Mom

I came across the following article and I wanted to share it here. Maybe someone will come across this site and the article may just be what that person needs to read. Because I teach Family Education and counsel those with addictions I thought it may be a good article to present. I am also a mom and I must admit that when I read this I began to swell up with tears. A mother's pain for her child is the greatest pain. I truly believe that. Addiction is just one aspect of pain. How many of "us" moms have sat in a dark room and sobbed in silence? How many of us shut our self off from the world? How many of us had people in our lives whom we thought were supportive only to discover they were talking behind our backs, putting us down, judging us before they walked away? How many of us pleaded and begged God then discovered God was not there or worse yet began to believe God never existed? Do not get me started on the guilt and blame. What did we do wrong? What could we have done better? Why did we not see it? What kind of mothers are we? We do not need anyone to make us feel bad, we are really great to do it to ourselves. After work today, I stopped at the Acme on Ridge Ave. I have not shopped there since 2011. I like to grocery shop at the Acme. I am not fond of Giant or Weismann's and Whole Foods can be costly. I grabbed a shopping cart and walked down the aisles and I felt "normal". Sounds kind of crazy to feel "normal" in a grocery store. I have not felt "normal" in a long time and to have this feeling was wonderful. It is the simple things in life that carry us.

"With the door shut and lights off, a mom is crying. She pours her heart out to "God," and then screams at Him, asking why He doesn't respond. She doesn't answer the phone, call her friends, get dressed, or do her h...air and makeup like she used to. In fact, she doesn't do anything like she used to do. Her work suffers, her relationships suffer, her life has become one of regrets, mistakes, and sorrow. She sits in the dark thinking of all the things she did wrong in her life, begging forgiveness from God, from her friends, from her family, and she wishes she could die. Her friends and family have nothing to give her, they are secretly relieved when she doesn't talk to them anymore. So she pores through the internet, through books, watching The Doctors, Oprah, and Dr. Phil looking for solutions, for answers, for help . . . and there is none. This wounded, broken mom is an addicts mom. And I know this mom personally. She was me, the Executive Director of The Addict's Mom. She was Barbara Theodosiou, the Founder of the Addict's Mom. She was Kathy Frasier, our Regional Director. She was one of the thousands of moms we have met who have joined The Addict's Mom groups. For Barbara, Kathy, myself and the thousands of women like us, we have found hope, inspiration, resources, guidance, solace and we have gotten our lives back. For we have found, we are not alone, and we have found empowerment here in the groups of the Addict's Mom.  This is for the mom who doesn't know we are here yet. It is for that mom sitting all alone in a dark room. She is sobbing, and railing at God, she doesn't know where to turn, or who to reach out to. She believes she is a failure, a fraud, for she believes a lie. A lie that tells her she has let down the person she loves most in the world, her child. Help spread awareness of the epidemic of addiction in this nation. An epidemic that has touched 23.5 million Americans. And if there are 23.5 million addicts, it doesn't take much figuring to realize there is double that many people who love them: moms, dads, spouses, sibling, grandparents, friends, and even sadder children. Every addict has someone who loves them. Someone who cares and is wounded, someone who needs help almost as much as the addict does. Please help that person, that wounded mom,  Please don't let them think they are alone any more."