“Hi, I’m Marti. Our son is John and…” These are words that I have been sharing every Thursday night for over 3 years at The Insight Program Parent Meetings. I struggled with the shame, pain, and fear addiction brings upon an addict and those who love them. How could this happen to a loving and connected family, active in their community, their church and their child’s school and sports? It doesn’t matter how or why. What matters is acknowledging there is a problem and finding help for your child and YOU!
We were fortunate enough to know another family who had been on this journey before us and they directed us to The Insight Program. In a bewildered, fearful daze, we handed over our 16 year old, only child into the loving hands of Adam Schwartz and a group of crazy kids. Over the next 7 months, our son, my husband, and I struggled with working a “program”. We all hit our “bottom” when our son was kicked out of Insight and referred to in-patient. We dropped our son off at inpatient on March 13, 2020, the day Covid shut American down. We were sad, confused and scared. However, we continued to attend The Insight Program Parent meetings every week, met regularly with our sponsors to dig into our 12-Step programs, and sought the loving support of other parents from the parent group.
In June, we picked our son up from in-patient and on the drive home he commented, “You’ve changed”, and we had. That same day he was welcomed back by kids from the program and immediately returned to Insight. He focused on his program and we focused on ours. We opened our home to provide a safe and sober environment for the kids to “crash”, hangout, have functions and hosted a few parent events. As our son, my husband and I grew in our programs, we started to give back and be of service. This service includes raising funds for The Mustard Tree Foundation. The Mustard Tree Foundation provides scholarships to youth seeking recovery that otherwise may not be able to afford it. It’s been awe inspiring to witness the miracle of recovery of several young people due to the support of The Mustard Tree Foundation.
John graduated from The Insight Program July of 2022. He is 20 years old, almost 3 years sober, and has full time at a job he loves. His girlfriend and he are active in the AA community and have a positive outlook on life. Our time together as a family is so enjoyable and full of love. I am beyond grateful to The Insight Program, its AMAZING staff, and the love of the Insight youth and parents!
