ADDICTION AND SCHIZOPHRENIA IN AN AMERICAN FAMILY, Part 4 of 9
Adapted from “A NEW AMERICAN FAMILY: A Love Story"
. Published by the University of Arizona Press Part 4
John was never a rebellious or angry young man. He always cooperated in his treatment, which nonetheless always failed. John’s complicity in our efforts to keep him clean defies belief, but it illustrates the craziness of our shared ordeal.
I was trying to do my job as the Lehigh University president at this time. In that role I was chatting with guests at a dedication of new Lehigh facilities and thinking about the remarks I was expected to make in an hour; when a campus police officer discreetly took me aside to inform me that my son John was in the campus lockup, high on drugs. I excused myself quietly and went to my son, who was quite rational by that time. Both John and I realized that he would bolt if set free, but I hated to leave him in our jail. John suggested that we borrow police handcuffs and lock him to his bed in the President’s House until he came down from his high and I got back from my reception. This we did. I went back to my reception and gave my welcoming address. John was waiting patiently when I returned home to free him from his shackles.
The cycle of recovery and relapse continued, with each hospital detox followed by a rehab center whose promise ended in disappointment. John was scheduled to move from one such three-day detox to a thirty day rehab when our daughter Lora was about to be married, and we all agreed that he could attend her wedding before the scheduled rehab. People who knew John’s recent history were pleased to see him dancing happily at Lora’s reception. Even in his addiction, John was always charming and never radiated anger as disaffected children often do. Then John stole some of Lora’s most valuable wedding gifts and disappeared into the streets of the Lehigh Valley.
Although Pat and I had never been secretive about John’s affliction, we knew that if we reported John’s theft to the police his arrest would be a headline story in the two local newspapers. Not only was John Likins the son of Lehigh’s president, he was locally famous in his own right as a state wrestling champion. Nevertheless, we immediately called the police, who found John within a few days. John Likins in handcuffs made the front page.
The community reaction was quite surprising. I received a hundred letters, almost all reflecting the similar concerns of other parents in the Lehigh Valley, who seemed somehow relieved that even the president of the university shared their problems. Although the newspapers were simply factual in their reporting, both papers also printed a piece I had written with the intention of having it printed in the Lehigh alumni magazine. I knew that the story had to break soon and I had decided to break it myself. Lehigh’s trustees were also quite understanding; they declined my offer to resign the presidency and urged me to stand my ground and face the issues directly. I did so.
John’s theft landed him in jail, but the courts gave him the option of doing his time in a tough drug rehab called Hogar Crea, which was run by addicts in recovery. John was there for some time and both Pat and I developed great respect for the men who made Hogar Crea work so well. This organization was first established in Puerto Rico and many of the Lehigh Valley residents were Puerto Rican, but they accepted John and his family comfortably. Despite their poverty-stricken lives, their drug use and associated criminal activity, and their lack of education or any prospect of success in this competitive world, many of these men were admirable in their own way. John learned a great deal, but not enough, from these men. Pat and I may have learned more from John’s experience in Hogar Crea. There is no doubt in my mind that these recovering addicts were better able to deal with drug addiction than the psychiatrists in John’s prior rehabilitation environment.
After a period of recovery and subsequent relapse, John entered a rehab in Riverside, California, and a year later came back home to try one more time. Always we had an agreement that any drug use would send John back to Riverside. When after some promising months John did not return from his morning run, Pat and I confronted him when he got home after lunch. Yes, he had been using drugs, and yes, he knew that he would have to go back to California. Within an hour John was on a plane to Chicago on his way back to California. Everyone was in tears, but tough love requires standing by your rules.
(To be continued in subsequent blogs.)
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