Meth-Affected Family Support Group to Turn Coping into Hoping
Posted
Aaron Organ-aorgan@timesuniononline.com
Annie Zartman and Penny Burgess no doubt would prefer their lives hadn’t led them toward one another.
But the co-operators of the Families Against Methamphetamine Family Support Group, both of whom have twice-imprisoned sons done in by the drug, are taking the blessing in disguise and running with it in a passionate effort to help others like them cope and heal.
The support group, in its second time around after an initial effort ran a bit off course, aims to help the families of meth addicts handle what’s to come, “to help ease the pain and burden of dealing with a loved one’s addiction to meth,” the group’s brochure reads. It’s a simple concept based on talking and sharing, with Zartman and Burgess there to offer support and understanding, and maybe even a bit of guidance on where the journey will take the families as the addict struggles to drop the drug.
The group, which will meet at 6:30 p.m. every other Tuesday beginning Sept. 6 at the First Christian Church of Warsaw, 115 Park Ridge Drive, is partnered and supported by the Meth Awareness Partnership and funded by Serenity House.
“The great thing we do is, we help people,” said Zartman. “We’ll focus on the families, offering education to the families and talking about their needs, because the addict is not the only one affected.”
Zartman and Burgess came together in the most desperate of times, while Zartman was leading the initial meth support group and Burgess was struggling to deal with her meth-addicted son and searching for hope.
Together, they found their stories were oddly similar - both sons from well-to-do families who found meth and lost their ways, before being sent to prison, released and sent back after returning to the drug within days.
“He still couldn’t say no,” Zartman recalled of her son. “And it affected all aspects of our lives as a result. We were the collateral damage of the drug.
“And Penny’s situation is basically the same.”
With that first-hand knowledge, Zartman and Burgess will impart hope to families by letting them know they are not alone during their loved one’s addiction. Burgess described the burden on a meth family as picking up after a party, where the addict had a grand time and now the family is left to assess the damage.
Through the support group, though, Zartman and Burgess will aim, through friendship, respect, patience and time, to turn coping into hoping. Talks will be held on loving the loved one and not the disease, how not to enable and how to snap the stereotypes of meth.
The group will focus on helping the family members first, because Zartman and Burgess said helping an addict cannot happen until the family member is cared for.
Zartman said that despite all that her son has put her and her family through, she loves his as much as ever, and said she’ll never give up on him. Burgess quietly concurred.
“They’re our kids and we love them,” they said together.
For more information on the Families Against Methamphetamine Family Support Group, contact Zartman at 574-551-8308 or zartman@embarqmail.com, or Burgess at 574-377-2395 or dtt3burg@yahoo.com
