{"id":14380,"date":"2016-02-16T21:42:40","date_gmt":"2016-02-17T02:42:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.katrinakenison.com\/?p=14380"},"modified":"2016-02-16T21:42:40","modified_gmt":"2016-02-17T02:42:40","slug":"saving-jake-a-moms-riveting-story-a-give-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/saving-jake-a-moms-riveting-story-a-give-way\/","title":{"rendered":"saving Jake — a mom’s story & a give-away"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"51w9S21cSJL._SX322_BO1,204,203,200_\"S<\/span>ince writing last week about my son Jack\u2019s addiction and first steps in recovery, I\u2019ve been inspired and humbled and deeply moved by the stories so many of you have shared, both here on the website and in private emails. This conversation, still ongoing, is a beautiful, necessary reminder that we are all connected — not only by our struggles but also in our hope for our loved ones and in our compassion for one another\u2019s challenging, complicated journeys.<\/p>\n

Our culture is obsessed with perfection \u2013 and with hiding our problems. But what a liberating thing it is to realize that our private battles are, in fact, universal. And that they are also our richest opportunities for being able to fully share in both the grief and the joys of others.<\/p>\n

And so, in that spirit of compassion, I would like to share with you an intimate, courageous book that made a profound impression on me.<\/p>\n

Last May a reader of The Gift of an Ordinary Day<\/strong><\/a> wrote to say that my book had been \u201ca balm\u201d to her \u201croughened mother\u2019s soul.\u201d D’Anne went on to reveal that she\u2019d come to cherish life\u2019s quiet, mundane moments by way of a different path: \u201cMy 23-year-old son is three years clean from Oxy and heroin.\u201d<\/p>\n

D\u2019Anne has written about her family\u2019s experience in a profoundly revealing, quietly instructive memoir called Saving Jake: When Addiction Hits Home<\/a><\/strong>. As she explains,\u00a0\u201cToo few books have been written by parents battling the disease of addiction, while meanwhile an epidemic of prescription drug abuse leading to heroin in our youth rages on.\u201d<\/p>\n

I will admit that I read much of this utterly harrowing, ultimately heartening book through tears. Tears of recognition. Tears of empathy. Tears that came simply from knowing, \u201cThis could be me.\u201d<\/p>\n

I will also admit that once I started, I couldn\u2019t put Saving Jake<\/strong> down. D\u2019Anne Burwell writes with a novelist\u2019s gift for dialogue and detail. The result is a riveting story that held me in its grip even as it changed many of my assumptions about addiction and recovery.<\/p>\n

And then there\u2019s this: D\u2019Anne could easily be my best friend — or yours. With every page, I thought how with a few different strokes of fate, her story could be my story, or any family\u2019s story. In fact, it\u2019s a story that\u2019s unfolding in some variation right now in thousands of homes across the country.<\/p>\n

Smart, engaging, athletic, Jake seems bound for success. When his grades begin to slip, when he withdraws from sports and his active family, his parents are concerned but realistic: teenagers need their space. And Jake is adept at coming up with one reasonable story after another. But it doesn\u2019t take long for his life to spiral downward. Experiments with marijuana soon lead to OxyContin. Addicted to heroin within a year of leaving home for college, he drops out of school, walks out of rehab, and winds up homeless on the streets of Boulder.<\/p>\n

I stood gripping my kitchen countertop, taking short panting breaths, feeling as if I\u2019d been squeezed inside the darkest tunnel. My son\u2019s lies and excuses had obscured that his life was falling apart. I\u2019d suddenly strung it all together\u2014the soot on his forehead, the hollowed-out Bic pens, the wadded up foil, the ruined finances. My nineteen-year-old son was addicted to OxyContin.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

S<\/span>truggling with fear, guilt, and a desperate desire to help her son, D\u2019Anne must also confront new fissures in her marriage, her husband\u2019s own anger and confusion, and their daughter\u2019s depression. The disease of addiction affects them all, forever reshaping the dynamics of their close-knit family life.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, engaged in a fierce battle to save her child, D\u2019Anne learns of the terrifying links between prescription drug abuse and skyrocketing heroin use among teenagers and young adults \u2013 kids from good backgrounds, solid families, and loving homes whose lives are nevertheless quietly, tragically spinning out of control.<\/p>\n

Twice now I\u2019ve watched my son spiral down into skin and bones, hollow eyes, and an empty soul. Powerlessness is tearing my heart apart.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

With a flair for the quiet drama of real life, D\u2019Anne Burwell traces each step of Jake\u2019s journey from typical American high schooler to homeless addict who\u2019s exhausted every option but one: the ultimate choice between life or death. And in the process she shares her own painful education as she comes to understand that to save her child she must step back and allow him to fight for his own soul.<\/p>\n

As soon as I finished reading Saving Jake<\/strong> last spring, I brought the manuscript (as yet unpublished) over to a close friend whose own son is in recovery from heroin addiction. Taking the book from my hands she looked at me and asked, through sudden tears, \u201cDoes this boy live? Because I don\u2019t think I can read this if he doesn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jake is one of the lucky ones. He does live, but his survival is not a foregone conclusion. Many of our kids don\u2019t make it. If you have teenagers in your life, you already know: these are confusing times and everyone is vulnerable. Life changes in a moment. Addiction is a disease. And no one is immune.<\/p>\n

I do think that if every<\/em> parent were to read this book, however, we would have a much better sense of what we\u2019re up against. Our kids and our families might have a better chance. Knowledge is power, after all. And D\u2019Anne Burwell has done a great deal of homework. Her brave, compelling book removes the shame and silence from addiction and brings the truth of this epidemic into clear focus. If your child is struggling, you will find companionship and comfort in these pages. And if you are struggling, D\u2019Anne\u2019s own journey of recovery will offer you a first-hand portrayal of what it means to detach with love.<\/p>\n

In fact, the hard-earned wisdom of Saving Jake<\/strong> is a gift to anyone who has ever loved a child, harbored hope for another\u2019s healing, or come to the hard realization that the only life we can save is our own.<\/p>\n

\n

enter to win a signed copy<\/span><\/h3>\n

Saving Jake<\/strong> was the 2015 USA BEST BOOK AWARDS winner in the category of Health: Addiction and Recovery. D\u2019Anne Burwell has kindly agreed to sign two copies of her book, for two of my readers.\u00a0\u00a0 To enter to win, simply leave a note in the comment section below.<\/strong> You can share a quote that has inspired you on your own journey. You can offer a reflection. Or you can just say \u201ccount me in.\u201d Two winners will be chosen at random after 10 p.m. on Friday, February 26.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Want to read now? To order Saving Jake from Amazon, click here<\/a><\/strong>. (This is an Amazon affiliate link.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since writing last week about my son Jack\u2019s addiction and first steps in recovery, I\u2019ve been inspired and humbled and deeply moved by the stories so many of you have shared, both here on the website and in private emails. This conversation, still ongoing, is a beautiful, necessary reminder that we are all connected — […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15183,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,19,21,35,8,11,15],"tags":[59,290,353],"class_list":{"0":"post-14380","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-addiction","8":"category-book-reviews","9":"category-books-for-parents","10":"category-letting-go","11":"category-parenting","12":"category-parenting-young-adults","13":"category-writing-and-reading","14":"tag-addiction","15":"tag-memoir","16":"tag-recovery","17":"entry"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/600x600.png?fit=600%2C600","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14380\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/katrinakenison.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}