Relapse is very dangerous. However, relapse can be a symptom of the disease. Sometimes there are multiple relapses before you get sober and stay sober.
David SheffRead
Through Nic's drug addiction, I have learned that parents can bear almost anything....I shock myself with my ability to rationalize and tolerate things once unthinkable. The rationalizations escalate....It's only marijuana. He gets high only on weekends. At least he's not using hard drugs.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The challenges of a child's addiction reveal a parent's capacity for tolerance and rationalization.
This quote highlights the profound emotional journey of a parent dealing with a child's substance abuse. It underscores how love and concern can lead to diminishing standards and the self-deception that occurs as parents attempt to cope with the pain of their child's addiction. The parent's rationalizations, such as downplaying the severity of the issue by comparing it to other forms of substance use, illustrate a desperate attempt to maintain hope while facing a heartbreaking reality.
Themes
AddictionParentingToleranceRationalizationFamily
In practice
Example use cases
In a support group for parents dealing with addiction, you might share this quote to express the challenges of coping.
More from David Sheff
All quotes →If you subscribe to the idea that # addiction is a disease, it is startling to see how many of these children - paranoid, anxious, bruised, tremulous, withered, in some cases psychotic - are seriously ill, slowly dying. We'd never allow such a scene if these kids had any other disease. They would be in a hospital, not on the streets.
David SheffRead
If you love someone who's an addict and their use is life-threatening, you don't wait until they hit bottom because that can mean that they're going to die. You have to do everything you can to get them in treatment.
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This stigma associated with drug use--the belief that bad kids use, good kids don't, and those with full-blown addiction are weak, dissolute, and pathetic--has contributed to the escalation of use and has hampered treatment more than any single other factor.
David SheffRead
Anyone who has lived through it, or those who are now living through it, knows that caring about an addict is as complex and fraught and debilitating as addiction itself.
David SheffRead
Along with the joy of parenthood, with every child comes a piercing vulnerability. It is at once sublime and terrifying
David SheffRead
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