Congratulations on taking the first step to reclaiming your life.  Chances are you’ve already moved to the passenger seat and are letting someone else drive your life, and chances are you’re already constantly being challenged by chaos, fear, anger and frustration and are struggling to live a happy peaceful life because you have a teenager or young adult child with a drug addiction.

I’m sure you didn’t sign up for this when you started having your children.  There’s no handbook for raising children, well actually yes there are,  but there isn’t one for how to manage your life when your child struggles with drug addiction.  Drug addiction is a family affair and it’s a lot of trial by fire and everyone deals with things in their own way but what happens when our coping mechanisms are challenged in ways we never thought possible.

I’m so happy to be able to share with you some of the things that I’ve done in my own life that helped me get out of that turmoil and pain and live a happier life in spite of the chaos that  tormented me. 

Hi,  I’m Iris Sirianni and I am a mentor and coach for caregivers and their families, who are sick and tired of feeling overwhelmed and struggle to manage the constant conflict and friction in their lives because they haven’t learned the tools needed to weave through this life event.

It wasn’t too long ago that I was in the exact same place you are now.  I had a typical functioning family that included four kids, all of them at one point pre-teens and teens.  We’re  all too familiar with these teenage  years and from the outside looking in we looked pretty normal.  But there were holes in the pockets of our lives, my life,  and they were being blown wide open before I even realized it.

I started noticing stranger than normal teenage behaviour from my oldest teenage girl.  She was a mere 15 years old and I had already been dealing with evasive and short answers to questions, the sneaking out of the house at night, the lying about were she was spending the night, the stuff of semi rebellious teens that drives a parents nuts but my intuition was telling something that my mind didn’t want to believe. 

I didn’t want to believe it but I didn’t turn a blind eye to it either.  I started asking her more questions about what she was doing, where she was going, who she was spending time with and where.  We had conversations about life and school and peer pressure.  I talked to other parents and to teachers.  I talked to healthcare professionals, and youth outreach workers. I talked and questioned and educated myself about what the latest drugs  for this group of kids were.

Education on the subject matter, councelling, support groups.  None of them provided me the tools and resources I needed to manage what was coming down the pipe.  With three other kids in the house to look after and a daughter that was exploding on the drug scene that I was helpless to help or to stop  I had to educate myself on how to be the best parent I could be for all my kids, including my one daughter and I had to take care of my own mental, physical and emotional self  because this was the calm before the storm and our own storm was only just beginning.

Let’s face it!  This is a difficult process, it’s upsetting, confusing and all kinds of crazy mixed up feelings run through your mind  that can leave you feeling alone, stuck, desperate and has your life unraveling to the point you wonder if you’ll ever be happy again.  

But where do you start?  How do you even know how pull it all together?   Maybe you just need a little support.   Well that’s where I come in.

If you’re ready to step back into the drivers seat of your life and become wise to ‘How do I do this (this being your life), while they do that?’  then I’m ready to help.

Contact me at clearlifecoaching@gmail.com or 250-208-2563 for more information.