Healing a Mother’s Heart by Restoring a Son to Sobriety
When mothers watch one of their children lose everything—jobs, health, family, even hope—to addiction, it cuts deeply right to the core of her. For so many years, she protected and nurtured this child. And now she can protect him (or her) no longer. Perhaps she can’t protect him but she can find an effective rehabilitation program to bring him back to life and health once again. For Pam of Florida, the rehab program that did the job right was Narconon.
Pam’s son Jason started having problems when he left their Massachusetts home to go to college in Miami. There were soon signs that all was not well with their son and Pam’s husband recognized them. Pam, however, refused to acknowledge what those signs meant.
“I told my husband that he was wrong and I kept sending my son money,” Pam said. “I didn’t want to believe what my son was doing but ALL the signs were right there. It wasn’t until I attended a support group for the families of those struggling with addiction or in recovery. That was when I realized what was going on.”
They brought their son back from Miami and told him to choose a recovery program. Jason selected a nine-week wilderness program. The family was delighted when he graduated. But they still didn’t understand addiction and recovery and they didn’t realize how fast he relapsed. They thought he was fine as he moved back to Florida. But actually, it was far from fine. The next few years were hell for the entire family as Jason’s addiction to cocaine came back in full force.
“It wrecked our family,” Pam continued. “Every time we talked to him, we were afraid it would be the last time. I found myself planning his funeral. Eventually, I just ended up pacing back in forth in my home, not even leaving the house except to go to our support group. We sent him to rehab after rehab. He would do great but it took just seconds each time for him to relapse.”
Finally, the family decided to give him one more chance but they realized they needed to look for a different kind of rehab program, an alternative to Twelve Step programs which had not succeeded so far. At the Narconon drug rehab program in Colorado, they finally saw an end to his drug use.
“It was a huge relief for me when I saw him again. I knew the program had worked for him and I wasn’t nervous about leaving him alone any more. Now, our family is back together again. Everybody embraces him and his accomplishments.
“From Colorado, my son decided to start working at Narconon Suncoast to help other people achieve the same kind of recovery he had. I’m very grateful that he’s there paying it forward every day.”
Now, Pam continues to work with the support group, Learn to Cope, that helped educate her on how to deal with and overcome her son’s addiction.
This Mother’s Day, Narconon Suncoast thanks every mother for their love and dedication to their children and their communities. In the fifty-year history of the Narconon program, tens of thousands of mothers have seen their children come home sober and productive and in doing so, have healed not only their own broken hearts but those of the whole family.
