Recovering My Kid: Parenting Young Adults in Treatment and Beyond - Softcover

Joseph Lee

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1616492643 ISBN 13: 9781616492649

Publisher: Hazelden Publishing, 2012

Synopsis

National expert Dr. Joseph Lee explains the nature of youth addiction and treatment, and how families can create a safe and supportive environment for their loved ones during treatment and throughout their recovery.

Raising a child is tough as it is, but when your kid becomes addicted to alcohol or other drugs, it can feel as if you’re living a nightmare. You’re not alone. In Recovering My Kid, Dr. Joseph Lee, a leading youth addiction specialist, takes worried, confused, and angry parents by the hand and addresses their most pressing questions and fears: What is addiction? What happens when my child returns home from treatment? How can my family support his or her recovery? What if my child relapses? How can my family get well again?Getting your child and your family well again requires the support and understanding of the whole family, even if feelings and trust were damaged. In his engaging and straightforward style, Lee explains the difficult concepts of addiction, treatment, and recovery in a way parents and families can understand and gives them concrete strategies they can put into practice.This book will help family members begin to understand what their loved one is going through and how they can help the addict adjust to a clean-and-sober life while still taking care of themselves.

About this title

About the Author

Dr. Joseph Lee is the Medical Director for Hazelden’s Youth and Young Adult Services. A popular public speaker and commentator in the national media, Dr. Lee has been featured on The Dr. Oz Show, NPR, CNN and the Wall Street Journal. In addition to his board certification in addiction medicine, Dr. Lee completed his adult psychiatric training at Duke University and his child psychiatry fellowship at Johns Hopkins Hospital.Dr. Lee lives in Center City, Minnesota.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Recovering My Kid

Parenting Young Adults in Treatment and BeyondBy Joseph Lee

Hazelden

Copyright © 2012 Joseph Lee
All right reserved.
ISBN: 9781616492649
Preface

Out of Love for Our Children

Nothing makes parents’ hearts sink faster than the thought of their child suffering. And addiction is a uniquely dark and deep form of suffering. Over years of addiction, families are worn down, trust is lost, and relationships are strained. No logic or science can adequately explain how the disease mutates the afflicted, how they no longer resemble the loved ones who once seemed so familiar. All too often, this is the tragic lens through which society views the young who lose their way. But that is a book and a story for another time. This book is about something much more hopeful. In medicine, I have been a humble witness to humanity’s enormous capacity for compassion and sacrifice. Whether on an oncology unit or on a psychiatric floor, I have rarely experienced a virtue more profoundly awe-inspiring than the love that parents have for their children. (A child’s love for a parent, on the other hand, can be surprisingly conditional.) The lengths to which families will go to help their children give me faith, at least momentarily, in a greater potential for all of us. Of course, it is delusional not to take note of the strife that accompanies young people in treatment for addiction. Often they are irritable, physically worn, resistant, and lashing out at the world. It can be hard to maintain a sense of emotional objectivity when working with this group. With all of that in mind, however, we need to make a point to see more than the disease in these youth. When we relate to young addicts at Hazelden, we also remember the wonderment and promise they possessed as small children. We envision them on their first day of school. We remember the thrill of their most memorable achievements and the nostalgic times spent in the company of loved ones. In them lie the collective hopes and dreams of generations past that spark so haltingly now—and the yearning of families to see those dreams rekindled once more. Our children are our greatest treasures. There is nothing of greater value, nobody for whom we’d sacrifice more. We recognize and celebrate their changes and their maturity from adolescence into young adulthood. And yet our children always remain our children—not because we are naïve, but because we see them through this beautiful capacity for unconditional love. It is in this spirit that I want to connect with you, the reader, in helping those most precious to us.


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Edition details

• Publisher: Hazelden Publishing
• Publication date: 2012
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1616492643
• ISBN 13: 9781616492649
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 250