Addiction affects everyone in the orbit of a loved one battling the disease. And miraculously, so does recovery.
Jake and his close-knit family were faced with the terrifying reality of addiction not long ago. His mother, Teresa, remembers knowing there were problems, but not knowing her son’s problems were rooted in a drug addiction. It took her a long time to realize what was really going on.
After Jake’s second overdose, Teresa and her husband were unsure of how to help their son. Feelings of hopelessness and despair started setting in. Teresa remembers the season her ‘spark’ for life and her joy disappeared, seemingly never to return. She knew their family needed help and she knew they couldn’t do it alone.
Thankfully, only a few years earlier, Teresa had supported her close friend and colleague through her own son’s battle with addiction. She remembered that his journey to recovery started at Healing Transitions. That’s when she knew that Jake needed to go there as well.
“When I asked my mom where she’d like me to go, she already had Healing Transitions picked out. I packed a bag and we drove to the program that same day,” Jake reflects. “And that day is when my life finally began.”
For Jake and his family, Healing Transitions’ long-term, peer-led recovery program and the family support group were critical to the entire family’s recovery journey.
“I was very close to dying before I came here, and Healing Transitions gave me my life back,” Jake says.
“I thank God for this place,” says Teresa. “I don’t know where else we would have gone without health insurance or boatloads of money. Plus, once I brought him here, I knew he had a place to live, meals, and medical care. I didn’t worry about him nearly as much as I did before.”
Teresa adds, “Once I joined the family group, I realized I wasn’t the only person going through this. And I learned that I, too, was on a recovery journey of my own. My husband and I decided we would no longer be ashamed or keep addiction a secret.”
Today, Jake invests in others pursuing their own recovery as the program facilitator at Green Hill Recovery in Raleigh. Teresa encourages and mentors other parents walking the recovery journey by volunteering in a family support group.
That’s the power of stepping up and leaning into the recovery community as a family – the one we were given and the one we choose. Thank you for being a part of our village, Teresa and Jake!