Suffering in Silence....no more.

If you have a child suffering from addiction then you know how it feels to be alone, seeking help for your child and your family. When the reality hits, it hits HARD! Then you feel ashamed & guilty, like you may have failed as a parent. Then you feel horribly ALONE! Where do you turn to for help now? Addiction is, and always has been, a deep dark secret that many families hide from the outside world for far too long. If I have learned one thing; we are NOT alone! Addiction is a sickness, some believe- a disease. Just like mold, addiction grows rapidly when kept in the dark. There is nothing to be ashamed of, we are not failures as parents.
I believe that no one knows that they are truly a good parent until the day comes that they have to make decisions for the person that they love more than life, decisions that completely rip them apart inside, but they take action and make those decisions because they love their child and sometimes the hardest things in life are the decisions and actions of a mother or father, when we take action to save our child who lives their life in the shadow of drugs, a child who has become a stranger to those who love them, rejected time and again by the child we love for their new life with drugs, but we take that step, against their will and against all odds, we take that step.
Most often we have lived hiding the shame of our reality from others for some time, until we realize that we are tired, that we cant take on  this demon all on our own, that we need help, that our child needs help. At that time we feel as though we must be the worst parent on the planet, when in reality, I have come to realize, that step proves that we are amazing and stronger than we ever thought possible.
No one knows what it is like to be a parent of an addict unless you are one, no one truly knows the pain and suffering that we suffer, except us. To accompany your child to hell-and back, as we all hope, is the hardest journey of a lifetime.
I have listed some resources that could be of help, I will continue to add more. There is help out there, for our children, and for us.
Photo credit:Recovery and hope Facebook page