Dr. Patrick MacAfee and Jeff
A mom wrote to me, I just read your book and would like to know how Jeff is doing now. I realize that you probably get 40,000 such inquiries weekly, but in reading your book, your family became an extension of my own as my son continues to battle his own addiction issues. I do hope and pray that all is well and that your family has found peace and contentment.
My reflection: This Thanksgiving Day, I am grateful to be able to respond to this question by saying, “Jeff is good today! He fought a hard battle, but he made the decision to change his life. He celebrated eight years of sobriety on July 21, 2014.” I’m also grateful that this mom knows she is not alone as she watches her son struggle to find his way out of the tunnel of drug addiction. I’m grateful she reached out to us.
Today’s Promise to consider: Life is never trouble free, but today I’ll concentrate on living in gratitude. Being grateful is essential to living in serenity. For our family, we are grateful that Jeff is healthy and living a full life for over eight years. We are grateful for today and we pray for tomorrow.
What a beautiful picture and inspiring meditation to wake up to! I have so much to be grateful for especially you and Jeff for ‘staying close’ by sharing your story and bombarding the heavens in prayer. You have given me so much hope and reason for believing that recovery is possible (for all of us).
Blessings to all.
Happy, healthy and peaceful Thanksgiving.
Love, Nanci
Libby, thank you so much for your book, your inspiration and your help through my difficult times with my son Andy. He will be clean one year Dec 9. One day at a time and I keep him close but do not enable anymore. God bless you and your family.
Love you
Evelyn
Libby, Nanci, Evelyn ,
Thank you for today’s meditation and subsequent posts, they give me a lot of hope as my son Alex is 2 months sober in a new recovery program .
Stay close has been an inspiration and source of strength to me, as it is a personal journey of recovery that we also make along with our loved ones recovery journeys.
I am grateful for all of your shared stories!
Happy Thanksgiving,
Love
Gabriela
Dear Nanci,
Thank you so much for saying it so beautifully. I express my thanks to you, Libby and Jeff, as well.
Dear Jeff,
Thank you for the picture of you and Dr. McAfee. It’s so nice to put a face with a name. Thank you for allowing your mother to put your story in print. It has helped so many people. Congratulations on your 8 year sobriety.
Dear Jane,
I’ve been praying for you and your son. You’ve been on my mind a lot. I wish you peace and love this Thanksgiving.
Dear Libby,
I have never been so ‘close’ to anyone who has never seen me nor has met me, although, I feel as though I’ve known you all my life. Thank you so much for your loving heart. It means the world to me.
All my love,
Barbara
Thank you Libby for your life raft of a book. I am greatful that my son reached his one year (again) today. Older and wiser now, i pray he continues on his sober path. So very happy to hear about Jeff.
Dear All
Happy Thanksgiving. I am very grateful to Libby and Jeff for the gift of their story which has helped us all in so many ways. Thank you Libby and Jeff
I am grateful to the availability of this blog where we all meet up and share and support.
I am so grateful to all of you here who share your wisdom, joy,sadness, grief, fears and triumphs so openly and honestly. We all benefit.
Hello Barbara- thank you for thinking of me and my son. Your thoughts are touching. I , like you feel like I know everyone here yet never met any of you personally. It’s beautiful, isn’t it?
Although my son has never embraced recovery, where there is life there is hope, one moment at a time. I am grateful that I found recovery. We still and always will , I believe, battle this disease and its effects on our family.
There is much to be grateful for and I make my gratitude list often.
Love you all and I will keep you all close and in prayer
Love,
Jane
Thanks to all of you for all your giving. So much healing from your courage and your sharing Libby. Hugs to Jeff. Life would be much harder without this group of souls.
Battling this disease it is so easy to forget there ARE things to be thankful for each and every day. Sometimes it is hard to see them through the haze but they are there. I am learning this and trying to live it each day. I guess that’s why we say ‘one day at a time’.
Like your son Jane my daughter has not embraced recovery and I still have no idea where she is but I liked what you said very much, “where there is life there is hope”.
I am always grateful for this site because it is here that I find little tidbits of inspiration that help me when I need it most. No matter the time of day or night or the amount of support I need, the open sharing in this group gives me strength, courage and reassures me that I am not alone.
Thank you all and Happy Thanksgiving
My heart goes out to all of you writing on this blog and to all of those parents experiencing the pain and anguish addiction creates. Without Libby and Jeff’s book and without being able to write on this blog, I would otherwise be unable to have hope. I keep your book on my nightstand. When I’m unable to sleep, I re-read excerpts from it that prevent me from thinking negatively about myself, my son and the future.
I am thankful that in spite of the depths of your pain, all of you are here to encourage and support me and others. All of you are truly an inspiration.
Thank you.
Today I’m asking for prayers. Recovery is no longer. A missing son. Again. despite so much trying on his part,so much loving support, such a possibility of happiness –he told me jus two nights ago– a life of happiness awaited — and that must have been a trigger–stepping into the unknown — — not sure why — but he is lost again. So many heartbroken in our family. So afraid. Again. We are in the moment but this is the moment we are in. Well, hard to be grateful for this kind of anguish. Yes it is his journey but we love him. Please pray for God’s will to be done and guide us through .
Joy
I am so sorry for you, your son and your family. My heart goes out to you.
I will say prayers often and know I will be thinking of you.
Dear Joy,
I will pray for you and your son’s recovery, should he find it again. Relapse is part of recovery, but it doesn’t help the pain associated with it.
Try to keep your spirits up and practice positive thinking.
Take good care of yourself, Joy. Stay close but out of the chaos, as Libby always says.
My heart goes out to you. Know you’re not alone.
With loving prayers,
Barbara
Dear Joy,
We will bombard the heavens. I’m so sorry, so deeply sorry. Please know that prayers and good thoughts are being sent in abundance. Stepping into the unknown is frightening to all of us. As Barbara says, you are not alone. We are here, staying close.
With love and prayers.
Joy,
You are in my prayers every day and night.
My son went missing many times and each time was beyond frightening. A feeling of sadness, despair, fear and hopelessness.
We are with you during this time and I know you can feel the compassion we all have for you.
Your son is on his own personal journey to recovery. It is a natural process each of our addicted children must experience. He will return one day, he will find recovery and he will rejoin the family. I realize that there are no guarantees but the odds are greatly in your favor. Don’t give up and remember, God is with your son.
This is an exceptional Blog with exceptional parents and I am so very grateful for Libby and all that read and post.
Dear Pat, Libby, Barbara, Sue:
I cannot tell you how much your words meant to me. Your prayers worked, Shor turn around time. Days not weeks or months. He woke up he reached out and called to several family members. Remorseful. Shamed. Broken. He is detoxing from delaidud and cocaine under supervision. Tomorrow meets with his addictions counsellor and parole officer. Probably jail again when what he needs and wants is rehab and doctor and psychiatrist’s help. But going at it again.
The right help is so hard to get.
He knows he is loved.
I found this on youtube today, i’ve read his books– this youtube video -hard to hear because it means shouldering so much responsibility and i’ve beaten myself up so much. I left my first husband when he was eight months old hoping that my sons’ lives would be better for it – it did not matter– they both absorbed the pain and chaos of their childhood. I was loving but frantic and working and too young mother and did not give enough discipline and they saw their father every two weeks– a very harsh father who loved them but who too suffered from what we know now was depression. While not everyone who was abused becomes an addict, every addict it seems was traumatized or abused in some way.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66cYcSak6nE#t=783
I pray for all of us in our suffering and wherever this disease has hurt us. And I was out of my mind with fear -again — and knew I could come here. It matters. God love you all I am so grateful. So tired.
Dear Joy,
Thank you for the video of Dr. Mate’ speaking about addiction. I have read “In the realm of hungry ghosts” and found it to be so enlightening about addictions. He has spent a lifetime studying addictions, God bless him.
I am so glad that our prayers were answered for your son. The power of pray – isn’t it amazing. I said rosaries for you and your son. The Blessed Virgin, in the Catholic religion, is very powerful. She sends all of her prayers to Jesus, the son of God. Then, Jesus sends the prayers to his heavenly Father, our Creator.
But, it doesn’t matter what religion we are, the power of prayer is just simply incredible to me.
Thank you so much for sharing and bearing your soul. Joy. We are here for you. All of us care about you and your son’s well being.
As Libby always says – we will continue to bombard the heavens for you, your son, and your family.
With love and understanding,
Barbara
Dear Joy,
You and your son has been on my mind. I was there so many times with my son. Once I pleaded with his court appointed attorney to ask the court for help instead of jail time. He had a pretty good attorney at the time and my son was sent to a half way house instead of jail. Today, the jails are so overcrowded, maybe your son will get a chance at a similar place as my son. I will bombard the heavens, as Libby always says, for your son to get the help he desperately needs, instead of jail time. Jail time never helps an addict. It only feeds depression.
With loving prayers,
Barbara
Gabor Maté is amazing! Dr. MacAfee told me about his work and I’m grateful.
Joy, I, like Barbara, have had you and your son on my heart. Please know that all our children are in our collective prayers. As Jane writes, “Where there is life, there is hope.”
Barbara, I feel the same way as you do about feeling close to people I’ve never met. You, Jane, Joy, Pat, Sue …. we are all joined together to help each other. We are joined together by a force getter than friendship. We are joined in love for our children and their lives. Powerful.
Love to you all,
L
I’ve often wondered myself. This is wonderful to read Libby!
You have been an inspiration to me as well and I am grateful for you.