- Alcohol
- Drugs
- Friends & Family
Submitted by: Susanne Johnson
It all started because I care about people. During my entire professional career as a lawyer in the public health system, I’ve been working with people who have trouble with mental health issues and substance abuse. While I was doing this work, I found out that my daughter developed a substance abuse issue and these issues suddenly touched me very personally.
My daughter announced her problem to us when she was only 13 years old. She was drinking alcohol, using marijuana, and apparently taking pain medication. This combination wasn’t enough for long and had led her to the use of heroin. She misused pain medication until she was 21. It took up her entire life and she used up all her money to feed her addiction. She lost her job and all her support. Lack of money made her to turn to heroin.
During the time she was using, she alienated many of her friends. She had a boyfriend at that time, but she also kept many secrets during that same time, so I am not familiar with any of the dynamics of their relationship. I do know that we, as a family, enabled her destructive situation for a while, but she was burning through our family support quickly. We hesitated to draw some of those boundaries as we were trying to evaluate the risk of something irreversible happening. We thought if we were to stop the enabling process, something bad might happen.
We were very concerned, but we came to the point that there was nothing else we could do except draw a firm boundary. Perhaps her change began when her younger brother told her that he didn’t want to have anything to do with her anymore. We had always offered to pay for her treatment, but that was the turning point for her. She finally made the decision to enter the recovery process. She knew that help was waiting at home, and she came home and asked to be admitted to treatment– so we took her there right away.
Fortunately, she stopped using heroin fairly quickly and went to a recovery program in Arizona. She was willing to make a change in her life and so her very first time through a recovery program was a success. She has been clean and sober now for about a year.
We, as parents, went to the support groups that were offered by the treatment facility. I learned so much about addiction and how to handle it. I also met other families that were going through similar situations and it was helpful to look around the room and realize that I am not alone.
I personally had a huge problem with the stigma surrounding addiction. Although it was the field I worked in and I gave people advice every day—I suddenly had to face that the disease in my own life. The family program helped me overcome the stigma. I hope that we can help to break the stigma so other families find it easier to come forward and reach out for help without being afraid about what others think.
My daughter is very open about her recovery today, which makes it easier for me to process it all. I feel comfortable sharing her story now, as does she. In the past year I was able to help three or four other families because of our own experience in the addiction and recovery process.
Today, my daughter is starting to gain her life back. She is at school, enrolled with a general studies major. She will graduate from junior college after this semester. She will continue toward her dream to become a marine biologist after that. I have such a warm feeling when I watch her grow into the person that she wants to become. She lost about six years of her life to drugs and addiction and she is actively trying to get those years back now. I’m very proud of her.
We came to the Heroes in Recovery 6K in Gilbert, Arizona, to walk it as a mother/daughter team together. We celebrate her recovery and look forward to all the good things yet to come in her life.