Northwoods Recovery

Unless you are among the fortunate, chances are good that someday someone in your circle of close friends and family will surprise you with an overt display of Substance Use Disorder symptoms. This will then compel you to confront the unpleasant reality of alcoholism and/or drug addiction, something that none of us can ever really be prepared for.

Even after spending the bulk of my life addicted to drugs and alcohol, and now with 14 years in recovery, I can’t honestly say I have much more than a passing understanding of addiction, much less any sympathy for those caught up in substance abuse. My sympathies lie solely with the families who must suffer — as mine did — for the sins of the addicted. 

Although I’m enjoined to maintain a veneer of professional detachment when these situations come to my attention, sometimes taking it personally can’t be helped. Over the course of the last two years I’ve had to witness a Northwoods extended family, part of my circle of acquaintances, be put through hell and nearly destroyed by one addict’s selfish refusal to get the help he still desperately needs.  

For decades a friend had been aware of her husband’s drug use, assuming it to be only occasional; not realizing his substance abuse had long become chronic. But when he could no longer hide his daily drinking and dope smoking, when the grandkids started asking “What’s wrong with grandpa?” she refused to play the role of enabler any longer. He was offered a choice — rehab or divorce.

 Insisting, like all addicts, that the problem wasn’t his, he disdainfully spurned that ultimatum and continued his chaotic downward spiral.   

Now that divorce has finally removed him and his drug use from the family home, my friend can focus on pursuing the healing process; to begin undoing the damage done to her family. Adult children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews and cousins; all will pitch in and work to rebuild what had been shattered by the selfishness of one angry drug addict.  

But the rebuilding will take place without a grandfather’s helping hand. Tragically, the essential adult male these kids had looked to for guidance and emotional stability has been lost to addiction.  

 It seems a miracle, a family surviving its near destruction from addiction. And now the grandkids hope for another; that their grandfather will somehow find out for himself what his grandchildren are already learning: We do recover.  

Do you think you may have a problem with alcohol? Alcoholics Anonymous can help. Call our Hotline at (715)360-4637 or visit our website at www.northwoodsaa.org for questions or to find a meeting in your area.