The more I write, the more I want to write – mostly before there is always more I want to share. This is certainly the case when it comes to Our Young Addicts. There is so much to talk about and so many topics that parents, young people in recovery, and addiction/treatment professionals want to read about.
As the back-to-school season moves forward, I have less and less time to write. Fall is always a busy time for my business (unrelated to Our Young Addicts, although I do have a few clients in the addiction space). In addition, I am an adjunct professor at a local university, so I’m in the classroom two nights a week plus grading my students’ papers. And, as every parent knows, the school year brings extra commitments – getting up earlier to get my 15-year-old off to school, encouraging good homework habits, carpooling to sports practice, and more.
My day is the same as yours. Twenty four hours. No more. No less.
Yet, I still want to give Our Young Addicts just as much energy, passion and content as the summer months. Some of that I put in play with our #SoberSchoolYear campaign with Tweets and Facebook posts running daily to offer tips and insights.
As well, I owe you all a good update on #SoberSon and his continued success with recovery as well as an honest account of some of the struggles that run parallel on this path. These real-time observations prove valuable no matter where your kid (of any age) may be on the spectrum of experimentation, use, addiction, treatment, relapse, and recovery.
On my list.
For now though, I’m just going to share a whole bunch of topics that I’d like to write about at some point. Let me know what you think. Tell me which ones are of greatest interest. I remain committed to one post per week about our family’s journey; one guest post per week from a parent, young person in recovery, or addiction professional; and one #TBT column – because there is so much wisdom in the early days of my son’s addiction and its impact on the family.
Here are “just a few” of the future blog posts that I may just write one day:
- Even with “all the right things,” you kid may use … and may become an addict
- Coming to terms with we didn’t cause this, can’t change this, can’t control this, can’t cure this … yet were supposed to do these “influential things” that still might not work, reconciling all this.
- MWM’s “AA” is Appropriately Anonymous
- The freedom of a fence
- A short leash … advice to the tennis coach … oops
- Check it out – act now
- Check it out – testing
- Create and orchestrate a community team
- Be open to possibilities
- Less rigid, 180 degrees
- #NotMyKid – the most dangerous mindset
- Still Curious – So much we still don’t know, might never know
- The day I cleaned my son’s room
- Then & Now
- 24/7/365 – it’s the same allotment, every day, for all of us
- Role Models – inspire others due to our vulnerable honesty, and this inspires others to keep on keeping on … Experience
- My goal was to have no goal – when the mind was quieting down, the answers came to me … in part it inspired the writing and the formation of Our Young Addicts, find solutions in a place of peace
- Beyond Been There And Done That – Here Now and Doing This – Real-time Experience
- Takeaways for Parents:
- Trust your Mom Radar
- Check it out
- Don’t be naïve
- Create a team, a community
- Variety of perspectives and experiences
- It’s going to be a bit of a haul, need support from those who have been there and done that, and from those here and doing this
- Share the conversation, which creates hope and hope becomes belief – experience, resources, hope
- Quiet the mind and be open to the possibilities
- The positive outcomes of this horrific journey in addition to son’s sobriety and recovery, are the relationships, the personal growth, the clarity of purpose… there is a gift in the journey of addiction
- Trust your Mom Radar
- Dual diagnosis – are there different rules for support? For action? For expectations?
- Don’t be rigid – recovery perceptions
- Just as we had perceptions of addiction, we had perceptions of recovery
- Trust each other
- It’s OK for Mama to have some wine, if she doesn’t have a substance use condition
- Diet Coke – addiction, it’s real
In one of my many English courses, I remember someone attributing this quote to Ernest Hemmingway, “I don’t like to write, I like having written.” This says a lot about the discipline of writing and the compulsion to edit. For this and many other reasons, I have never thought that I should edit content for Our Young Addicts – that it should come from the heart and brain to the page, just as it is.
There you have it, just as it is!
Thanks for reading and for your continued support and participation as part of the #OYACommunity.
Midwestern Mama