First of all, kudos to you for giving this serious thought, rather than throwing caution to the wind and hoping things will be okay. That takes a lot of courage, and you obviously love your son very much.
There are no guarantees.
What are his odds? I can't give you any statistics.
What I can give you is my personal life experience since I first went through rehab in 1986 and was introduced to the rooms of recovery.
My sponsor has 24 years clean/sober. I have 19 years clean/sober.
We have one member with 5 years in our home group, one with 4. The rest are a year or less. They very seldom make it to a year, and if they do, they seem to drop off the face of the earth somewhere before the 5 year mark.
Many of them never come back.
I am human, therefore fallible. I make mistakes.
A recent example is when I reacted out of fear for my 21 year old daughter, and rather than calling my sponsor and talking it out, I phoned my daughter and read her the riot act. I said some very angry things to her.
I hurt her. I had to make amends for that.
I can't guarantee anyone I'll stay clean/sober till the day I die.
I can't guarantee anyone I won't ever hurt them again, although it may very well be unintentional.
8 months clean is a drop in the bucket. It is not necessarily an indicator of long-term recovery.
I initially stayed clean/sober for 4 years after rehab, and then I drank/used again. I was out there for 2 long hellish months, and I consider myself extremely blessed to have made it back into recovery.
I have a 32 year old daughter who's active in addictions, and she is no longer welcome in my home.
I wouldn't even entertain the thought of allowing her into my life to any great extent unless she had at least 2 years of continuous recovery under her belt.
You take care of you and your son first and foremost.
Check into Alanon or Naranon meetings in your area for you. Alanon tends to be more widely available.
Get your hands on a copy of the book "Codependent No More" by Melody Beattie.
There are a lot of good 'sticky' posts at the top of this forum to read.
I hope you continue to post here at SR, and know you are among friends who care.
