The Tempo staff arranged for him to join an excellent program at a rehab center in the Midwest. Within two days he was on the plane. We concealed his journey from our friends and family with various concocted stories. David later told us it took him six weeks at the rehab center to admit to himself that he was truly addicted. He stayed in the center for four months full-time, one month in a volunteer work program and one month in a halfway house.
Substance abuse cuts across all ethnic, religious and socioeconomic boundaries.
During a family visit to the rehab center, David related his history of substance abuse in its entirety at a group meeting. The patients in the room included doctors, lawyers, housewives, nurses, factory workers and our son. When I asked the social worker why each visiting family had been provided with a box of tissues, she told us they would be necessary. She was right. This was all part of the recovery process.