Parents & Carers – The Narcotics Anonymous website for England, Scotland & Wales

Parents’ Stories.

Addiction is a family illness. Many of us have parents who were affected by addiction and through our own disease our children have also suffered. We often struggle with feelings of remorse, guilt and shame and we have difficulty in coping with the responsibility of being a parent.

It is often hard to let go of old relationships; some of our partners are still using and we struggle to maintain a balance between needing help with our kids, protecting ourselves, and our children, in recovery.

As a parent or carer we do have particular needs that other recovering addicts don’t have. This can often make us feel different and separate from our fellow addicts.

We need to be extra vigilant and look out for the similarities and not the differences. We need to work hard to avoid isolation, acknowledge our special needs and seek out others who understand our problems.

Many of us struggle to put our recovery first, whilst meeting the needs of our family. Sometimes the best decision we can make is to stay home and put our children to bed. However, our disease is cunning, baffling and powerful and any justifiable excuse to not do what we need to do for our recovery can, be dangerous.

Here are some of our stories, which we hope will give strength and hope to those of you who are new or struggling.