Before I found Partnership to End Addiction my support system was essentially Google – online at all hours, searching for help and support for our son’s addiction. His insurance denied him care several times - appeals were also denied. We were advised to drop his insurance and try a publicly funded program to get him help. This option failed. They would not take him right away. It was like Goldilocks. The first time, he had too much in his system. Twenty days after that, he had too little. Twenty days after that, he had “just the right amount of substances in his body,” but he was left in the waiting room for five hours. He ran out of the waiting room – the room we’d spent months trying to get into.
 
I went home that night and wrote hundreds of emails to anyone I could find in my months of Googling, literally begging for help and begging for someone to help my sick child and our family. Alone at my computer, desperate for someone to answer.  
 
The Partnership was the only organization that wrote back to me.
 
Finally, after the pain of feeling so alone, of fearing for his life, I felt like I could breathe again. I felt a glimmer of hope. For the first time, I was offered help – help without judgment or shame. Before connecting with the Partnership, I heard what so many other families hear: “You’re an enabler,” “You can’t help them,” “Let go with love”, “He must hit rock bottom” “You are part of the problem.”
 
I know that this isn’t true today. There is no “one-size-fits-all” in how we support our loved ones.  There are options! 
 
Today, my work at Partnership to End Addiction, is offering support, empowerment and resources to other families dealing with a child’s or loved one’s addiction. The Partnership empowers loved ones to be part of the solution; we support the supporters.  Addiction impacts the whole family. There’s a saying that to be a parent is to “…decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.”  We can’t do this by ourselves, and we don’t have to handle it alone.
 
Recovery is about hope. Today my son is healthy in his recovery. Our journey really started with our connections – my connection to the Partnership and our connection as a family to the resources we didn’t even know were available. My entire family is forever grateful to the Partnership.  They were and continue to be our beacon of hope.