A Family’s Journey Through Recovery
Lori doesn’t remember having her first drink. Alcohol had always been a powerful presence in her life—having grown up with an alcoholic father and in a small-town culture where heavy drinking was acceptable.
“Drinking was very normal. You didn’t say the word alcoholic or alcoholism. So-and-so just drank too much and maybe it would be good if they stopped. There was no understanding of alcoholism as a disease,” Lori recalls.
As a young adult and mother, Lori’s addiction to alcohol spun out of control. Scared of sharing her secret with her family, she did her best to hide her drinking, but her addiction became evident to even her pre-teen children.
“I didn’t want to embarrass and or shame my family. I thought that if I revealed I was an alcoholic, that would be just devastating to my family,” she says.
Eventually, Lori completed intensive residential and outpatient addiction treatment programs that helped her achieve lasting sobriety—for 11 years now, and counting. Her dedication to her recovery was hard at first for her children, who were 11 and 13 when she entered treatment, but the family soon began to appreciate why recovery needed to be Lori’s top priority.
“In one way drinking took my mom’s life, and in another way recovery took her life, and I had to learn to fully support that. My mom had quite a journey ahead of her that would take a lot of time, dedication and support. Slowly, I learned that we could make this life work and support one another,” says her daughter, Amanda.
Now 22, Amanda is proud of her mother’s hard-won recovery and the healthy relationship they have forged together over the past 11 years. Lori’s honesty about her addiction and openness about the lengths she’s gone to maintain sobriety have had a positive influence on Amanda’s choices regarding drug and alcohol use.
“I made the decision not to drink and eliminated that aspect from my life. I felt I could easily go down the same path as my mom, and I would rather leave the drama and the possibility behind. I’m really grateful because I didn’t have to learn the lesson the hard way,” Amanda says.
“An important part of being a parent is encouraging your children not to make the same mistakes and letting them know you will support them wholeheartedly in getting help if they do have a problem,” Lori adds.