Do you really need a professional counselor?
I always had been able to guide my children’s decisions with appropriate boundaries and discipline. However, when substance abuse was involved, my parenting skills were ill equipped to effect change.
It would take seven years before my personal pain and suffering reached an unbearable point in which I had no other choice but to seek outside help.
I later would learn that parents of addicted children take an average of seven years before they seek professional help, then another two years before they fully accept, and therefore adopt, the necessary change the professional has suggested.
When I entered my first counseling session, I was overwhelmed by fear and didn’t truly believe anyone could help me. However, I left my first meeting feeling good about my self.
I was so relieved to learn that my deepest fears were very likely unfounded and that addiction was not the result of my poor parenting abilities. I found that I had done nothing wrong!
My counselor’s years of experience and education helped me form a new and stronger family foundation — one that strengthened my marriage as well as my relationship with my child.
The counselor told me how to locate the best parent support groups and what to expect from each one. She also indicated what would be expected of me.
I learned to trust her and to set my priority of making the changes she suggested.
Addiction is truly a baffling disease and there is no way I had any chance of restoring my own sense of peace and serenity without professional guidance.
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