She may have been frustrated a few times with you but she never stopped loving you. Picking up the phone and saying, “Mom, I want to get clean. I want to break the cycle of addiction” will be the most beautiful words she can hear if drugs have taken over your life.

Now stop right there. Perhaps you are saying to yourself that this does not apply to you because your mother has passed away or you are a mother yourself. Well, yes it does, actually. Making a Mother’s Day decision to get clean in honor of your mother would be the most beautiful gift you could give, not only to her memory, but to yourself and your other loved ones as well.

If you are a mother, don’t you want to be around to see that child’s first date? Be there to take pictures of him and his date as they stop by on the way to the prom? Be there for her wedding? Be there for the birth of his own son, your first grandchild?

Mother’s Day celebrates mothers everywhere. Moms do not want fancy jewelry or vacation trips away from you. A simple “I love you and I want to overcome my addiction so I’m going into rehab” will be the most priceless gift you can give her. By making this decision in a time of celebrating what a mother is, you are showing her that all those years of her love and prayers and strength were worth it because you felt it through the chains of your addiction.

By deciding to get clean during the special celebration of Mother’s Day, you are showing your children that you want to be a good mother to them, that you want to get away from addiction and became the wonderful mother they deserve and that they know you can be.

The time to get into rehab is now. No matter what time of year, the time is now. Every day, it is now. Yet, since we are about to celebrate Mother’s Day, what greater gift can you give in honor of such a special day? Make the call to the rehab center. Then make the call to the ones you love the most.

Happy Mother’s Day.

We should recognize the affects of alcoholism and drug addiction. We should counter it with therapy and care. We should go after it like a soldier goes after an evil force.

Does anyone wake up one day and decide to become an alcoholic instead of a doctor? Does one decide instead of being a fireman, to become a drug addict? It is not the goal of a person to succumb to substance abuse. Why act like it is?

Many people argue the fact as to whether alcoholism and drug addiction are diseases. Why? Because they say people have a choice. Fine. But wait a minute. Isn’t AIDS a disease? Isn’t HIV a blood disorder? Aren’t sexually transmitted diseases well, diseases? These were brought on by choices, too.

It is time to band together and treat the patient. Treat the addict. Go after the disease. Go after the addiction. Here in Texas, let’s take that “Don’t Mess with Texas” motto we are so proud of and see it for what it is meant to be: strength in numbers. Just as I wrote in a post earlier this week, if our legal system is figuring out things like dual diagnosis, then shouldn’t our other departments do so as well? The VA, anger management, community service projects, jail time, all could help with successful rehabilitation in different situations by recognizing that the person is not the problem, the addiction is.

If a person injures another, we go after that person, right? That is what addiction and alcoholism does. Go after the root of the problem, that addiction. Battle the enemy. Yes, a person can be held accountable for his or her actions but tell them they are accountable because they are worth saving, that person deep inside who is now being controlled by substance abuse is still in there and worth saving.

By doing so, you could be helping someone who could very well go on to becoming a rehab counselor, or the parent of the future doctor who finds a cure for cancer. How awesome would it be to have had a hand in that by helping an addict or alcoholic? Exactly.