Where Did You Go, Addi?

Book excerpt: About the Author: Lorri A. Fry was raised in Carroll County, Maryland. She graduated from Towson State University with an Elementary Education degree. Lorri is now a reading interventionist and a special education teacher in Cecil County, Maryland. She loves helping children with special needs to feel successful in school. Lorri was inspired to write this book because she, along with family members and friends, has personally experienced the chaos that addiction brings to one's family. This book is meant to help others to identify, in the early stages, what many parents, spouses and siblings struggle with for years. Lorri believes no one sets out to become an addict. It is a disease. Until the family members identify that the source of the chaos in their home is drug or alcohol related, they will unknowingly continue to make excuses and enable the addict. Lorri was an active member in Ala-non following her divorce. She currently leads a Nara-non meeting in her home town and helped to launch a Nara-teen meeting, as well. She has attended Family Wellness Weekends and Family Recovery Enrichment Days (FRED) at Father Martin Ashley's in Havre de Grace, Maryland. Lorri has read Ala-non and Nara-non literature, research articles and many books about alcoholism and addiction over the years. She is knowledgeable of the many characteristics and behaviors of addiction. She understands the heartache and pain that addiction can cause for everyone involved. Lorri found great comfort and guidance from attending Onsite Workshops in Cumberland Furnace, Tennessee. This is there where she realized she needed to find an outlet to share her knowledge and compassion for this terrible disease of addiction.