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Quote of the Week
"If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way" ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
 For the fourth year in a row the Allegheny County Parent-of-the-Year Award will go to a member of PSST. Come to the Eastern District Meeting this Saturday morning to find out who is the winner! We will be posting more on this subject, but suffice it to say that at this point the winner does not yet have a clue. The award will be officially presented during the Juvenile Probation Awards Ceremony on October 8Th at 5:30 P.M. in the waiting room at 550 Fifth Ave (downtown Juvenile Court). RSVP is expected and can be arranged for any parents interested to attend. Click picture on right to see last year's winners. Click picture on left to see the winner in 2007. This award usually recognizes both the serious work of the parent(s) who work tirelessly to help their teenager make a big turn-around and the efforts of the parent(s) to reach out and help other parents.
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Update from Sally
Posted by:Lloyd Woodward--Saturday, September 26, 2009
From: Sally
To: Lloyd
Subject:  Blending your different parenting styles to help your child who is close to a relapse.
Date: Saturday, September 26, 2009 at 7:10 PM
Hi Lloyd,
Cisco got out of Ridgeview over a month ago. As you know, he either relapsed or is very close to it. The next step for him may be a hearing at Shuman. I am trying my best to keep that at bay for a very good reason. I don't want to use up all the 'tricks in the magic bag' too soon. Right now, the very thought of him going to Shuman keeps him doing what he should do. It is great leverage.
Cisco's main problem seems to be that he has too many "friends". When Rocco and I returned home after eating breakfast out this morning, we told Cisco that he will not go to the school dance tonight. I told him I was not comfortable with him going to the dance. He was upset but I quickly changed the subject and expressed how proud I was of his progress at school. (He has A's in all but one subject) He settled soon enough and was willing to attend his Saturday NA meeting.
That meeting always does him good. He was one of the last ones out. They put him in charge of handing out the "clean and sober ' milestone coins and when suggestions went around for next weeks topics, I found it interesting that his request was - What Do You Do if You Relapse?!
It is so helpful when both parents can really work together at being stronger that The Strong Willed Kid. It was cool, when my husband, Rocco, saw that I changed the subject and as soon as I stopped talking about his good grades; Rocco questioned Why Cisco broke the solar light? (He didn't let on that he knew that Cisco kicked it yesterday when he was angry about being disciplined.) Cisco had to explain himself and could not get defensive.
Rocco and I have been married for 32 years and we have two sons. Our older son had problems when he was a teen but did not question our authority that much. My husband's calm and patient ways worked well with him. They always reasoned things out man to man. They also had a lot of common interests. Rocco and Cisco do not have that same type of relationship.
Both Rocco and I probably look very weak and stupid through our son, Cisco's eyes. I know Rocco is strong and brilliant but we both know that both of us need to hone up our parenting styles so that we keep the control that we have and also build more control, power and respect. Rocco is taking my lead because he said I seem to have better judgement. I don't think it is better judgement but since I have more time to dedicate to this case and more time to talk with Lloyd and the other experts I do have more knowledge and can make better decisions. I also have a more suspicious and paranoid nature and look for problems and pitfalls. This is usually good in this situation but sometimes Rocco has to help me reason things out.
I played around on the computer today and was able to read the profiles of some of Cisco's friends who are on his MySpace. I now have a better store of knowledge of which friends are trustworthy.
Cisco did not go to the dance but we did not ground him either. He asked if he could go to some kids house after the kids get home from the dance. I said only if you first contact the kids parent and let me talk to the parent. I will ask her if there will be alcohol or anything because it sounds like there may be about 8 kids there tonight. Cisco said that Bill and Bob will be there and Bill and Bob both had very nice profiles on MySpace. (Cisco does not know yet that I can get on MySpace and see these) profiles.
I will close with this Point to Ponder:
Every two- parent family must remember that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link!!
Sally
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 Lloyd, I found these two websites useful in my search for more information about the dangers of inhalant abuse. I thought you may want to pass them on through the PSST site. I believe parents of children in recovery need to be very aware that this is a problem and be in the know about the dangers. Thanks, Anonymous   (Note: the Alliance for Consumer Education in the top right is a link to their video about huffing. )
New Wexford Meeting Place!
Posted by:Lloyd Woodward--Friday, September 18, 2009
Trinity Lutheran Church at 2500 Brandt School Road has agreed to sponsor our Second Saturday of each month PSST meeting. This provides us with larger facilities. We want to send out a special thank you to Trinity Lutheran Church for helping us out at this time. Please come out to support us at our new location on Saturday October 17th. This location is 2 miles from our old locatio n at The Alliance Offices. You actually drive to the left past this spot pictured and enter right through the next driveway where it says YMCA. (see driveway to right). We meet in the educational building in the rear, which you can see at the center of this picture above where the cars are parked. If you click on the photo it zooms in so you can see a bit better. This is a really nice place for our meeting- we can make coffee and have plenty of room.
Thanks to the Alliance for providing us with meeting space for several years. We have enjoyed an excellent location.
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Cisco was moved into the shorter session at Gateway - this change started today. Betty from Gateway said part of the reason this happened is because of insurance reasons but she explained to Cisco that if his behavior is not good she will make sure he gets back into the long session again.
He is doing well and his drug tests have come out negative but he is still trying to weedle his way into getting his own way on certain things.
He started smoking in the car on the way to Gateway last week with the excuse that "he needs to have a cigarette and at least he isn't smoking at school like the other kid that got suspended for smoking in the bathroom". They do have a calming effect on him so we let him smoke but try to keep it to a minimum. We will work on smoking cigarettes at a later date but now we are choosing our battles.
You suggested that I stop the car if he wants to smoke and let him suffer the consequence if it makes him late. I did that today. He was ready to light up and I told him not to; he insisted so I stopped the car and said, "If you need a cigarette have one but you are going to be late." He had one and he was late. He told me Betty makes the group stay later if they come in late. They did keep them about 10 minutes longer than they were supposed to and I hope it was for that reason.
The other struggle is getting control of the radio/CD player in the car. Before I picked him up from school I cleared his CD's out of the front seat and tossed them into the trunk. Before I even drove away he wanted to know where his CD's were. When I told him they were in the trunk he begged me to get them out and I said no. I said " I am a 50+ year old lady who sometimes needs quiter music." I said we would compromise and listen to a "young radio station".
I have been reading the PSST Never the Less blogs and found the one on YELLING very helpful because at times I have gotten into shouting matches which were completely counter productive. I am proud to say that I stayed completly calm and rational even when Cisco was angry in the car today. He was angry and unhappy and swore some. Since I stayed calm he was willing to share with me that he had talked to his X-girl friend and he told me the things she said that made him angry. I sympathized with him and his anger melted away.
Sally
(image from Creata Card licensed software)
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Dear LLoyd and Val and Kathy and Cathy,
The Parental Survival Skills Training session was so helpful today. It has energized and refreshed me and I am ready to start our third week of having our son (let's call him Cisco) home after his 90 day stay at Ridgeview. Rocco (alias for my husband) and I learned a lot and some lessons which we learned at prior sessions have been reinforced.
Cisco was at an NA meeting this morning and came home happy. He told us that is going to be his home group and asked me to make him cookies for an upcoming occasion. I said 'consider it done, just tell me your favorite type of cookie.' He said, "Make snickerdoodles and mom, There were only women at today's meeting but it went well and that is going to be my home group". I think he can relate to women who are in recovery.... you see Cisco is adopted and sometimes Rocco and I are probably so different from his natural parents.
Even tho' he has been with us almost since birth he knows that his natural mom had a drinking problem. My take on this is that he relates to these women and they help him see that yes, his mother 'gave him away' but he realizes thru these other women that she is a good, loving women who has a disease which is called addiction. It is a cunning, deceitful and powerful disease AND added on top of that is the fact that society places a stigma on the disease of addiction. So it is harder for a person to admit that they have the disease AND family members would rather stay in denial about a member of their family having this disease. It is easier that way since the stigma makes the outside world judgemental instead of sympathetic.
Cisco has not found a sponsor yet and it would not be good to have a sponsor of the opposite sex. Last week there was a man there and he was thinking of asking him.
One time you or someone at Ridgeview mentioned that when someone has an addictive personality and stops using drugs they need to find a substitution. Well, Cisco helped Rocco and I build a shed which ended up being a two weekend project. We promised him that he could get a tattoo and yes, he did help a lot and yes, he now has a tattoo. He SAID several times, that he will get only one more which will be in honor of my Mom, his Gramma who passed away two summers ago.
You may say, why in God's world would you as a parent, sign for a tattoo for your under aged child? Rocco and I reasoned it out from past experience with Cisco and knew that if we did NOT go along with it this strong-willed child would find a way to get one and it may be at a place with unsterilized needles. After all, several years ago, both of us and his gramma could not talk him out of getting his ears pierced and he simply had a friend stick a needle in his earlobe!
The red flags started going up when we were in the tattoo parlor because Cisco said, maybe he will get MORE tattoos. I do not want this to be a substitute for his drug addiction. Rocco and I with everyone else's help who is involved needs to help him find other substitutions. Such as work, relationships, music, art or any other positive venue.
So we will work on that and for now on when he helps with major projects around the house the money has to go for something more substantial. I also have decided to make CD's for our commute to Gateway, Squirrel Hill, where Cisco is in the IOP (Intensive Outpatient Program). He is starting to monopolize the CD player with his music. His taste in music has improved BUT Rocco and I still have a better selection of popular music which he needs to be reintroduced to.
Remember; Rocco and I are good parents to healthy children and now with your help we are learning how to be a good parent to a child who is an addict. Thank you so much for all your help and for listening to my lengthy email. Will you please pass this on to Kathy T. and Cathy C. ?
Sincerely,
Sally
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Yelling
Posted by:Lloyd Woodward--Thursday, September 10, 2009
 Yelling is counter-productive. Not only is it not an effective way to discipline your teenager, but it causes resentments. Causing resentments is not the best way to manage a teenager who may be on the verge of being out-of-control. Why does it happen so often? I believe that it is because the yelling becomes the discipline. In other words, there is no discipline or accountability. We just rip em a new one. That'll teach em. Unfortunately, this does not usually teach them much, other than this: if you're feeling mad go ahead and yell and blame other people. Once our teenagers have learned this lesson we can be sure that we will at some point have them yelling and blaming us. How can we cut down on the yelling?
First: admit that yelling is not effective. Period. It just doesn't work for you- except that maybe you feel better because you blew off some steam. But what did it do to change your teenager's behavior? Admit that it must be all about making you feel better because it is not helping your teenager's behavior.
Second: become aware of when you are yelling. Pay attention to what precedes a yelling outburst. Try to see it coming so that you can strategize how to avoid it. Ask your teenager to point out to you when you are yelling. That's a favor that most teens would be more than happy to perform.
Third: Follow a strategy to change your yelling. For example, hold your teenager accountable for his behavior. Theodore Roosevelt wrote, "I have always been fond of the West African proverb: `Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.'' Do less yelling at teens and do more holding teens accountable. Ground them. Take their cell phones. Take their license. Take their computer time. Suddenly, you will feel less like riping them a new one because you sort of did that already.
Fourth: Move in closer- make good eye contact- and talk slowly and quietly- and really mean what you say. Your teenagers will be surprised. You might be surprised too at how effective and powerful this is. Also, if they are yelling at you they will find that it is difficult to continue to yell once someone moves in on them an inch or so and starts talking slowly.
I’ve stepped down, so that I could step up.
When my friends and colleagues hear that I’ve requested a demotion at work that’s what I tell them.
Recently my son Michael came back home after almost 10 months at Abraxas, where he fought against, struggled with, and ultimately completed the first leg on his journey toward recovery. I as well as his brother and sister, ages 14 and 16 are glad to have him home. He seems like a changed person. He is certainly neater, having finally learned how to make a bed! He also seems a lot quieter, gentler and certainly more focused. I’m sure I am seeing the real Michael but it is such a contrast to the mean, loud and disrespectful person we lived with before his being sent to placement that it’s easy to wonder if you really know this person at all.
Underneath all of these changes though, I feel an undercurrent of another set of emotions. Maybe fear? Restlessness? Boredom? I’m not sure and I don’t think even he can articulate the feelings there. I do know this; he needs me now more than he has ever needed me before. He needs me to support him. To make sure he gets to NA meetings. He needs me to make sure none of his old friends are hanging out at our house. He needs me to observe him for signs of a relapse. Basically he needs me to be a self appointed pain in the butt watchdog that wants him to succeed in his fight against himself. He just doesn’t know he needs me. I do.
I also know that my other kids are out there facing the same decisions Mike had to face. They have friends that use drugs or are being offered drugs themselves. Maybe they’ve tried them or are curious as to what all the fuss is about. They need me to observe and share all I am learning as I hold big brother’s hand. They need me too.
All of this was what prompted me to call my boss in for a sit down and the retail store I manage. She’s a District Manager of a large company so she is well aware that her coming to our stores is a major production. It means days of “fluffing” and dusting and “be on your toes, Stacy’s coming in”. So when I asked her to come she knew it was bad news. She walked in with that I know you’re about to give me your notice face and she was right. I had interviewed and found a replacement for myself to save her the trouble and I told her she’d love her and I was right.
I asked to step down from a full time salaried position to an hourly position working about 20 hours less a week than I did before. I told her everything that had gone on with my family in the past year and why I was making the decision to take on this new role as General Manager of my home. I told her I felt like my kids needed me more now than they ever did before and I couldn’t let them down. She agreed and told me I am an inspiration to her and no matter how long I need, when my family is ready I will always be able to move back up in our company.
Phew, I didn’t commit career suicide.
But, I will be with my family more. I will check homework assignments and make dinner more. I will look into their eyes when they tell me where they’ve been. I will make more PSST meetings and go to family night at Gateway. I will be the Ambassador of my children’s lives and there is nothing more valuable than that. So, I’m stepping down so that I can step up, as a parent.
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 Kurash warns parents that, if their child is stealing from them, that child has an addiction which has progressed significantly. “At that point, you need help. That child is far gone, deeply involved in substance abuse. Parents are reluctant to press charges against their own child, but this is an opportunity to get the legal system involved and get help.” Click here to go to full article in Spring 2009 Guide To Good Health.
Although they may feel overwhelmed and uncertain, parents are not helpless and their actions can go a long way in supporting their child’s recovery. Kurash recommends taking away their driving privileges. “If your child is getting high, he or she should not be driving. Many parents will still let them drive and this is dangerous. They WILL drive high. Plus, a car gives them the means to go to get drugs. If your child has a car or is still driving yours, pay attention to the car’s mileage; kids will go far to get drugs, to the hubs where there is a lot of drug activity.”
If there are prescription drugs in the home, lock them up. Substance abuse is a progression that commmonly begins with prescription drugs and alcohol. Sedatives such as Xanax or painkillers like Vicodin and Percocet are popular and are present in many homes. “Kids know where to look and will use what’s available; they like the relaxing effect of these drugs. Oxycontin leads right to heroin; the effect is the same and heroin is actually less expensive,” Kurash says.
Taking away cell phones and cash are also helpful measures. “These actions may not completely prevent your child from using, but they place obstacles before them that make it more difficult for them. If your child has a job and has their own money, make them accountable for it. A heroin habit can become expensive. Click here to go to full article in Spring 2009 Guide To Good Health.
NOTE: Thanks to Nicole Kurash who we contacted prior to posting. No profit is expected from these links back to Guide To Good Health magazine.
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 Special Thanks to The Steelers, and PSST parents Mary, Beth and Erv for making this outing and the tail-gating a big success. This is our third year going to a preseason Steeler Game. The seats were fantastic. I will post more pics at the CHN web page.
Type rest of the post here
With the permission of the parent we are reprinting this recent email. We now can reveal that this comment is from "Sally." Hi Lloyd, For the last hour of so I have been educating myself by reading your PSST nevertheless website. WOW! The myths of addiction were very helpful and I reread the way addicts manipulate a parent. I really should have started educating myself years ago. But I will not fret about that but simply try to 'catch up' now. Cisco tried the guilting on me tonight. When I explained that he should NOT have ANY contact with [ a certain peer]. He told me that his addiction is partially my fault...
I had to tell him twice that It is his addiction and I am not to blame. Our argument was short lived and by the time we returned home he ate dinner with us and even asked if he could set the table.
I hope and pray every day that he beats this thing.
Sally.
(Footnote: A second useful posting about Myths of Addiction.) (Image from Creative Card Gold licensed software.)
 Research shows that today’s pot is addictive and causes harm to developing brains and lungs. To learn more about the health risks associated with marijuana, click here. Click the picture to the right to take the quiz.
Parents- the antidrug website is loaded with useful information. Click here to go to the main site.
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Feeding the Enemy
Posted by:Lloyd Woodward--Monday, August 17, 2009
 Your teenager has a drug problem and is away in rehab. You still want to have your teenager's friends over the house. It feels very wrong not to let them visit your teenager when he is on home pass. After all, it's been weeks or even months since they've seen each other. You may be reading this and thinking, "Lloyd's writing about me!" Maybe I'm not writing about you because there are lots of parents who have admitted to having these feelings.
A few months ago, a mother was talking about the enjoyment she felt when she got to have her son's friends over the house and literally feeding them at her dinner table. She admitted that she knew that her son's friends did drugs but she also knew that they were basically good kids, and that they needed a place to hang out. In other words, these other teenagers that were friends of her son needed her too.
Reaching out to teenagers in your neighborhood might be a good idea; however, when your teenager has a drug problem it is a good idea gone bad.
It may feel wrong to consider your teenager's friends as enemies; however, since People, Places and Things are critical to a person's recovery, what you are really feeding is the disease of addiction.
We know that if a teenager remains in contact with his old friends that his chances of relapse go through the roof. Almost everyone who lapses has renewed old contacts first; however, what appears to be a simple 2 plus 2 equals 4 gets a bit complicated. How does this happen? What do we tell ourselves when we allow our teens to resume old friendships after they have been away in a drug rehab? Let's examine some ideas that might complicate this otherwise simple issue.
1. He has to have friends. If my teenager has to go a few months without friends it might damage him. He might develop emotional problems or depression. He might even relapse if he is lonely. No parent wants their child to be friendless.
Refutation #1: It won't hurt if he is temporarily friendless. It might even have a good effect. Nature abhors a vacuum, therefore, if your teenager is temporarily friendless he might make some new friends. If he holds onto the old friends he might have more trouble making the new ones. As far as emotional problems or depression, it does happen that sometimes depression sets in early in recovery. That can happen anyway and is probably not brought on by having no friends. What about family? Can't he become closer to family during this period?
2. My teenager's friends need help too. I just can't shut them out. They like being at my house more than they like being at their own home. They feel comfortable at my house. I don't feel good deserting them.
Refutation #2: Sometimes it's our needs as parents that are coming out. We like to be the cool parents. We love it that these kids feel most comfortable at our house! We must be doing something right if they all want to hang out at your house, right? No. Not when your teenager has a drug problem. Different priorities apply now. New rules. Suddenly, your teenager doesn't need to have the coolest Mom or Dad on the block. Your teenager needs to be less chummy with you and more held accountable by you. The key to helping most teenagers avoid returning to their previous party life is good tight parental supervision and the people, places and things are critical to that supervision.
3. It's rude to tell your old friends that you can't be friends anymore. I didn't raise my child to be rude. I raised my teenager to be loyal to his friends. I think he has to show them that he is not going to use drugs and they can stop too if they want to.
Refutation #3: Yes, but it's a rude disease. In fact, it kills teenagers. That's pretty rude. Sometimes you have to decide if you want a live teenager who is a bit rude or a dead one who has been very considerate towards every one's feelings.
4. If I only allow my teenager to see his old friends when I'm there I can make sure that nothing bad happens. Anyway I don't think his friends are bad people.
Refutation #4: As parents we send the most powerful messages to our teens by our actions not by our words. If we allow the old friends to be around some of the time, then our message that we do not approve of old friends is watered down. Apparently, we do not feel that contact with old friends is really that bad.
5. Some of my teenager's friends are clean now too. Some are even going to Narcotics Anonymous meetings. I think they can help each other stay clean.
Refutation #5: There is a saying in 12-step that your old friends will get you to use before you get them clean. You know that the reason that contact is bad is not because the old friends are bad people. The reason is that your teenager and those old friends are triggers for each other. They each make each other feel like using drugs. That's the whole entire reason. In fact, it's recommended in 12-step that newcomers hang with people who have significant clean time, not with other newcomers. Tell your teenager to run into his old friend at a meeting and leave him alone in between meetings. Tell him to wait until they both have a year clean before they try to hang out with each other. Quote from Tom M: "As a newcomer myself, I try to only hang with people in the program that have at least a year clean. If I meet a dude at a meeting who has 364 days clean, I say OK but call me tomorrow man, not today."
6. I'm never going to be able to stop my teenager from contacting his old friends. It's impossible. Why even try? I'm just going to make him be sneaky.
Refutation #6. This is the best one because it is often true; however, once again, we need to consider the message that we are sending our teenager because our message is really all we have. He will either (a)hear our message and listen, (b) hear our message and not listen, or (c)not even hear our message. Let's cut out the last one by sending him a message that he will at least hear. He can only hear it if we send it with our actions. He is not able to just hear our words anymore. Secondly, it is not always true. Some teenagers do give up their old friends. One thing we pretty much know is that if he does not give up his old friends he won't stay clean.
7. Everyone uses. It's not possible to stay away from everyone that abuses alcohol or drugs, so why bother? My teenager has to learn to live in the real world and the real world is full of substance abuse.
Refutation #7. Another tough one because it is often true. Consider however that while the world is full of drug abusers it is the very drug abusers that your teenager already knows and has used with that are the most dangerous. OK, anyone that abuses drugs or alcohol is dangerous, but the old friends have a special power over your teenager. It is possible too that your teenager will make new friends that don't' abuse drugs. It's just not as likely if they continue to hold onto the old friends. Remember, it's almost impossible for your teenager to stay clean if he renews his ties with his old friends; therefore, what have you got to loose by fighting the good fight?
8. I can't pick my teenager's friends for him.
Refutation #8. True. However, you can certainly pick some people with whom he will no longer associate. He can still be a friend to his old friends; just don't talk to them, don't email them, don't text them, don't hang out, don't ride in their cars, don't go to their My Space. At least don't do all that stuff if you want any money, want any computer privileges, want to drive, want to be allowed out, want to have a bedroom door, want to have snacks you like, want to have any television or phone privileges, want to buy new clothes or new shoes, want to have good reports go to your Probation Officer, want to get high again and end up back in a rehab or back in court! Really, parents have a lot more power usually than they realize they do- it's just a decision to use that power that is absent.
Don't think of it as feeding the old friends. Think of it as feeding your teenager's disease. The one that's trying to kill him.
Next: Refusal skills: a good way for your teenager to tell his old friends that he is unavailable.
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Two Books That May Help
Posted by:Ken Sutton--Saturday, August 15, 2009
A book review by Linda Beautiful Boy: A Father's Journey through His Son's Addiction by David Sheff 2008 Tweak: Growing Up on Methamphetamines by Nic Sheff 2009
As a parent going frantic over my child’s drug use with its related anti-social behaviors and criminal activities, a dear friend suggested I read this set of books written by a father and son detailing the same issue...
Beautiful Boy: A Father's Journey through His Son's Addiction by David Sheff 2008 Tweak: Growing Up on Methamphetamines by Nic Sheff 2009
As a parent going frantic over my child’s drug use with its related anti-social behaviors and criminal activities, a dear friend suggested I read this set of books written by a father and son detailing the same issue, the son’s drug addiction, from their very different perspectives. Eager to learn anything from another family that could help my family through this, I went to the library and got both books out as audiobooks that I listened to on my nightly drives to visit my son in the detention center.
Beautiful Boy, the father’s book described the emotional rollercoaster he and the rest of the family members were on for years as Nic would cycle through periods of using and recovery. Theirs was a family that survived a divorce when Nic was young to become two homes that contained many markers of success. Nic shuttled between both parents in a shared custody arrangement and both homes were filled with loving relationships that provided young Nic with support and parents attentive to meeting his needs. But such a life of abundance did not prevent Nic’s genetic predisposition toward addiction from becoming realized when he entered the teenage years of experimentation. For him, experimentation triggered compulsions to keep the pleasurable sensations various drug could provide going forever. Nic would regularly smoke pot, do cocaine and Ecstasy, and develop addictions to crystal meth and heroin. His using would take him to depths of depravity and the brink of death. As Nic graphically describes his life in his book Tweak, he knew he hurt others, especially his family, when he was using which made him feel so bad that he would use more to escape from those bad feeling too. This story has a happy ending in that Nic has been clean long enough to write this book and David has been able to distance himself enough emotionally from his son’s highs and lows to be able to regain his own life in a more whole and healthy way.
So what did I learn from their story of their journey? The commitment to never giving up on your child was a powerful force that though extremely difficult for the parents and siblings was nonetheless critical to keeping the child alive long enough for him to learn how to manage his own addiction. I really appreciated the father’s searching for information, approaches, and alternatives that would help him understand how to help his child better. Things that work for others might not work for them in the same way at any given time, but trying something different or trying it again at a different part of the journey tended to work better or in a different way. I totally related to the father’s description of how his emotional state was locked into his child so that if his son was doing well, so was the father, but if the son was spinning out of control, the father was an emotional train wreck. The father eventually worked with a therapist to help him separate emotionally from his son and develop an emotional relationship that was healthier for both of them. My sense of this part of the story is that it was an important step for him to do at the time when he did it for his son was in his 20’s and was beginning to figure everything out himself. But I do not feel the father could have taken this step earlier. Knowing that the physiological changes that drugs make to the developing brain retard normal development, a kid’s chronological age is not their mental age when drugs are involved. It is right for parents to have high levels of involvement in pre-teens and young teens lives and be emotionally invested in helping them learn and grow. If a big kid’s body has a damaged brain so that his emotional development is of a little guy, then its normal for a parent to keep working on helping them grow. David Sheff’s story is an example of whatever it takes for that kid as long as it takes coupled with an awareness that he had to take care of himself and the other family members. The stresses and strains of his balancing act journey were ones I could relate to even though my child is only 16 so my family is early in the process. It gives me hope to hear that one day, this intensity will be over and a greater degree of emotional separation will be possible.
The son’s, Nic Sheff, book had many parts in it that were hard for me to hear about. I found the descriptions of the pleasurable aspects of drug use and the distorted thinking that accompanies it unbearable. The description of the unpleasant aspects of drug use and the struggles in recovery were much easier for me to listen to. To me that type of pleasure represented regression and made me scream while the struggle represented growth and forward movement and made me cheer. Nic gave me many insights into the driving force of compulsion and the sadistic seductiveness of the various drugs. One statement Nic made really struck me. He was talking about how when he was a kid, he worked with therapists who helped him understand some of the issues he was going through, like the divorce, but he didn’t know what to do with this awareness. His musings were about what difference did it make that he knew that some of his struggles were related to his parents’ breakup since knowing that did not help him cope with its effects any better. I found that insight from the kid’s perspective intriguing, alerting me to look more carefully at what therapy programs were and weren’t doing for kids since naming the problem was clearly not enough for Nic. He could not figure out the action steps to go with that knowledge to be able to make positive change. I appreciated Nic’s life story for its ability to show me something about my son’s perspective. Tweak is billed as a young adult read so found in the juvenile literature section but I cannot say as I am comfortable recommending that my son read it yet. I could just imagine my child focusing on the pleasure passages and skipping over the pain passages. Nonetheless I did talk to him about the book and what I was learning from it.
My son pointed out that the kids he hangs with see the results of these very physically destructive drugs in the lives of the older addicts in the community. Looking at the horrible state these people are in seems to be a deterrent to him to trying those drugs. May it always be so.
links to the same audio file of an interview with both David and Nic Sheff
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