{"id":1145,"date":"2016-02-22T07:28:27","date_gmt":"2016-02-22T12:28:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/robinbotie.com\/blog\/?p=1145"},"modified":"2016-02-22T12:32:40","modified_gmt":"2016-02-22T17:32:40","slug":"addiction-cancer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/robinbotie.com\/blog\/addiction-cancer\/","title":{"rendered":"Addiction Like Cancer"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Robin\u201cHow\u2019s your daughter doing?\u201d
\n\u201cWhat\u2019s your son up to these days?\u201d I\u2019m afraid to ask my friends. Because too often there\u2019ll be a scrunching of brows over eyes suddenly filled with torment, followed by a torrent of emotion, the significant word finally gushing out \u2013 \u201caddiction.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy daughter is….\u201d \u201cMy son … heroin, meth, …addicted,\u201d people who know I \u201clost\u201d a child send me emails and personal messages online. Offline, I hear it going around the table during introductions at bereaved mothers\u2019 gatherings. Almost every day there\u2019s another heartbroken parent. Waiting for The Phone Call. Preparing for the worst. Aching. And OMG, I hear the pain.<\/p>\n

I remember that pain. It isn\u2019t so different from when your child has been diagnosed with cancer. Your heart sinks into your gut. And there\u2019s little you can do to get rid of this scourge. You start wondering how you contributed to it, what was the something you did or did not do. You\u2019re angry, sad, and ready-to-embrace-whatever-might-help scared.<\/p>\n

Addiction, like cancer, is a deadly disease. Mostly, what I remember from plodding through the wilds of cancer, is fighting for my daughter, for her health, her life. Fighting and worrying. And loving. You love so hard it tears the breath and light from you.
\n\u201cWe will never be out of the woods,\u201d one mother told me. And it\u2019s true.
\n\u201cYou don\u2019t want to be out of the woods,\u201d I wrote her back. \u201cBecause then you\u2019ll be in my neck of the woods.\u201d There\u2019s no more worrying here, but –<\/p>\n

There\u2019s nothing I can tell them. \u201cI\u2019m sorry,\u201d I say, the same words people said to me when my daughter died.<\/p>\n

The only thing that helps, either side of the forest, is knowing you are not alone. There are gazillions of us crying for our children, praying for our children, singing to the moon hoping our children know we will always love them. However they are. Wherever they are. Or are not.<\/p>\n

If you are the parent of a child with an addiction, I humbly share your tears.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What do you do or say when someone is in pain over a loved one’s addiction?<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“How’s your daughter doing?” “What’s your son up to these days?” I’m afraid to ask my friends. Because too often there’ll be a scrunching of brows over eyes suddenly filled with torment, followed by a torrent of emotion, the significant word finally gushing out – “addiction.” “My daughter is….” “My son … heroin, meth, …addicted,” […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[702],"tags":[757,758,756,207,576],"class_list":["post-1145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-702","tag-addiction-deadly-disease","tag-addiction-like-cancer","tag-afraid-to-ask","tag-daughter-died","tag-heartbroken-mothers"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/robinbotie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/robinbotie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/robinbotie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robinbotie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robinbotie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/robinbotie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1145\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/robinbotie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robinbotie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robinbotie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}