9
Mar

The Proud Mom of an Addict

The day I realized that I was the mom of a drug addict I felt that my life would never be the same. My life was going to have a lot of dark days ahead indeed. As the dark days got darker with Jeff falling deeper into his Addiction we realized our son needed more help than any of us had previously thought.

When we realized he had stopped going to his college classes one month before he was to graduate there was no option but to offer him treatment.

I talked to a friend of his that was in treatment and he told me to contact Jodi who knew a lot about addiction as she lost her son to addiction 5 years ago.

I called her ASAP and she dropped everything to come to my home and talk with Jeff the next day. He agreed he needed professional help as he realized any friends he had were drug addicts and either in jail or stealing from him.

I called a few places and none of them were long term enough and she had specifically said ” your son needs at least a year in treatment”. She told me to contact New Life House, as they were long term and would be good for him.

When we took him I was so sad as a mom because he was obviously high on the way to detox. We had lunch first, but he kept nodding off and I just wanted to get him admitted so I could have my Jeff back.

When they transferred him to the house after 4 days of detox I was so happy to see my son, as I had hope for the first time in a few years.

We had told him that it was a 90 day commitment but that the program was really 14 to 18 months.

After a few visits with him at the Saturday BBQ days, I could see the beginnings of him getting healthy again.

The guys that supported him on the days we could visit were all great and I always felt so at ease with all of the guys in the house.

After about 7 weeks, Jeff told us he was definitely going to stay the entire time. He believed he needed to, so that he could get his life back on track. I was so so happy – I can’t even explain as a mom the joy I had in my heart.

The thing about Jeff is that he was always the most polite, easy going guy that always made friends easily and was very well liked by most people. He was very popular in school and was elected ASB president. He got a job as soon as he turned 15 at Active because he kept going in to the store and telling them he wanted to work there as soon as he turned 15, so the manager hired him of course. He stayed with the company for 5 years while going to school and made a lot of connections in the snow board industry.

While at Miracle House, he made wonderful friends and realized these were his new sober friends that he would stay connected with forever in his new life of sobriety.

The house taught him that he can get a job, go to daily meetings and put in the work he needed to in order to stay sober.

At his one year anniversary of being sober I was the happiest mom ever, and I knew I had my son back with the full intention of staying clean and sober.

Since he has graduated the program we have nice conversations again, with him being 100 percent present when we speak.

He is such a pleasure to be around and I miss him terribly when our schedules don’t work out for us to see each other at least once monthly.

He has gone back to college to finish his degree and says learning this time is so awesome, as he has a clear mind now and appreciates the gift of an education from his parents.

What I’ve learned about being the mom of an addict is that addiction doesn’t discriminate – it can affect every type of family. It’s a terrible disease that affects so many great families and I’m lucky that my son wanted the help we were willing to give him.

I proudly continue to share my story with the hopes of helping other families that are affected by this awful disease of addiction.

I’m happy to say ” I’m the proud mom of an addict”.

-Jeannie P., New Life House alumni mother

Last Updated on May 24, 2022

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