[Costello:] All week long CNN is taking a deeper look at the twisted web of addiction in our series "Deadly Fix." The pain, the anguish of a child hooked on drugs is something only a parent who has experienced it can truly understand. It may seem hopeless, but there is help. CNN's Kelly Wallace sat down with a mother who's still going through this ordeal who has advice for others.
[Debbie Gross Longo, Son Addicted To Drugs:] He loved to make you laugh. That would make him feel really good. He was on division one soccer. He was on basketball. He was on baseball. This is him and I when we were in a pool and I would be the cautious mother.
[Kelly Wallace, Cnn Correspondent:] What did it feel like when you realized he was addicted and addicted to prescription drugs?
[Longo:] Well, at first I didn't realize he was addicted. I would find pill bottles with no names on them, so it was just a straight bottle. Sometimes I would find straws. Sometimes I would find spoons. I would Google everything and started realizing, there is a problem here.
[On Screen Text:] Debbie Gross Longo is the mother of an addict. Her son started abusing prescription drugs at age 13.
[Longo:] You still question yourself. Did I fail him in some way? There's such a stigma and such a shame attached to it, but the bottom line is, it's a disease.
[Wallace:] And how hard was that stigma for you?
[Longo:] So I really suffered in silence and it's a horrible place to be because you end up crying yourself to sleep. You start going back in time and looking at how they used to be.
[Wallace:] For all mothers who have children who are addicted, it is that balance between supporting your loved one and enabling.
[Longo:] His hand was always out. Always out.
[Wallace:] How scary was that when you said, done, the enabling stops?
[Longo:] I sort of think to myself, well, if he's so darned clever to get the drugs, he can be clever enough to find a piece of pizza somewhere, you know. And, OK, you sleep in your car. Well, that's your choice. So I grew a little bit stronger, but I really grew strong with the Addict's Mom. I mean that that group was my saving grace. It truly was. I saw women who were having the same problems that I was having, only our children's names were different.
[On Screen Text:] The Addict's Mom has 20,000 plus members in 53 countries. Debbie's son has been to rehab seven times and overdosed three times. Now 25, he had been in recovery for six months but recently relapsed. He entered a detox program and is starting again on the road to recovery.
[Wallace:] What's the number one piece of advice you'd give any mom watching who has an addict as a child?
[Longo:] Well, I think try to get them into into rehab. Scare them straight almost. But I really think that you have to start talking to your children when they're young and warn them about everything. I don't want to hear another mother getting a knock at the door saying our son or daughter is dead. I don't want one mother out there suffering in silence and feel she has nowhere to go.
[Costello:] Kelly Wallace, thank you for that report. You can find out much more on the deadly web of addiction. Just go to cnn.comdeadlyfix.