Local family using addiction history to help others get clean using their message of hope
The Lones family have seen first-hand the challenges that come with a family member struggling with opioid addiction. But now with their website, and their message, they are hoping to help other families who are going through the same hardships they have faced in the past decade.
Dustin Lones has been clean since September, and now he's using his decade-long struggle to help other local families.
His addiction to opioids began at 19, leading to heroin just a few years later.
"I went through cycles in my life, I would get sober for a little bit then it seemed like I was self-destructing once I got my life back together."
After being sober for two years, he once again began using following his divorce and losing a custody battle over his three year old daughter.
He moved home, but it wasn't until his mother Abby suffered a stroke that he finally woke up. Now Dustin and his parents are taking their journey and using it to help other families on Delmarva.
"Sometimes the parents don't want to admit their child has a problem, or if they do they want to do it in secret to their close friends," says Lones.
The family is bypassing the addict, going straight to the heart of their support system – the parents.
"We believe that parents have the main access to the addict to be able to present what life could be like, the hope that maybe the situation they're in now they don't need the drugs to be happy," says Dustin.
"We're the ones that have to pick up the pieces because their so called friends are gone," says Abby.
Without the help of his parents, Dustin believes it would've been nearly impossible to stay clean.
His dad, Dan, says keeping lines of communication open can make all the difference, and that's what they preach to families who are in the same shoes they were once in.
"Dustin and I would take time every evening and it would be just he and I and I would say tell me how you're doing. Talk to me about how you're feeling."
The Harrington family has reached ten families in the region, and they wish to continue spreading their message of recovery through hope.
"Even if just one person would not go down the path I went to and the heartache and everything that comes with it, I'd feel satisfied," said Dustin.
Dustin tells us they are also working on a documentary of his life and journey. The hope is if other parents see it, it can wake them up to take a more active roll in their child's life. There will be updates on the release of that documentary on their website.
That website is parentsofaddiction.org, and included on there are ways to get connected, tools to help battle addiction, and their mission statement.
