It happened by accident on a phone call. Twice within a couple of days. I realized I didn’t really know. I was carrying ideas about substance use and addiction that were absorbed into my belief system through the culture and acting accordingly.
First…
I was on the phone lamenting not know what to do with my 19 year old. I said, “Some people say it’s a disease/health issue and others a moral or willpower issue.” I’d had a little education by then. My mom had finally gone to treatment and I’d been reading and googling. I was 39 when I finally addressed her addiction in a way that moved her. I don’t know why I was being wishy washy about my kid. My friend asked me, “What do you think?”
On that phone call, I made a decision to face his use the way I finally faced my mom’s. I began to interrogate my own belief system. My inherent bias and my own internal stigma.
Second….
A well meaning friend was giving me advice about what to do about my kid. I really just needed to vent but she was saying all the things people say that don’t really know but think they know.
She wasn’t a specialist, a therapist, a doctor, a researcher, a professional in the realm of healthcare at all. She was spouting something she’d picked up in the culture. Not at all evidence based. Maybe she heard it on TV. And she wasn’t in the arena like I was. It struck me in the moment that she didn’t know what she was talking about. That her guidance was useless.
The Family Recovery Documentary will dispel the myths, address the narratives that have caused harm and the beliefs that have held families hostage and lay the foundation for the compassionate, evidence based, family response.
How I held it mattered. How I responded mattered. What beliefs I was operating from mattered. Listening to people who really knew mattered.