause someone to miraculously decide that they want to recover from something like addiction? Few of us really know. Even those of us who have been through it ourselves.
"Mysterious Force" is a very simple, but common definition for what people in all cultures everywhere have called God (throughout history). So why is this term so offensive to so many commenters here? It is certainly true that every addict must make the mysterious decision to journey to recovery on their own. But how they do this is somewhat ungraspable, isn't it?
Load More Replies... This entire thread of comments is disappointing. She didn't post it for everyone's opinion on her prayer life or God. She posted to raise awareness of how badly those hardcore drugs can affect someone's life. I saw this the other day and just out of curiosity went on the guy's Facebook page. He's selling a woman's watch for $100, I'm assuming to supply his addiction. Get the F over yourselves and your holier than thou opinions (yes atheist and Christians are both guilty) and attempt to see the big picture - the reason this mother posted her story. If someone says "I'm praying for you...God can heal him," stfu and be happy a total stranger is attempting to encourage this mother. If someone says "I don't believe in God or prayer, but I'm a believer in people overcoming addiction," stfu and be happy a total stranger is attempting to encourage this mother. This constant need to shout out our opinions like everything is about us is wearing on my got damn nerves.
Many people are saying in the comments that it likely won't help this man to have his story and photo spread across the globe (and I agree), yet this story has 126 upvotes. So, 126 people think that it's a good idea to spread the photo and story about your kid's suffering (without a solution or advice), and a handful think that is not cool to do as a parent. My faith in the goodness of people at Bored Panda has been seriously undermined.
It’s a terrible addiction- I’m so sorry. Take care of yourself first. #momofadultaddict
Those photos are heartbreaking, but I know through friends who battle addiction and win day-by-day that it can be beaten… day-by-day. "God" is magic for those who hope for such solutions. I hope Cody meets PEOPLE who can get through to him -- or rescue him when he is too close to the edge or falls into the abyss. "God" has had seven months and hasn't been able to punish Cody enough that he gets the message. Do I sound like an atheist? GOOD.
She questioned how can a person who has people that love them live that way. It's a bunch of things. For a bunch it's outright selfishness and a belief they're doing fine and should bs able to do anything they please. Others its the opposite. They know they've failed themselves and hurt their families. They have so much guilt they drown their "shame and sorrows" in drugs or boose. Then you have those who were traumatized by something in their life. Like me it could be years of being beaten and being told you're worth less than trash from almost infancy compiled with years of being bullied. The last is accidental addiction which happens with lots of severe injury sufferers. Then you have various combinations of the 4. It takes time and effort and sometimes taking the control away from the addicts. Jail. Hospitalization. Court ordered detoxification. That one, court ordered detox should be used alot more. It should be regular practice and law to put people in Court ordered detox
What was Dennis Carey's mother thinking? If she's proud of him, why bring up his past in federal prison to thousands of strangers... not to mention his co-workers?
Drug cartels need to be destroyed, creating users in countries and ruining everybody's lives
F**k the hope and prayers. Jesus wants somebody in that condition to go on Medication Assisted Therapy with a clinical MEDICAL based treatment. You can't pray this away
People who live in glass houses should p**s off. I am personally an atheist, that's just how it is, but you are taking "intolerant" to a whole new level. If somebody believes in a god (or multiple - whatever floats your boat, India), let them have their religion, their pride, their hope. Let them believe in something that gives them mental and moral strength, even if they think the creator of the universe is a f*****g horse with 3 legs wearing a tutu! What I'm trying to say is, be firm in your beliefs, Jewish people, Christians, Muslims, Hindus, and everyone else. Don't let losers like this "Bill" guy tell you that your belief is wrong.
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Carol if it were that easy to give in to higher powers we'd all be praying excitedly and be free of addiction. Guess what that ain't happening. You've never been in this mans shoes, please, your naïveté is painfully sad
Load More Replies... 
I'm sorry, but reading over and over again, that people only trust in god and that someone changed his life just because of the help of god sometimes really makes me wonder. Especially the part when someone manges to turn his life around and stay sober, that people say, that it's "by the grace of god" - why not say, that this person found his strenght and was able to change his life by himself.
I don't do the God thing... I got sober on my own & stayed sober.
Load More Replies... Exposing your son like this on a public platform won't help him; only he can help him self. God can't help either. Sorry to be harsh but I've struggled with addiction and only you, yourself the addict, can seek help and work hard to obtain and keep sobriety. If God had anything to do with it, there wouldn't be overdoses or addicts at all for that matter. Offer him resources and help and if he accepts it, that's for him to decide.
I agree, and above all I agree on the exposure part. He's on FB, name and surname, and I feel he could be damaged in the future by this exposure. Imagine he finds the strength to get over his addiction. This pic will stay forever on the web. This is exposing a weak subject. Not nice.
Load More Replies... I am so sorry for the mother and hope her son can be saved. I lost my daughter ( as in I had to get an AVO against her), and as a consequence my first grandchild due to my daughter’s drug addiction and her resulting paranoia.
Mom of Cody Bishop..Stay strong and Believe in God to turn things around for your son,yes ultimately God does not force anyone to turn to Him,but He is the source of your very existence. Your son needs will power yes and that is when u step in and ask God to open Cody's mind,to give him God's infinite Wisdom,Knowledge and Understanding to be able to make that change. God is Real,God is Great and God is Good...No- people can do things without God.
Load More Replies... I could have saved myself 3 years of HELL if I had not listened to my family and gone to a medical based treatment onstead of a Faith based one. Down vote me all you want nut until you have lived it
IMPORTANT: If you live in the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky area and want more info or need help go to facebook and find Heroin Doesn't Care (So We Have To).
All that religious c**p made me stop reading, honestly f**k off.
Nothing to worry about here, she turned it over to God, so it's his problem now. And everyone else is praying, so it's going to be fine. No need to go there and actually help him.
the point you missed is that you can't help other people with this, they have to want help first otherwise it wont work. Your judgment does nothing , your virtue signaling does nothing
Load More Replies... I know she meant well, but I'm not sure sharing the picture of your son in these conditions would help HIM. I mean it's really exposing him. I know we're so used to being public and social all the time, but sometimes I wish ppl would think twice before posting relevant info and pics of weaker subjects, like this young man is.
May be irrelevant and I'm in no way advocating heroin but this looks more like meth than heroin.
After doing a little FB digging, I read that he was located and has been in touch with his mother. That was all the way back on July 8th. I hope he keeps in touch and get's the help he and his girlfriend needs. They have to find the strength to get the help they need.
If I was on drugs and a pic of me went viral, it would push me over the edge!! That's just me though, fingers crossed it has the opposite effect on him...
Completely agree. I would never post something like this about my son online unless it was in such a way that someone would have to try hard to make it go from private to public. It's not as if she were relaying some silver bullet that worked and could help millions. Then maybe you'd want it to go public.
Load More Replies... To those of you downvoting comments about not naming these people publicly: Have you ever had a loved one who was/is an addict? Have you ever watched them die? Or, felt absolutely helpless because they refused your help? In just the past 4 years, we lost 3 family members and 1 friend to opioid addiction. I watched helplessly as my best friend since 9 years old, went from being one of the most beautiful women I'd ever met, to being toothless, elderly looking, and nearly bald. Had we publicly named them prior to their deaths, it would've only hastened it. Also, if someone has been sober, it isn't up to you to bring up their past. If they want to, they'll do it themselves.
Why is she airing dirty laundry in public? Certain issues deserve privacy. Why name him publicly?
Exactly! It is NOT her story to share. It's his if he wants to. Shaming him publicly WILL NOT WORK. Most (If not all) people downvoting have never gone through this. They just think it's PC to downvote.
Load More Replies... I see a great deal of people use their faith to help them clean up. I won't doubt that they thank God for helping them find strength. A great deal of people find strength in themselves through faith. While I believe the strength is within yourself, it is always good to know that someone is praying for you to find it. I'm not religious by any means, but when I have found myself or my family in dark times, it is comforting to know that people are thinking of us. I hope he finds his strength, either with God or his own will power, and gets better.
I am going to say a couple of things that may be unpopular, given all the comments I've read so far. The first thing I want to address is why this mother posted her son's photos. Several of you have criticized her for this. But she clearly states that she hasn't heard from him in a while. She is seeking help from others in finding him. This is one of her reasons for the pictures (in addition to warning others about the extreme costs of addiction). The second thing I want to address is the anti-religion trend in the comments. In reality, none of us knows why any person chooses to destroy himself on one day........and then turns around and chooses to retake and remake his life on another day. What mysterious inner forces cause someone to miraculously decide that they want to recover from something like addiction? Few of us really know. Even those of us who have been through it ourselves.
"Mysterious Force" is a very simple, but common definition for what people in all cultures everywhere have called God (throughout history). So why is this term so offensive to so many commenters here? It is certainly true that every addict must make the mysterious decision to journey to recovery on their own. But how they do this is somewhat ungraspable, isn't it?
Load More Replies... This entire thread of comments is disappointing. She didn't post it for everyone's opinion on her prayer life or God. She posted to raise awareness of how badly those hardcore drugs can affect someone's life. I saw this the other day and just out of curiosity went on the guy's Facebook page. He's selling a woman's watch for $100, I'm assuming to supply his addiction. Get the F over yourselves and your holier than thou opinions (yes atheist and Christians are both guilty) and attempt to see the big picture - the reason this mother posted her story. If someone says "I'm praying for you...God can heal him," stfu and be happy a total stranger is attempting to encourage this mother. If someone says "I don't believe in God or prayer, but I'm a believer in people overcoming addiction," stfu and be happy a total stranger is attempting to encourage this mother. This constant need to shout out our opinions like everything is about us is wearing on my got damn nerves.
Many people are saying in the comments that it likely won't help this man to have his story and photo spread across the globe (and I agree), yet this story has 126 upvotes. So, 126 people think that it's a good idea to spread the photo and story about your kid's suffering (without a solution or advice), and a handful think that is not cool to do as a parent. My faith in the goodness of people at Bored Panda has been seriously undermined.
It’s a terrible addiction- I’m so sorry. Take care of yourself first. #momofadultaddict
Those photos are heartbreaking, but I know through friends who battle addiction and win day-by-day that it can be beaten… day-by-day. "God" is magic for those who hope for such solutions. I hope Cody meets PEOPLE who can get through to him -- or rescue him when he is too close to the edge or falls into the abyss. "God" has had seven months and hasn't been able to punish Cody enough that he gets the message. Do I sound like an atheist? GOOD.
She questioned how can a person who has people that love them live that way. It's a bunch of things. For a bunch it's outright selfishness and a belief they're doing fine and should bs able to do anything they please. Others its the opposite. They know they've failed themselves and hurt their families. They have so much guilt they drown their "shame and sorrows" in drugs or boose. Then you have those who were traumatized by something in their life. Like me it could be years of being beaten and being told you're worth less than trash from almost infancy compiled with years of being bullied. The last is accidental addiction which happens with lots of severe injury sufferers. Then you have various combinations of the 4. It takes time and effort and sometimes taking the control away from the addicts. Jail. Hospitalization. Court ordered detoxification. That one, court ordered detox should be used alot more. It should be regular practice and law to put people in Court ordered detox
What was Dennis Carey's mother thinking? If she's proud of him, why bring up his past in federal prison to thousands of strangers... not to mention his co-workers?
Drug cartels need to be destroyed, creating users in countries and ruining everybody's lives
F**k the hope and prayers. Jesus wants somebody in that condition to go on Medication Assisted Therapy with a clinical MEDICAL based treatment. You can't pray this away
People who live in glass houses should p**s off. I am personally an atheist, that's just how it is, but you are taking "intolerant" to a whole new level. If somebody believes in a god (or multiple - whatever floats your boat, India), let them have their religion, their pride, their hope. Let them believe in something that gives them mental and moral strength, even if they think the creator of the universe is a f*****g horse with 3 legs wearing a tutu! What I'm trying to say is, be firm in your beliefs, Jewish people, Christians, Muslims, Hindus, and everyone else. Don't let losers like this "Bill" guy tell you that your belief is wrong.
Load More Replies... Carol if it were that easy to give in to higher powers we'd all be praying excitedly and be free of addiction. Guess what that ain't happening. You've never been in this mans shoes, please, your naïveté is painfully sad
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