The original Elephant on Main Street website revolved around a Dateline NBC documentary that began filming in August, 2003 and first aired in July, 2005. It was mostly written by Thom and followed our family's struggles with addiction.
Through the site and documentary, we hoped connect with other individuals and families who were going through a similar journey and, for a while, the site was also a vibrant community. But life went on, we got busy with other projects, and the give-and-take petered out. Then our ISP jettisoned us without warning and we lost our discussion boards. Most importantly, our daughter's story changed from one of addiction to one of recovery, from one of dependance to one of empowerment, from a cautionary tale to an encouraging one.
Our daughter became a visible face of teenage heroin addiction for a while, but that shouldn't and doesn't define her. She now works as a substance abuse counselor herself, is a member of the advisory board of the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment, and is a gifted writer and advocate. She is witty, loyal, delightfully eccentric and a lot of other things that have nothing to do with the medical condition that became her public persona. This, too, is a message that needs to be broadcast. We like to say that the only thing unique about our story was that we shared it will millions of strangers. Just as most families are touched in some way by addiction, all addicts are much more than the manifestation of their disease.
We know that a lot of people drew strength from reading our about our struggles, and ultimately our good fortune, but that was then. We have removed most of those stories from this iteration of the site, though this one sums up where we where in July 2005, when it went live. There are many other powerful stories of addiction (and, often, recovery) out there. In this new edition of the Elephant on Main Street, we are focusing on recovery, families, and the New Recovery Movement.
—Thom and Deirdre Forbes, March 2009