Addiction in the family

So here we are.  Dealing with addiction.  As a parent you never think that your child will become an addict.  I don't know why this never occurred to me as a possibility.  You always think, not my child.  Addiction "runs" in my family though.  2 of my brothers are both dead due to addiction, one of my nephews committed suicide because of addiction and another nephew is in jail because of addiction.  Addiction is everywhere!  Even in my own family.  My son. So where  does that leave me?  Al-Anon.  I went to my first meeting last week and know that is where I belong.  My son is 49 days sober and will be coming home next weekend.  I know that I need help in knowing what to do and not to do when he gets here.

The 12 steps of Al-Anon

1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol – that our lives had become unmanageable. 2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. 3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him. 4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. 5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs. 6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character. 7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all. 9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others. 10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it. 11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out. 12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, we tried to carry this message to others, and to practice these principles in all our affairs. Do you have experience with addiction?  I would love to hear it!