We Are the Family of a Heroin Addict

About the Book

This is the story of a family in a small community whose journey of life took a severe turn when the eldest child discloses her nine-year heroin addiction. This disclosure sets into place a whirlwind change in all family dynamics as each member tries to acknowledge their emotions and new roles to support staying strong and connected to one another. It is also a book that illustrates the difficulty of staying together as a family in the face of the lack of being in sync with one another’s emotional and intellectual reactions. We have tried to be as real as possible with our anger, frustration, disappointment, happiness, pride, and amazement on how this part of our lives has turned out. It is not something we asked for, but it is something we have conquered. This is a story of losing and winning the pathway of recovery from both a family and individual perspective. Each chapter talks from an individual family member’s reality of what is going on, and it ends with the daughter who has/had the heroin addiction and her perspective of the family. We have added updates at the end to try to create an ending of sorts, knowing we will still be here over the next years fighting the good battle of sobriety as a family who has made it and stayed together through the addiction storm.

About the Author

T. I. Ridic has been a psychiatric nurse since 1989, and she has worked extensively in the fields of mental health and substance abuse; since 1995 she has also owned a training and consulting company, Amethyst Training and Consulting Inc., which addresses topics in substance abuse and mental health. In We Are the Family of a Heroin Addict, Ridic shares her and her family’s firsthand reflections on her daughter’s heroin addiction and the eventual path to recovery.