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The very first person I ever met, live, from this forum was the mother of a meth addict. She went by the name WMOM, (Worried Mom) and she was really concerned about her daughter's meth use. That was in 2002. ( I believe) We have been good friends ever since and I'm happy to say her daughter has been clean for over five years, graduated college and is doing well. Last week, WMOM senet me an email informing me of a book/author presentation at one of the local Starbucks.
The book is titled "Beautiful Boy: A Father's Journey Through His Son's Meth Addiction" by David Sheff
And the son's book is titled, "Tweak: Growing Up on Methamphetamines." By Nic Sheff
They are both highly recommened.
I went and met them both last night
Here's my account of what I heard and saw during their presentation.
They started on time and the Mariposa Street Starbucks is one of the largest Starbucks I've even visited.
There were about fifty or sixty folding chairs set up, a professional Sound System and Camera Crew was already rolling when I arrived. I got a good seat in the second row, aisle, so I was comfortable and able to see and hear very well. The place was nearly full and some people were standing in the back. I must admit, I was taken by surprise when I saw the crowd. At work, I'm a substance abuse counselor for WaldenHouse and I work with recovering meth addicts who are triple diagnosed. My clients are usually at the bottom of the social, economic, and educational levels of our society and culture. They are usually disabled, sick, and struggling with making it from day-to-day. The crowd at Starbucks was the exact opposite. They all looked like they drove up in new BMW's, shopped at Nieman Marcus and Nordtrom's and made a commute from Mill Valley to "The City" to provide audience for a newly released literary tome.
I looked around and saw no one that looked like a recovering speedfreak. They were very upscale.
The father opened the presentation and gave about a forty-five minute account of who he is, his experience with his son, and his struggles with parenthood. He talked about his son being born in Berkeley, raised in San Francisco, and now the family lives in Marin. He was well-groomed, articulate, obviously well-educated , and is a professional journalist. He said he was an atheist and sometimes had difficulty with a few of the 12-step concepts at Alanon meetings.
The son gave his account next, telling about his drug history, bi-polar disorder, being institutionalized and how he felt during the struggles. I don't want to tell it all in this short message because the authors wrote their books for that purpose.
I think what stood out to me the most was the dispelling of a minor meth among the public that meth addicts are often, dirty, creepy, uneducated, sexually perverse scum without any sort of decency or propriety. This team of Father and Son were just the opposite.
Here's the video
http://www.amazon.com/Beautiful-Boy-Fathers-Journey-Addiction/dp/0618683356/ref=pd_bbs_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1205523291&sr=8-1
