Ours is a typical, middle-class family in a nice neighborhood in our beautiful Tuscarawas County. Our daughters are smart, healthy, pretty girls who did very well in school. They were involved in sports, choir and the church. My husband and I serve on community boards, and our family was the very picture of the American dream.

Until one evening when, totally by accident, I found a box of needles and spoons in our youngest daughter’s room. I was totally shocked. I had no idea. I confronted her immediately. She confessed right away and begged for help. I was absolutely lost as to who to call.

Who do you call when you find out that your child has an alcohol or drug addiction? Where do you go for help? Who can you talk to who won’t pass judgment on your child or on your parenting abilities? What will people think? Worse, you fear, what will people say? No one wants others to know that their child has such a problem. Especially when you find out that they’ve been addicted for years and you never even knew it!

So there you are in the living room with your addicted child who is just as scared as you are. You get out the phone book and start trying to find somewhere to call. It’s 10 o’clock at night. No place is open. You don’t even know what to say if anyone would pick up the phone. You keep searching desperately and at last call the hospital thinking, “Surely they can help us!” But they can’t help. They don’t deal with detoxing addicts. Detox, there’s a word that was never on your radar before.

This was just the first two hours of our two- ½ year terribly difficult journey learning about addiction and recovery and all the torment that exists in between them. It’s our fervent desire to raise awareness in Tuscarawas County to the drug issues that plague our community. And to the help that is available to those who desperately seek it but don’t know where to get it.

What would I say to anyone who has just found out that a loved one is an addict? First, here are the numbers you are going to need to get help for your loved one.

Harbor House Halfway House
330-343-2778 X 213
24 hour Hotline 330-364-1374
Residential Treatment Program for women and their children

Personal and Family Counseling Services
330-343-8171
Out Patient Drug and Alcohol Treatment

Community Mental Healthcare
24 hour Crisis Line 330-343-1811 or 330-627-5240
Out-Patient Drug and Alcohol Treatment
Alcohol and Addiction Program
330-343-5555
Out Patient and Intensive Out Patient Drug and Alcohol Treatment
 
Canton Crisis Center
Detox
330-588-2207

IMPACT Mercy Medical Center
330-489-1233
Intensive Out Patient Treatment Program

Second, get yourself to an Al-Anon / Narc-Anon meeting. That’s help for you. Believe me, you are not alone. There are others who know the journey you are beginning. You are going to need people to talk to. Keeping it all inside will tear you apart.

Last, don’t give up hope. Treatment does work and people do recover. Keep believing in your loved one. They need your support. Those who have the support of their family are proven to be more likely to succeed. And you’d be amazed how much closer your relationship can become after going through such a fight for survival, and going through it together.

There were some very dark hours in the depths of our daughter’s addiction. There were many times we didn’t think she would make it. But when we reached out for help, there were people there with treatment, encouragement and sometimes just to be a sounding board for our frustrations and fears.

We didn’t give up and neither did she. Our daughter has celebrated her sobriety since November 2006. Our family is closer now than we ever were. We are truly blessed and grateful for the help that exists here in our community. Treatment does work and people do recover. Thank goodness.