Parenting a child with substance abuse issues is daunting. Patty Fallone knows this firsthand from witnessing her own son's battle with addiction and seeing the toll it took on her entire family. She has also learned that when parents work their own program of recovery, their lives can return to a state of peace, no longer waiting for the next shoe to drop, where they can find peace in the moment, and that peace will benefit all those around them. Patty has taken all she has learned, not just from her own journey, but from hundreds of other parents that she has met and helped along the way, and laid it all bare in a practical, heartwarming, and totally relatable guide that every parent of an addict can benefit from.

The addict has their drug of choice and they become the parent's drug of choice. The parents become as obsessed with them as they are with drugs and alcohol. The parents isolate from their friends, they ignore other relationships, they don't perform at work, and they become fixated on the addict. They act like an addict without ever using a substance. They allow their child's addiction to take charge of their own lives just as it has taken over their child's.

There is a way out. It is possible for parents to start getting better even before their child does. Coming from a place of overwhelming compassion for both the addict and the parent, Patty provides a no-nonsense approach to instructing parents on healthier ways to navigate the challenges they face as the parent of a struggling child, whether the child is 14 or 54. She offers clear and concise dos and don'ts to help parents protect themselves from the ravages of this disease. She debunks terms like enabling, detachment, and self-care and guides parents through practical tools and behaviors to help them begin to find peace even if their child continues to struggle. She shows parents how to step out of the never-ending state of chaos to regain power in their own lives.