My heart goes out to the mother from Caribou hoping her son can find a doctor to prescribe Suboxone for his opiate addiction. Currently there are only 40 doctors statewide qualified to prescribe, and as she said, they are each limited to 30 patients each. Anyone familiar with this epidemic knows that treating 1,200 patients in the whole state is barely scratching the surface.

Adding insult to injury is the fact that in my area you can buy Suboxone on the street from other addicts. Some buy it when they are “dopesick” (withdrawing from opiates) and unable to find their next fix. Others are no longer using opiates and are buying Suboxone on the street, instead of by a doctor’s prescription, to help them stay clean. These addicts aren’t included in any treatment statistics and it’s hard to get a true feel for how many there are. I work daily with an addict who finds help this way.

Suboxone by itself, though, is not the answer. I know many who use the drug and think they’re just fine now. This is far from true. Stopping the craving is barely a beginning. True recovery is a whole process, including the work you must do on yourself to become a better person. A pill alone does nothing to change the way you think and react with others. And as the addict needs to educate and work on himself, so does the parent need to do the same.

In my area there is Nar-Anon, a family group for those suffering with addicts in the family. They meet Sunday evenings from 6-7 p.m. at the Maine Coast Memorial Hospital in Ellsworth. Meetings are free and open to all. Maybe Caribou parents needs to start a meeting in that area. The national organization (www.nar-anon.org) will help them organize one. These parents know all about the right and wrong things to do and say. They’ve been there. There’s nothing like personal experience.

I also recognize the pain the addict in prison expressed about the fear of getting out in six months and not knowing if he could stay clean without medication. I suggest getting to Narcotics Anonymous the day he gets out, getting phone numbers from others in recovery and calling them every day. Go to meetings every day, more than one a day if you can. Get a sponsor, do service work, read the literature and get working on the first step. Do whatever is suggested to you. Chase recovery like you did your drugs.

I am an addict. I’m in recovery. I’ve been clean one day at a time for 6,337 days. I’m also the stepfather of an addict. She’s been struggling for six years now and could die any day. I know heartache. I know the feeling of helplessness. I also know that in order to have faith and hope, I have to work a program of recovery not only relating to myself, but also relating to her.

My favorite version of the serenity prayer is “God, grant me Serenity to accept the people I cannot change, Courage to change the person I can, and Wisdom to know that it’s me.”

I still go to several NA meetings a week. I have a sponsor and I sponsor several others. I lead a 12-step spiritual group for men in Bangor one night a week. I serve on the board of “Your Place Inc.” in Ellsworth, a recovery meeting and fellowship nonprofit organization. I’m also blessed to be on the advisory board of the Maine Alliance for Addiction Recovery.

I do the service work, and I work the program to the best of my ability. I have a worthwhile life to show for it. A loving wife, a wonderful home, good friends who can rely on me, and faith in a power greater than myself that has restored me to sanity. Recovery works, and I wish it for everyone.

– Anonymous in Ellsworth

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