Eternal vigilance is standard issue with parenting. Add to that DNA script a child battling substance abuse addiction, and you have the kind of emotional trauma that can cripple a family.
From midnight phone calls to missing household money, plummeting school grades and behavioral changes, substance abuse, and addiction can play out in ways that challenge our experience and our role as parents. The sudden realization that we are dealing with the possibility of a fatal disease sends us reeling into self-recrimination, blame, anger and fear. The stakes are high, and we often don’t know where to turn.
We wait for the call from the police or the hospital, and we dread the next installment of the disease pattern.
Many are lucky to find a pathway to long-term recovery as others are lost in the undertow. In Talbot County, the Eastern Shore and Maryland, in general, heroin use is on the rise, along with widespread suffering and loss of life.
Aside from the tried and true 12-step programs, treatment services are becoming more available and a new openness about the problem is evident with families talking to families.
Oxford resident Mary Valliant is familiar with the painful odyssey of being the parent of an addicted child. What she has discovered about “long term recovery” is a lesson for all—addiction is a family disease and that despite the wreckage it leaves in its wake, each day forward in recovery is another day of healing and the renewal of healthy family dynamics.
Holding true to the idea that “long term recovery” should focus on the issues at hand and what it takes to rebuild a relationship between a parent and child, Valiant talks about her journey, and her hopes as her son enters his third year in long term recovery.
Her message is clear. Reach out now for help. Professionals await—physicians and counselors, peer support, recovery facilities and encouraging family members and friends are available.
Here, Valliant talks about her journey, its hardships and the healing she hopes will continue for her son and family.
Write a Letter to the Editor on this Article
We encourage readers to offer their point of view on this article by submitting the following form. Editing is sometimes necessary and is done at the discretion of the editorial staff.