I remember my first twelve-step meeting so well. It was my intention to go into the Church’s little basement room and take thorough notes on how to fix my addicted loved ones. Then, I’d go home and take care of business–as usual. Hopefully, I thought, it won’t take too long. So, you can imagine my […]
Addiction is a difficult disease to battle–that is for sure. But, many times we are served with the news of those difficulties in such a way that it can be overwhelming. You will be told up-front that for an addict or alcoholic, there are only three possible paths. There is recovery, institutions (jail/prison or mental) […]
We have always had horses. My husband grew up with them. I am afraid…still. A few years ago, I decided to try again to overcome some of my fears so I took some lessons from on older cowboy that we knew. I understood that it would be important to start on the […]
In this family disease, we often have to watch as our loved ones harm themselves. It is the most difficult part. Imagine that you had a two year old that you could not stop from wandering into traffic to retrieve a ball on the other side. Loving someone who is in active addiction to […]
My children were young in the nineties. The wisdom of the day on parenting, via the latest headline, newspaper or magazine article or television talk show suggested that we keep our kids busy. The thought being: “idle hands are the devil’s workshop.” There were other nuggets of wisdom: put them in sports, keep them active […]
In my first twelve-step meeting, everyone kept telling me that addiction is a family disease. I had no idea what they meant. Eight years later, as I sat in another meeting that I had volunteered to chair, several people arrived that I did not know from our usual group. That either means that they are a […]