The Holiday Season; A Difficult Time

The holiday season is a treacherous time for those who suffer from addiction and particularly for adolescents and their families.  While those who use drugs and alcohol need little reason reason to abuse substances (often citing the fact that they day of week ends in a "y"), the time between the beginning of holiday break and ending with the resumption of school in the new year is landscape littered with  relapse triggers and temptations.  Being out of school for several weeks coupled with Holiday parties usually produces a rise in the admission of adolescents at drug treatment centers throughout the country.

It was just such a holiday season seven years ago that brought us to the doors of Fairbanks a substance abuse treatment center in Indianapolis.  In the preceding six months we had battled our son David's growing substance abuse  by imposing increasing restrictions and consequences but it was clear we did not have the knowledge or tools to combat his growing disease of addiction.  We needed professional help and so the new year of 2001 we sought knowledge, guidance and hope from the professionals at Fairbanks.

The knowledge, insight and tools we gained in going through treatment with our son have been invaluable to us in the years since despite David's death from addiction in June of 2001.  If we could go back and do things differently we would certainly have gotten David into treatment earlier even though there is no guarantee that the result would have been different.  But the fact remains that families who struggle in dealing with their children's drug abuse the holiday season is a difficult time