Laurie and Keegan Wicks, a mother and son, talked to our class about family recovery and also discussed the language used in the media today with regards to addiction.
This was a heavy and difficult moment in the class as Laurie spoke about her experience with having a child go through addiction. She talked about Keegan’s treatment, which included a 10 Day Blackout Period. This means that she nor Keegan could have contact with anyone outside including his family. Family therapy wasn’t part of the treatment either. This was hard to hear because I believe recovery is a joint effort and that it’s good to have support from those that are close to you or family.
When I was in residential treatment for my eating disorder last summer, family or loved ones were expected to be extremely involved in the treatment process. Hearing that it wasn’t part of Keegan’s treatment process really shocked me. However, it was amazing to hear Laurie learned and researched on how to support Keegan during his recovery process. I wish I knew more parents like Laurie, who wants to know how to support their child.
Valerie McIntyre is a senior at Temple University majoring in Media Studies and Production. She is passionate about mental health and writes about her own recovery from an eating disorder. She started her college journey at the Community College of Philadelphia where she graduated in 2016 with her Associates in Mass Media. With the intention to major in Journalism, she fell in love with Media Studies and Production at Temple University where she could exercise both interests in journalism and Television News Production. She also passionate about music which led to an online music magazine called Beyond the Stage where she is a writer and photographer. She also produced and directed a documentary called Theater of Chaos: The Philly Punk Story which focuses on the punk music scene in Philadelphia. She loves to write stories and loves writing her own scripts for film and television. She freelances for the Temple News and contributed news packages for Temple Update. She sees herself as a multimedia storyteller. She hopes to continue her advocacy in mental health awareness and pursue a career in TV News Production as producer, photographer, and video editor. Contact Valerie at [email protected].
In this special topics course, a group of students from Temple University’s Department of Journalism in the Klein College of Media and Communication spends a full semester reporting on addiction solutions. Click here to see the syllabus for the Spring 2018 semester, and here to see the syllabus for 2017.
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