Sister shows up at our house completely without notice, in acute withdrawal...

All of the loosely discussed material below is currently being redrafted in a more presentable, thorough article/post. For now, the following notes serve as simple placeholders until I can finish the proper draft. 

Very unexpectedly and without notice, my younger (50 yrs) sister showed up at our door today (02/08/2026) as I was preparing to leave the house for the gym and then to several other tasks I had planned for Sunday.

She was dropped off by an Uber driver; she arrived with several suitcases and several smaller bags, suggesting she planned to stay for a while. 

Neither my father nor I, the household's primary residents, had any advance notice of this. 

I was immediately surprised and happy to see her, but then I noticed all the bags and realized it was more than just a stop-by to say hello. Further immediate alarm was triggered when I comprehended how extremely haggard, disheveled, and tired she appeared. 

I honestly did not even recognize my sister when I first opened the door, as she was so incredibly thin and overall appeared to be severely distressed.

She was speaking in rapid-fire, twitching, shuffling her arms and limbs, and immediately began claiming the following. I will abbreviate names here for obvious reasons:

"Jxxx, Mxxxx, Mxx, and the whole family are in on this! They all told me to come here!"

I did not use the person's names above because it's neither important nor respectful to do so.

Pardon my own rapid-fire comment here, but...

Excuse me, but... What?

All of the following is recorded on both home video and audio surveillance systems installed as regular, ordinary security devices. But in this case, it may be of greater importance.

Furthermore, before we even began the very erratic conversation, I informed my sister, in accordance with Texas law, that our household had a long-standing, well-known policy of documenting audio/video content.

I've written many other articles here about why the daily audio and video content I use as a documenting vehicle here at my shared household is of great utility and value to both my father and me, but as she was entering our home for the first time, I was required to document that verbal agreement properly.

As an aside: The audio/video documentation is a practice that persons with Texas Health/Human Resources for the Aging emphatically advised me to begin in late 2022. At that time, I had taken over ownership (and still see to) every aspect of our family company's financial and administrative functioning.

When I first moved in and the resonsibilities started piling up, I reached out to Texas Health and Human Resources, specifically the Aging & Disability Resource Centers (ADRCs) as I was fully aware that it was going to be a new challenge and that I would need guidance.

And the first and most important thing the persons at ADRCs told me was to get approval from my housemate/father and then begin documenting everything via audio and video as well if possible.

So I've done that since late 2022 and to the day of this writing.

Brief notes about the encounter with my sister until the proper draft is published:

ONE: She distressingly explains that she’s running from her abusive partner and claims that he and others in the Baycliff area where she has been staying are conspiring against her to make her take the fall for a large amount of heroin (or some other drug) that she says was not hers. This is a huge flag because the likelihood of her claims being true is not easily dismissed as just paranoid ranting.

She has “been in the wind” for about 25 years, moving from house to house, often times living on the street, anywhere that she can find to have shelter, all the while and at the same time going through numerous in-patient treatment facilities and other, similarly numerous outpatient treatment facilities but for nearly 3 decades has never once gained traction of any significance and has always gone back to intravenous drug use. 

She’s also been arrested several times for possession of significant quantities of Heroin, methamphetamine, and other drugs, and has been incarcerated for such on several occasions over the same past 30 years (give or take).

This is all publicly accessible data, and it is known to most people who associate with her, so I am not going out of my way to speak ill of my sister here. The point is, when she claims she’s mixed up in a multiperson situation in which she says she's the target of their scheming to make her take the fall for possession of these substances, it’s a claim I personally feel should be taken seriously before writing it off as whimsy.

TWO: She had called me just a week earlier, just to say hello, which I found nice, and I expressed the same to her during the call. During the same call, she said she’d been hanging out with a cousin of ours and that it was going well, even suggesting I come over and visit, perhaps watch a movie with them sometime, and I replied that the idea sounded great.

I had not heard from her since that call, and it wasn't until she showed up at our door via Uber with all her things, saying, “Jxxx, Mxxxx, Mom, the whole family is in on this, and they all said I should come here!”

THREE: The primary glaring problem is that her arrival today, in full withdrawal from some substance and fully expecting to simply set up camp and stay here, was heralded by no notice whatsoever.

Even more alarming is that all of the above mentioned person's had told her to come here when they must surely have known that she was claiming to be involved in criminal drug activity and that she was in very acute withdrawal from some substance (likely more than the claimed Suboxone, based on her behavior) and that she was fleeing an abusive partner.

Why would anybody suggest that a person in such a crisis suddenly, without warning, just show up at a household with no spare bedrooms, populated by an elderly person who is currently seeing to weekly, important medical procedures and myself who am fully engaged on a daily basis running the entire financial and administrative affairs of a company as well as constantly assisting with my father's personal matters? 

** WHY WOULD IT NOT BE OBVIOUS THAT SHE SHOULD SEEK ASSISTANCE FROM SOME SORT OF SHELTER OR AGENCY CREATED SPECIFICALLY TO OFFER GUIDANCE TO PERSONS IN HER HIGH STATE OF CRISIS? **

 
FOUR: My sister was in hard withdrawal. She claims it was Suboxone related, but I personally doubt that. Just her physical appearance and Jekyll/Hyde-like behavior were enough to know she had certainly not been clean since November 2025, as the various family members who were calling and my sister herself claimed. 

The fact that she had a bag of cell phones with her, commenting, "I need to take these to the machine," was also not a good look (i.e., "boosting," etc.).

At least three times when driving her back to where she wanted to go, she would say, "Sorry. I'm withdrawing." or .. "I apologize for my withdrawals," ... three times to be precise. And sure. Suboxone is known to have withdrawals, but if she were on a properly managed Suboxone cycle, she would not be in withdrawal. 

And even though I personally have no experience with opioids or suboxone, I honestly think the level of her distress was caused by something else, but it's just a subjective opinion.

A further subjective opinion that applies to myself or any person who is making efforts to "get clean" or otherwise cease addictive behavior:

It's a very simple metric: If the person is accessible and regularly visible for at least three months, if they are notably healthy in appearance and demeanor for at least three months, and, especially, if they've made some regular effort to WORK for at least three months, be it actual payed work or even volunteer/service work, then one can be pretty sure an addict is telling the truth when they say they haven't used. Ask me how I know...

My sister was certainly not clean yesterday, and most certainly not clean since Nov 2025. 

In fact, given her past 30 years or so of heavy intravenous drug use, I could only suspect she was likely withdrawing from something other than Suboxone. 

FIVE: Throughout our conversation and after watching the collected video of her short stay in our living room as we discussed options for her, very apparent were a number of highly unusual/suspect behaviours: she would talk incessantly, literally flipping in a second like a multiple personalties type situation from sobbing and crying uncontrollably to then, lightning fast, switching to equally intense laughter and gayity. 

From crying like mad. literally wailing and crying "I WANT MY DADDY!!" to suddenly commenting on how funny the TV was and “who would need a TV that big!?? HAHAHAhahAHAHAA!!” and then, again, like flipping a switch and in response to something I might have suggested which she didn’t like, she would suddenly become threatening and angered, saying “Joel! Don’t even get me angry! You don’t even want to piss me off, Joel” or some such (will have to publish the recorded content once appropriate legal editing work has been done). 

I found this last bit especially troubling as she had only been in our home for a couple of minutes and was already swinging through potentially volatile, angry outbursts.

Point is, she was literally and quite clearly exhibiting what could only be called EXTREMELY acute mood swings that I would say look more like somebody with some sort of split personality disorder than mood “swings” because there was no “swing” at all, it was like mood “switching”, it was instantaneous.

Again, though unpleasant to do, I will necessarily make the captured content legally presentable by blurring our faces and obscuring any mentions of names just to publish the video capture that displays this erratic, mood “switching” behaviour because the video content alone, to a trained eye, would be highly indicative of a person going through some sort of drug-induced crisis and that clearly needed IMMEDIATE PROFESSIONAL ASSISTANCE.

SIX: Claims to be fleeing an abusive relationship, essentially needing some place to stay. 

My assumption was that it would be a night that would turn into the desire for a longer stay and then long enough to “dig roots” deep enough that expelling her would take some legal work.

 
Ultimately and quite calmly I explained that it was highly inappropriate for a decades long (career) intravenous drug addict in acute withrdrawal from some heavy drug, who also was (according to her account) fleeing a situation where she was under threat of being “framed” for the possesion of a significant amount of illicit substance, all while displaying very erratic “mood switches” reminiscent of split personality disorder to suddenly and without warning show up at some other person's household door step with all of her belongings and subsequently, “dig in” there at a place, prior to this day, has been 100% uninvolved with the perpetual drama surrounding her and her constant return to drug use.

She balked at this and said, "Well, I’ll just sit outside with all of my stuff, then!"

 
I then explained that when my father (home owner) got home, the likely outcome is that he would quickly call the mental health folk with the Houston police or sheriff’s department because he’s done that with me some years back when I was going through my own, relatively brief, acute alcohol abuse moments. And at that point, I was already realizing that I might have to do so if she would not agree to assistance from proper organizations. Just a hard reality.

 
SEVEN: I then explained that it would be highly unlikely that the homeowner would agree to having her “set up camp here,” after considering all of the above, but that I would immediately begin finding a place nearby that she could go to for shelter and council, and that was geared specifically towards services for women.

Upon hearing this, she immediately balked and said she wanted no such assistance and “just want to see my Daddy! Just want to see my Daddy!” in a very childlike way, as though she were 14 years of age instead of 50. 

All of this is captured quite clearly in the video documentation, as is my genuine concern and willingness to find a place I could take her that very same day.

But each time I calmly stated that she needed to take the appropriate course and seek guidance from professionals, she became very combative about that (obviously appropriate course), saying, “Well, you might think it’s the best course for me, but IT’S NOT WHAT *I* THINK is the best for me!” 

Again, switching high gear into that rather belligerent and dismissive personality when, just seconds before, she had been weeping/sobbing hysterically about “just need my Daddy!" Just need my Daddy!” 

I explained to her, again, calmly because I have been through similar difficulties though not on a lifetime/career basis, “Well do you think that the “I WANT” part of it might be exactly the problem you might want to consider addressing?" 

In other words, for once, try doing what others think best and especially when the direction came from trained professionals instead of what she, there and then, thought better in regards to the addressing of her obvious crisis (which was, simply, setting up here as yet another in the long string of places she had sought shelter over the years).

 
EIGHT: I then contacted a facility called “Sarah’s Home” in Pasadena that catered to female addicts in distress, especially with a focus on those fleeing abusive relationships. The lady on the phone began by asking me for her age, so I asked my sister for the specifics, and she replied, “50!” 

And then commented loudly, “HERE WE GO!” as though she were being victimized or preparing for the "same old drill," or something by my simply and truly finding an appropriate environment where she could detox under proper supervision, as well as (for the nth time) possibly being steered towards the first steps in making some positive changes in her life.

After confirming her age with the lady on the phone, the lady asked if she could speak with my sister to begin asking for other necessary information before she could possibly be admitted that day, and to have me return the phone to start that process. 

My sister said she didn’t want anything to do with assistance from such places and began calling alternative places where she could “set up camp.” She found a friend's place quite quickly, which begs the question of why she didn't go there to begin with.

A family member offered to Uber her over there. I commented that I would be happy to drive her myself, and so we began getting her stuff ready to head to that location in Baycliff.

Eventually, we put her things in my car, and I drove her to a friend's house, where she had been offered a place to stay. I found it ironic that we were driving straight back to the very neighborhood she had been fleeing when she showed up on our doorstep. 

I couldn’t help but wonder why she didn’t just go to this person's place from the outset of her distressing situation, instead choosing to Uber all the way across town, some 40 miles or so, to simply and without any notice show up with all her things and claim that she intended to stay here for some amount of time.

 ???

FINALLY: I then drove her to her friends, back in Baycliff, and when leaving, again, the mood switch, she was laughing and giddy, claiming how much she liked the Volcom sticker on the back of my car.

Totally unnerving and worrying to observe.