47.6 F
Naperville
Thursday, March 28, 2024

Parents Matter Too presents a father’s journey through his son’s addiction

-

After his presentation, David Sheff,  pictured here with Dagmar Kauffman of Parents Matter Too, signed copies of his books.

UPDATE Jan. 27, 2017 / Front page story in the Daily Herald is a timely and must read. Thanks for paying attention.

PN UPDATE Jan. 26, 2017 / For nearly two hours, an audience of more than 200 community members listened quietly to a father’s compelling story of his son’s addiction that was his family’s disease.

Journalist David Sheff, whose son Nic, now 34, has been clean for seven years, said drug addiction is the biggest challenge facing this country and it needs be treated as the mental illness that it is.

According to Sheff, it’s important to emphasize that it’s not about good kids or bad kids doing drugs. Addiction is a disease.

And it’s caused by stress. It’s caused by anxiety. It can run in families.

The author of “Clean” and “Beautiful Boy” illustrated how many of the insights into addiction can be inaccurate.

“What I found out was that drug use and addiction are preventable and treatable,” Sheff said.

Using examples of his trials, tribulations and unconditional love, he urged parents to pay attention, talk to teachers and counselors and to have a relationship with their children.

“Don’t tell them anything…Listen to them,” was good advice he attributed to a man serving time in prison.

After Sheff’s presentation, the audience responded with stories of their own challenges, connecting with refreshing honesty. Sheff seemed to be in touch with just about everything a parent feels when a child is struggling and goes over to the dark side, giving mothers and fathers in the audience a chance to openly relate.

Naperville is not protected by a bubble. By teaming up, the community of parents, teachers, counselors, law enforcement, first responders, administrators and nonprofit organizations is working with serious facts that drug overdoses kill more individuals than cars and guns across the nation.

For more information about ParentsMatterToo and its programs, visit www.parentsmattertoo.org.

Prescription Drop-Off Boxes are located at the NPD and all 10 fire stations as well as locations throughout DuPage County.

Editor’s Note / During other local presentations by Naperville Police, we’ve learned that 90 percent of drug additions begin in the teen years, often with the misuse and abuse of expensive prescription drugs. Adults and teens are misguided who think using prescription drugs to get high is safer than using street drugs and less expensive heroin.

The NPD estimates about 75 percent of crime in Naperville is drug related.

Last year local officers were provided with the drug Narcan, an opiate antidote, and they were trained in its use to reduce the impact of a drug overdose.

In March 2016, the City launched a new program called “Connect for Life” to involve the community in education, prevention, support and enforcement, focusing on heroin and opioid users. The Connect for Life program “seeks to connect opioid users to treatment using community partnerships and resources. Parent involvement is key.”

All Naperville police officers and EMTs carry Narcan, which can reverse an overdose and save lives.

Connect for Life aims to prevent overdoses by individuals in their twenties and late teens. In fact, Connect for Life with new strategies and a 7-member team of Sobriety Coaches helped five individuals before the end of its first month in existence find professional help.

Local officials ask that residents dispose of all expired and unused prescription medications. The RX Drop-Off is located at the Naperville Police Station and all 10 fire stations where individuals can dispose of expired and unused prescription drugs, no questions asked.

It is also our view that education is a big and preventative factor. Teaching self-interest, self-reliance and compassion is key and those motivations need to be carefully taught by parents from the time their young children begin socializing.  —PN


Posted Jan. 23, 2017 / ParentsMatterToo will present a special program with renowned NY Times journalist and author David Sheff beginning at 7PM, Thurs., Jan. 26, at the Yellow Box Church.

“What happened to my beautiful Boy?” is a time when Sheff will share reflections on his journey through his son’s addiction.

The public is welcome and invited. The event is free of charge, thanks to co-host Edgewood Clinical Services and the generous sponsorship from other members of the community, including the Exchange Club of Naperville and the Naperville Jaycees.

What happened to my son? To our family? What did I do wrong?

Sheff will reflect on these questions as he shares the story of his son Nic’s descent into addiction and the impact on his family. Before Nic Sheff became addicted to crystal meth, he was a charming boy, joyous and funny, a varsity athlete and honor student adored by his two younger siblings.

After meth, he was a trembling wraith who lied, stole, and lived on the streets.

David Sheff traces the first subtle warning signs: the denial, the 3AM phone calls (Is it Nic? the police? the hospital?), the rehabs. His preoccupation with Nic became an addiction in itself, and the obsessive worry and stress took a tremendous toll. But as a journalist, he instinctively researched every avenue of treatment that might save his son and refused to give up on Nic.

Beautiful Boy is a fiercely candid presentation that brings immediacy to the emotional roller coaster of loving a child who seems beyond help.

The Yellow Box Church is located at 1635 Emerson Lane, just off Ogden Avenue at Rickert, across from Fair Oaks Ford.

News release submitted by Dagmar Kauffman for Parents Matter Too.

Stay Connected!

Get the latest local headlines delivered to your inbox each morning.
SUBSCRIBE
- Advertisement -
PN Editor
PN Editor
An editor is someone who prepares content for publishing. It entered English, the American Language, via French. Its modern sense for newspapers has been around since about 1800.

LATEST NEWS

DON’T MISS OUT!
GET THE DAILY
SQUARE-SCOOP
The latest local headlines delivered
to your inbox each morning.
SUBSCRIBE
Give it a try, you can unsubscribe anytime.
close-link

Stay Connected!

Get the latest local headlines delivered to your inbox each morning.
SUBSCRIBE
close-link