Sad Call

A sad aspect of our job is when we talk to parents and relatives who are looking for their loved ones – clients who have once been in our program but left to go back to pursue their addictions. Their pain and anxiety is obvious, even when they try to mask it with false bravado.

It happened again today with a mother looking for a client who left our program. Did we know where her daughter had gone?  When had we last seen her? Did we have a phone number for her? Did we know her friends?  She seemed reluctant to hang up, maybe because we were the last contact she had for her daughter.

While we knew nothing of her daughter's whereabouts, we assured her we'd let her know if we heard anything.

This call once again reminded me of the cruel insensitivity with which we treat our loved ones once we relapse back into our disease.