An administrator at our local treatment center recently stepped aside for several months following surgery.  His absence reminds me how important such people are to our loved ones with addiction.

Like all professions, addiction treatment attracts the good and the bad.  Sometimes the good ones are hard to find.

They were for me.

Even though shame delayed my search to find help, it was a mixed response.

First was the therapist who made my son his friend.  Soft and yielding, he barely made an impact.

Then there was the opposite – the hard-nosed tech at the outpatient center who shouted at Jacob “When are you gonna’ man up?”

Today, there are more professionals in the field and more choices.  Many are recovered substance abusers themselves, drawn to helping others find the recovery they have.

When Jacob’s addiction was at its most threatening, some 15 years ago, a few of these good people touched his life. Like the obstetrician who delivers your baby, you never forget them.

There is the treatment center’s adventure therapist.  With a firm hand and eons of experience in recovery, he is patient, gentle, and determined that anyone in his fold find recovery if he or she wants it badly enough.

There also is that administrator – whose calm demeanor and easy smile soothes the most frightened mom or dad.

And there are the sponsors and friends in AA, the men and women who understand and know best how to guide my son, today and tomorrow.

If it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a small city to lift one out of addiction.

The good ones may be hard to find.

But hold them fast.

They are God-sent.