Bleeding Heart

I will admit that one of the things that has triggered my desire to change career paths and work with youth in recovery is my bleeding heart. My heart aches for the pain inside every young addict and believe me, there is pain in every one. I also am painfully aware that where there is a youth with an addiction, there is a parent whose heart aches for that child. My heart also hurts for them because I know that pain, I feel it. I was surfing around Facebook and I check on a few of the kids that I know who did their programs and who have also fallen back into relapse. Yesterday while checking I found a comment that really tugged at my heartstrings and made me realize that these teenagers are at times just so lost. I read the post "what do u do when u got too many problems u can't handle?" This is a young person longing for support, longing for help. He had a conversation with another youth who did their program together who is doing well and he told him to call the rehab. The conversation went on to say that his problems have gotten too big to manage and he realizes he will need help again, there was apology, encouragement and support, fear and sadness. This conversation eats me alive. How many relapsed youth out there having these feelings of despair? How can we reach out and offer help and let them know there are people who care, that they are worthy of help and they CAN do it. Many youth (and adults for that matter) need more than one round of rehab to get the help they need. Relapse isn't failure, it's opportunity to learn, once again, from our mistakes and hope this time to use the new information learned to help us to maintain sobriety/recovery. 

One of the biggest troubles I have seen with youth coming home from residential rehab is trying to find their place in the world, making new, healthy friendships and connections. As a community, we need to offer more support. We need to be more understanding. We need to be more accepting. 

My affirmation for today: I am grateful I am accepting of others challenges, I realize those challenges belong to them but am happy that I am compassionate enough to care and reach out to those in need. 

I would like to once again thank Recovery and Hope Facebook page for agreeing to let me use their beautiful and inspirational photos on my blog. Their Facebook page has 62.2 K likes!!!!