A Mother and Family Recovery

S.O.B.E.R.* IS NOW AVAILABLE TO PURCHASE ON AMAZON! http://www.amazon.com/dp/0692331476 The following videos are one family's story of addiction being told by a mother and son. The format is mirrored in the book written by them called S.O.B.E.R.* It is a story of hope. For more information please go to: www.anitadevlin.com

Cape Cod Times: Forum, summit tackle substance abuse using diverse methods

On Thursday, Anita Devlin told the audience her son entered Barnstable High School as a freshman with a shoulder injury that left him in a sling.

“A guy approached my son like a moth and asked if he had any pain medicine,” she said.

That gave Michael the idea to take opiates recreationally, leading to years of addiction that culminated with him sitting in a bathtub at a Vermont motel, popping pills and waiting to die. A text from his mother that day may have saved his life, he said.

“I was a very busy mother who was busy talking (judgmentally) about everyone else’s children and the worst part is my son heard it all,” Anita said. “I wonder if he didn’t come to me because he was worried about my judgment.”

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NCAA Champion: Smoke Screen

"He was only a boy when the wound opened.

He had dark, unkempt hair and bright blue eyes that obscured the insecurities that simmer as a boy’s brain and body take the first steps toward becoming a man’s. So he would do what boys do – whatever it took to stand out, to earn pats on the back, to make them say nice job, Mikey. He was more powerful than the other kids, his frame thicker, so he would make the radar gun explode. He would make them remember Mike Devlin.

So one day the 14-year-old gripped his lacrosse stick hard and pulled it back behind his right shoulder. His left arm coiled around his torso and muscles contracted and tendons stretched as his body loaded like a spring. When he unwound and the stick snapped forward, the torque peeled some of the labrum in his left shoulder off the bone. The radar gun registered 87, and the other New England kids vying for the fastest shot on that summer day in 2003 shouted and marveled like he had hoped they would – but he knew something wasn’t right.

Something inside of him was broken."

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Huffington Post: My Battle With My Son's Addiction

From The Huffington Post:

"I'm scared, Mom," Mike said over the phone. "I'm scared and I need help."

My 21-year-old son, Mike, was talking to me from a cheap, drug-infested motel a few miles away from his college in Vermont. After hours of me trying to track him down, I was overcome with emotions of relief, fear, denial, and shame.

Mike's fight with addiction started when he was in high school. He was injured playing lacrosse and needed surgery on his shoulder. Following his surgery, Mike was given prescription painkillers, which he began abusing throughout most of his high school years. It wasn't until years later that I discovered my son's internal battles with insecurities and anxieties which drove his need to use drugs during school hours, before lacrosse games and during social gatherings. Once Mike reached college, he discovered heroin, which inevitably led him and our family to rock bottom.

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The Barnstable Patriot: New book chronicles journey for mom, addicted son

Before Mike Devlin Jr. was heading into Barnstable High School for a day’s classes, he would pat his own head some 30 times to make sure every single hair was in place. He had to look perfect.

“I remember trying to fit in, a people pleaser. I would try to buy my friendship and my worth. I was afraid that people were picking me apart,” said Mike.

Meanwhile, back at his home on Main Street in Centerville, his mother, Anita Baglaneas Devlin, wanted all her neighbors to think she had a perfect family.

Neither of them knew at the time that Mike’s burgeoning addiction to opiates would dash their world of appearances, eventually bringing them both to rock bottom.

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The Bergand Group: What Does Drug Addiction Looks Like?

“Mike’s fight with addiction started when he was in high school. He was injured playing lacrosse and needed surgery on his shoulder. Following his surgery, Mike was given prescription painkillers, which he began abusing throughout most of his high school years. It wasn’t until years later that I discovered my son’s internal battles with insecurities and anxieties which drove his need to use drugs during school hours, before lacrosse games and during social gatherings. Once Mike reached college, he discovered heroin, which inevitably led him and our family to rock bottom.”

Anita’s story is like many others whose family members battle drug addiction. Whether you are an athlete who took painkillers after a sports injury, a mother who uses alcohol as an outlet to a long day of watching her children, or a CEO of a business who uses drugs to stay up and work late into the night, drug addiction does not discriminate.