- Alcohol
- Drugs
- Friends & Family
Submitted by: Susanne Johnson
Jennifer is a mother in recovery, and she is the mother of a son who also struggles with addiction. Her son has been battling addiction issues for many years. Addiction has impacted her whole family.
Jennifer’s son is 23 years old. He now in college but he still struggles with addiction. Today, he is invested in his education, he wants to finish, and he wants to do a good job although addiction is still a struggle. School has been a bit harder for him because he had to catch up from the losses of his earlier substance use years. Fortunately, he is now getting better grades.
His addiction problems began with two surgeries that led him to use and become dependent on prescription opioid drugs. His substance use began with an attempt to manage pain, but it was only a small step from that to addiction. Eventually, he overdosed on prescription medications before he finally entered recovery.
Jennifer’s parents were both alcoholics; the gene runs in the family. Her son was a athlete before surgeries and opiates took hold of him and his dreams. Before opiates, he was a baseball player and really enjoyed his sport.
After his overdose, he came home and then went to a treatment facility followed by a halfway house. He had a great therapist and his treatment team was very helpful. Sadly, shortly after he came home, he relapsed and decided to move out again and return to college. “He knows what to do,” Jennifer states. “His college has a collegiate recovery program as well. For now he is using again, not using the tools he had learned or the help that is offered to him.”
Jennifer and her ex-husband had to make very difficult choices and they chose to stop anything that could enable their son’s drug use. They stopped all financial contributions. If he is hungry, he can call his mom and she will order delivery food online for him. Other than that, she does not want to supply money that might supply his habit. She loves her son, and she does not want to cut all ties or abandon him. She simply will not contribute in any way to his addiction. Her greatest goal is to support his recovery.
His life isn’t as structured as it used to be and as far Jennifer knows that he is not participating in workouts or sports at the moment. Their relationship is strained and he is not in close contact with his parents. They don’t really know that shape he is in right now, but hope that with the end of this semester and the end of his studies that new chapter in his life will start. His friends will be mostly moving out and away after college so nobody knows where his path will take him.
Although her son is not clean and sober right now, Jennifer has decided that her life has to go on. She can’t take responsibility for each step he takes and each decision he makes. She loves to run and came to run the Heroes in Recovery 6K in Fort Lauderdale, Florida in his honor. She prays that he will find healing and return home. “My son is lucky. He has so much love from all sides,” she adds, “but he has to accept it.”
Jennifer attended a Heroes 6k to be surrounded by good people who have similar experiences and to run for a good cause and for her own son. She found her own support online in a Facebook community, where many mothers check in on each other every day and support each other in an uplifting environment. “It helps me so much to know I’m not alone,” she states. “I found supportive friends through this hard time. I’ve learned that it is not my fault that my son has an addiction. I took good care of him, but addiction can get anyone and can affect any family.” She believes that her son is a worthy person and that one day he will see it, too.
Jennifer would like to encourage all addicts not to be ashamed of their disease. Her advices is this: “If you are in recovery, wear it as a badge of honor. Nobody had to fight as hard as you did to get there. There is no shame involved, not for the addict and not for the parents.”