Friday, June 6, 2014

Breaking The Stigma, Part II

This blog is about our struggles and what Darlene and I learned through parenting and addict. There are times I almost feel I have to go back in time and read old posts to remember.

It's easy to put it all behind me and forget. However, something pulls at me to remember and stand tall to break the stigma. I am drawn to stand up and show that parents can survive this too. I know every single parent reading this knows exactly what I mean. There are times you wonder about your own survival, mental and physical. "How much more can I take?"

Where there is life there is hope. I have something to share. Every parent has the same dream but dreams are exactly what they are called.

It is heartache, it is pain, it is work and I am not talking about what your addicted one is going through. I am talking about every single parent. We must work on ourselves every bit as hard as our child must work on themselves.

This is why you work must work so hard.
Our Son

9 comments:

Becky V said...

Recovery looks great on Alex. So happy for you and your family!

Dad and Mom said...

Becky, It is great for everyone!!!

Annette said...

I think we must work hard on ourselves so that if and when our kids do get better, we can be ready and present and personally healthy so that we can all enjoy life together.
I think we also need to work on our own health so that if the worst happens, we can survive it and keep on living some sort of productive life for ourselves and be able to reach out to help other parents. Either way, we count and our mental and physical and spiritual health is a priority. Thanks Ron for sharing.....awesome picture! I am so happy for you and your family. <3

Addiction-A Mothers Perspective said...

What a great picture of hope! I'm glad you keep writing because hope is the only thing that keeps a lot of POAs hanging on. Your story gives us hope, especially if we take the time to read back over your journey. Being a POA might be the hardest thing we ever have to do, but your story gives us reason to believe we can survive and so can the addict we love.

Tori said...

After all of these years trying to "help, save, fix" B it finally clicked for me.....I need to save myself.

Recovery on Film said...

Thanks for your inspirational writing. I wanted to send you this link to a recovery blog I am writing; it is a set of daily meditations based on inspirational movie quotes.

Thanks for letting me be of service.

Recovery on Film: http://recoveryonfilm.blogspot.com

Syd said...

Thanks, Ron. It is tough but knowing that I don't have to go it alone has helped a lot. Good to celebrate another day of clean and sober living for our loved ones.

Anonymous said...

I'm not a parent of a drug addict. I'm just the guy who watched a large percentage of his childhood social circle destroy itself via heroin.

I have buried so many friends I stopped going to the funerals. It just wasn't worth the pain anymore.

I understand that this is a disease, but the problem is the disease is self inflicted and there has to be some kind of social stigmatization because of that fact.

You cannot change the fact that you give yourself this disease. It isn't something pushed on you involuntarily and that will always make this disease stigmatized.

Just as suicide is stigmatized in society, drug addiction is really just slow suicide.

Bar L. said...

Alex is a hottie - can tell he got it from Darlene :) Just kidding!

I absolutely LOVE this photo and it makes me smile from head to toe.