Photo by Andrea Music
July In August is the story of a child’s struggle with an opioid-addicted mother, revealing what it is like living life with an addicted family member.
Addiction in the family is the central focus of Maryjo Paradis-Smith’s thrilling story about having an addicted family member, July In August.
While addicts might believe their vices only affect them and no one else, the reality of things is much more cruel and interconnected.
Addiction affects the people around you.
It’s simple enough to go about life thinking that drug addiction only influences the person doing the drugs: their health declines, they might lose their jobs, and they may start facing financial and legal dilemmas. Remember, living life as an addict is not an easy way to live.
This is doubly so when we become aware that addiction also affects the people around us. Addiction touches everyone around it, not just the one in the center of it all. This is especially pronounced when you have an addicted family member–because when you do, whether it’s a child, partner, or parent, everyone’s lives are irrevocably changed and never for the better.
How An Addicted Family Member Changes the Family
Tense relationships, societal exclusion, and increased instances of abuse are a few ways that drug addiction warps the family dynamic. Because not all families are the same, there might even be horrible consequences specific to that one family that occur because of the presence of an addicted family member.
The weight of drug addiction is a heavy one, and its presence brings everyone down. Your distance from the addicted family member won’t matter–you may be the parent, the child, the spouse, the sibling, or you may have a close relationship or an estranged one–it will affect you all the same. This is because when an addicted family member is struggling with their addiction, the whole family struggles alongside them.
Living beneath the same roof as an addicted family member is a difficulty everyone has to deal with.
The Effects on Children
A worryingly large number of children live in households where at least one parent is a drug addict. This is especially troubling if both parents have succumbed to substance abuse. While it is the lesser of two evils to have only one parent be an addicted family member, it is still a dangerous living situation for the child since they have an increased risk of being exposed to the dangerous substance. It is also not an indication of a healthy family when one parent is an addict.
The Effects on Parents
For parents with children who are addicts, it is a very unique and challenging experience to try and navigate your relationship with your child. You are always burdened with the thought of their continued health and overall well-being while, at the same time, aware that any attempt on your part to forcefully stop their vices will lead to a backlash. There is also the itch on the back of your head that perhaps you are the cause of their addiction.
The Story of July In August
In the pages of July In August by Maryjo Paradis-Smith, the story of a child’s struggle with an opioid-addicted mother is clearly and succinctly revealed to readers. July Krativitiz would simply be another normal twelve-year-old girl going to school and taking care of her younger two-year-old brother if not for the fact that her mother is a drug addict, who is normally too brain-addled to notice the existence of them both.
To be blunt about it: July’s life is not an easy one; it’s complicated and messy, full of issues that no young girl her age should be struggling with.
Because her mother is often too out of her mind to bother, July has to be the parent to her younger brother, but things get difficult when everyday she has to choose between going to school and furthering her education or staying behind at home to watch over Abe, her little brother.
While her life is no cakewalk, things get more horrific when their elderly neighbor, Mary White, decides to kidnap them and spirit them away to a faraway house by the lake. This is because the old woman–upon discovering the reality of July and Abe’s family situation–is led to believe she could provide for both children and care for them better.
It’s only when Roger, the father, visits their house for the weekend that we get a glimpse of hope for July and Abe. When he enters their quaint home in Maplewood, New Hampshire, Roger discovers that their mother is already dead and the children are gone.
Will he be able to save the kids? You have to read July In August to find out.
The Happy Hammock 