The Big Lie

My email was practically smoking. As I read, I could feel the fury and frustration of the mother who wrote it. She had been watching an episode of a popular daytime TV talk show and was disgusted at the way they portrayed teens who struggle with pornography and other sexual dependencies.  Somebody needs to tell people what’s really going on, she exclaimed. Nobody out there really knows what it’s like. Therapists that should know how to help don’t recognize the signs. Parents don’t know where to turn for answers.  This mother should know. She’s been through it all with her son. The endless list of mis-diagnoses that left her child in a continual cycle  of anger and acting out. By a stroke of what she considers divine intervention, her family found Oxbow. Her son has finished therapy and is living successfully on his own. But that’s not enough for this mother. She knows the pain of wondering where to turn – wondering if her boy could ever be whole and be healed. So she has taken her anger and her experience in hand. She’s writing a book about her family’s journey. And she’s working on a video documentary chronicaling her experiences. “I have to do something,” she told me. And she is. She’s stepping out of the shadows to help other children and parents. “If I can help just one other child, one other family, it’s worth it.”