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June 2009

By Michael and Iris

At the Edge with our Son

The below, written in March 2008, is excerpted from The Outstretched Arm: Addiction, Recovery and Jewish Healing, a publication of the National Center for Jewish Healing. For more information about this publication, contact us at .

As parents of two intelligent, artistic, sensitive, wonderful children, never in our wildest dreams 20 years ago... could we have imagined we’d ever say, "My son is a heroin addict!"

On one hand, we knew he had some issue with anger, depression and we had in him counseling at an early age. On the other hand, he seemed to be doing OK: did well in high school, joined the Temple Youth Group, was in the high school jazz band, etc. Then we found out about his involvement with drugs and he was in and out of various hospitals/treatment programs for several years. And for awhile, he had several years of sobriety. The death of his grandfather, the loss of someone who loved him unconditionally, hurt him terribly and he began using again. This hurt and pain led him to a heroin habit. After a few years of that, we were ready to give up hope.

When our temple helped get the Phoenix JACS group started, we attended regularly. In addition, we regularly attended our Temple’s Kabbalat Shabbat services. And we are still going to JACS meetings. The opportunity to support each other, sharing our experience, strength and hope, is invaluable.

Back to our son: Somehow throughout all the overdoses, treatments, love & prayers, something clicked. Our son came out of treatment, went to a halfway house, started to really work his Steps... attending meetings daily, working at a place that’s quite supportive of his efforts to keep sober, reaching out to others. These efforts are working.

This week we had the privilege of seeing our son get up at his noon AA meeting and receive his 1-year sobriety chip. That is our miracle, today.

These "Spirituality Notes" are excerpts from our monthly E-newsletter. Articles are © JBFCS Rita J. Kaplan Jewish Connections Programs and may be reprinted free of charge as long as this credit line is included.

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