As you may recall in a previous post by one of our guest bloggers writing about breaking the cycles of addiction, I opened her post with the following: “Breaking the cycle of addiction is greatly helped when a person understands two key things: 1) addiction is a chronic, often relapsing, developmental brain disease, and 2) there are five key risk factors for developing this disease: genetics, social environment, early use, mental illness and childhood trauma. It is not uncommon for children who grow up with one or more parents with untreated addiction or an untreated mental illness or any one of these key risk factors to develop addiction, themselves.”

Today’s post is a similar share – this one on the fallout of addiction – breaking the cycle – by Gary Topley. Gary is an Alcohol Awareness Specialist in the UK, who is looking to reunite with his son with whom he lost contact as a result of his (Gary’s) addiction, an addiction Gary had developed, in part, from being caught in the cycle of addiction.

To learn more about Gary’s work to help others, look for him on Facebook at Gary Topley Alcohol Awareness Specialist. He also welcomes your emails at alcoholsupport@aol.com.

Fallout of Addiction – Breaking the Cycle by Gary Topley

In 1980 when I was 2, I was removed from my mother’s care with one of the main reasons being that she was addicted to alcohol. After 2 years of being in care, aged 4, I was then adopted. Little did I know that I would be in a similar situation with history repeating itself, 16 years later with my own son.

16 years ago in 1999 was the last time I saw my son. He was adopted and I was refused custody with one of the main reasons being my own consumption of alcohol, of which I was dependent. With my son turning 18 in March 2015, and me now 6 years sober, I hope to find him and be reunited with again.

Being very young at 18 and the trauma that came with this, I felt guilty for a long time that I had put my addiction first, to some extent before my own son. This in turn coupled with other underlying factors drove me to the depths of depression, which in turn furthered my alcohol addiction.

For many years this has been a big struggle as I have missed my son very much, and the situation has had a massive impact on my life. I have two other children now and one of the reasons I stopped drinking 6 years ago, was so the same thing didn’t happen to my eldest daughter, ‘I had to break the cycle’. It is a shame that it took me 12 years later and my daughter to see it”.

After overcoming my own 15 year addiction I now raise awareness on issues pertaining to alcohol. I hope that me and my son can be reunited when he turns 18 and we can go away for a long awaited catch up, and can’t wait for him to meet his two younger sisters who I know will love him just as much as I do.