On week 11 of Hope Dealer, we want to wish all the moms a very Happy Mother’s Day! Ed McDonough CEO of GateHouse Treatment brings on an exceptional guest to this weeks episode, his very own mother, Alice. Ed brings up the wreckage of his past but through his mothers’ eyes to show the other side of the coin.
Being the person struggling with active addiction and rehashing the journey from our point of view we don’t see how far the ripples of our actions spread. Even being in the medical field herself, Ed’s mom was blinded-sided by her sons spiral into addiction. She touches on how she was in denial for a long time even with others pointing out the obvious to her. The profound personality changes, changing of lifelong friends, and missing belongings around the house were all things Alice saw but wasn’t willing to accept what was going on.
The widespread feeling of “It wouldn’t be my child” that most parents feel is something that almost all parents go through when first realizing their child may be struggling with an addiction or falling into the lifestyle that goes hand in hand with substance abuse disorders. Eventually, she had enough and set boundaries that were hard to implement and even harder to stick to. With addiction being a family disease, there is support for the family, a route Ed’s mom went was through Al-anon. It is for the loved ones of someone struggling with substance abuse disorders. For more information on Al-anon visit: https://al-anon.org/ For those who want to seek another support group there is also Nar-anon. For more information on Nar-Anon visit: http://www.nar-anon.org/
Part of the recovery process is the family learning to take care of themselves in tandem with their loved one going through their recovery process. Alice strongly suggests if you even think that a loved one may be struggling to consider going to a meeting, that you can learn to identify with others in your shoes. Education was also a contributing factor, with being in the healthcare industry there wasn’t much knowledge or awareness as to warning signs or symptoms associated with blossoming substance abuse disorders. With all the knowledge that is now possessed by the public and especially in the healthcare field it is much easier to assess, and prevent if still applicable, how to best treat the substance abuse disorder at hand.
There is always still hope for those struggling and the families affected. We do recover, as a whole.
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