Books of Interest
WINNING THE DRUG WAR AT HOME
Book Reviews
May 8, 2007, 13:28

By: Kathy Pride
Living Ink Books, 2006
ISBN-13: 978-0-89957-082-2



Reviewed by: Lon Woodbury

This is the book the author was looking for and couldn't find when she was dealing with her son's marijuana addiction. Since she couldn't find one when she needed it, she wrote this one to help parents following her in this kind of crisis.

This book is another in the growing line of parents who have been touched by the Struggling Teens residential program industry. Among the impressive endorsements are positive comments by Trilby Hoover, who was then the Executive Director of the Passages to Recovery program, and Brad Reedy, Ph.D., Director of the Second Nature Wilderness program which was one of the programs her son attended. Both of these programs are well known and respected among the network of private parent-choice residential programs.

Throughout the book is the author's progressive description of her struggles, anger and soul-searching during that critical 16 months of dealing with the crisis in which her son found himself and into which he drug the rest of the family. Each chapter narrates the events that were occurring, starting with her son being court ordered to attend a therapeutic wilderness program in Utah.

It is very evident that the author's faith was a major source of support and understanding of the craziness her family was going through. Each chapter is punctuated with bible verses that make a point relating to the situation and concerns of the moment, along with her observations and understanding of what the Bible was teaching her about what she was experiencing. Also included are pertinent segments of her son's letters from the wilderness showing a gradual dawn of realization of how to learn to control himself and accept his limitations.

Not only is the book an inspiration of how a family can endure through all the craziness an out of control teen can produce but also an inspiration of how a well founded faith can provide the hope that will see a family through. By the end of the book, her faith and hope were well founded as it ends with her sending him off to college. This book is a testimony to family survival through a mother's refusal to give up on her child.