He starts to tell you, ‘My liver is hurting; I really need to stop.’ ‘I threw up a little blood. Don’t worry, I’m going to get sober.’ You start making deals with God, who you haven’t talked to in years. ‘Don’t leave him,’ you tell yourself. ‘It’s only temporary.’ Then…he never makes it. He relapses because he hates himself sober too.”
‘K, this weekend for sure. No more BS. No excuses this time.’ He relapsed, again. ‘I’m so scared. I don’t want to die like this.’: Woman details her struggles with loving an addict
‘7 months pregnant with his baby, he offered me some meth. I went on a 4-day bender. I wasn’t strong enough to resist.’: Woman survives domestic abuse, says ‘I am living proof there can be a happy ending’
“Every time people saw me, there was another new bruise or broken bone. The night before Johnny gave me some meth and pills, CPS said they had to come and do an assessment. He immediately told the worker I had been ‘up doing drugs all night.’ That night was the beginning of the end.”
‘We cry in the car until we can’t breathe. We suck it up, smile. We hug our babies tight, because we could never imagine someone beating them repeatedly.’: Woman shares harsh reality of social work, ‘Next time you see a social worker, tell them thank you’
“‘All social workers are is baby snatchers.’ It’s dealing with the 5-month pregnant momma who just relapsed on meth. It’s talking to the girl molested from ages 3-15. It’s losing your client to suicide. Listening to the 17-year-old who was kicked out and has nowhere to live, or the widow who lost her husband of 50 years and doesn’t know how to live again. It’s crying when your client finally says, ‘I am beautiful, I am loved, I am enough.'”
‘You’ll never get out of this hole. Just go back to your old friend, heroin.’ I spent the night in jail, tying bedsheets around my neck.’: Man who battled addiction 9 years now owner of state’s largest recovery center
“I put the sheet around my neck and waited. I just couldn’t let go. I could hear the voices in my head saying, ‘You can’t even do this right.’ When I was released from prison, my family wouldn’t take me in. After too many broken promises, they were done with me. I owed $33,000 in child support and $100,000 for my crimes. ‘You’re going to be okay.’ My prisonmates saved my life. They took me in when I was too far gone.”
‘When he died, everyone reminded me ‘once an addict, always an addict.’ After 5 years sober, he bought a pill he thought was Percocet. I’ll never know why.’: Mom of 5 says ‘life after addiction can be so, so beautiful if you let it’
“I fell in love with a man who never put anything before our family, especially not a pill. I am reminded every day, ‘He made a choice. He didn’t have to take that pill, whether he knew it was laced or not. So, stop being sad.’ His life isn’t celebrated the same. His death wasn’t mourned because of how he died.”
‘Lindsey, you have a problem.’ I shuddered in fear. I was lying on the bathroom floor. ‘No, no, no. Not again. Is this really happening?’: Woman 401 days sober after grueling addiction to alcohol, ‘I promise you, life gets easier’
“The night before, on my 21st birthday, I participated in an escapade that led my boyfriend and I into a terrible fight at a country club. The cops had to break us up. Nobody knew I’d spent hours in a holding cell after being arrested. Or that I’d blacked out on the highway and cheated on a few of my boyfriends. Or even that I’d drink a bottle of wine after my nursing shifts and show up to work hungover, my patients’ lives in my hands. I didn’t want to believe I had a problem.”
‘He relapsed and started dating someone behind my back. I was completely blindsided. His secret turned out to be the best gift.’: Woman recounts emotional divorce from husband, ‘Your future is so much bigger than current circumstance’
“Months went by and I found myself falling back into him again. The codependency ran so deep, we honestly didn’t know how to be apart. But this wasn’t the man I’d married and chosen to spend my life with. ‘I’ll do anything to get my family back,’ he preached. He was faltering with his rehabilitation. Things started to derail. He was supposed to get better for us, for his family. I was caught in his web.”
‘After rehab, I manipulated my mom into dropping me off at a bar. ‘I’m not an alcoholic.’ I got drunk and high that night.’: Woman overcomes heroin and alcohol addiction, ‘God put me on this earth to make an impact’
“I knew nothing about heroin. But I did it. That missing feeling I had inside of me for so long was gone. It felt warm and like I was being hugged. It felt like I had arrived. In my mind, I was a heroin addict, not an alcoholic. I got drunk and got high that night. I would share needles with whoever. I found out I had contracted Hepatitis C. One of my best friends, who I used with, had been sober for 18 months. If she could do it, so could I.”
‘John has become a mere statistic in a war we are losing. His military grave plaque should say ‘War on Opioids.’: Mom loses son to opioid addiction, ‘the epidemic that is stealing our children.’
“What started as a hockey accident eventually led to full-blown addiction and death. John was injured while playing club hockey while stationed on a base in Alaska. He was sent home with an ice pack and a bottle of pain killers. They are highly addictive, especially to a young brain. I wonder when he knew he was in trouble.”
‘I screamed, thinking surely that would make him stop. He simply whispered in my ear, ‘Just another minute.’: Male sexual abuse survivor who murdered his abuser advocates for child abuse laws, ‘Break the silence’
“I was alone with pure evil. My abuser was a man I not only looked up to, but trusted completely. I began abusing drugs and alcohol to get me through my day. This was how I was living when I ran into my rapist in a deli. A young boy was by his side, calling him the same nickname he used to insist I call him. I was a completely broken man. I did the unthinkable. I murdered my abuser.”
