“After we lost Hannah, he began spiraling. One night, he came home extremely late and he was crying. His drinking increased. I tried to reach out to him but his personality was split in two.”
‘I just want to run my car into the wall.’ He became short with us. Our arguments were violent. I tried so hard to reach him.’: Mom of 4 loses husband to suicide, ‘I choose love over bitterness’
‘My dad is the town crackhead. He cried when he met my son for the first time. Every year for my birthday, he gets me a present.’: Daughter to addict urges ‘he was someone before drugs’
“Next time you see an addict on the street and you think they’re just a junkie or piece of garbage, please remember that’s someone’s family, someone’s dad, someone son, someone’s sibling, and they were someone before drugs or alcohol took them over. My dad may be an addict, but he never stops trying.”
‘I didn’t know that about you,’ said a patient at work. I was embarrassed to be placed in the same category.’: Widow shares why she carries late fiancé’s Narcotics Anonymous key chains
“My first reaction was to be defensive; my second was the opposite. The second reaction came when I realized why I carry these key chains. Jamie was 5 years sober when he bought a pill he didn’t know was fentanyl, and he died. Jamie was 29 years old. He was a dad to five kids.”
‘You have one brother, Andrew,’ she said. ‘Is he healthy?’ I didn’t know him at all anymore. We WERE normal.’: Woman shares grief journey for brother with opiate addiction, ‘Allow yourself to feel’
“My brother and I were blessed with a picture-perfect childhood. Every moment was a Kodak moment. As we got older, our lives changed. After 6 months of studying abroad in Spain, I came home to a new reality, an opiate-infused reality.”
‘Mom said, ‘You aren’t coming home.’ My sexuality was a sin. I was punished for making eye contact. The chance I’d pull through was slim.’: Woman survives accident, cancer, ‘I’m ALIVE for the first time’
“I was topping the scales at over 650 pounds. I pulled up and asked him if he was okay. A rush of cars started coming and they weren’t slowing down. Then I heard brakes screeching, the glass breaking. I flew through the air. I’d have to have my entire tongue removed.”
‘My parents broke the news. ‘You were adopted at age 2.’ For the first time, I understood my parents had left me behind, forever.’: Adoptee overcomes addiction, ‘I needed to fall in love with myself again’
“I felt unloved. I tried to prove my worth and acted out to get attention from loved ones. At 14, I started experimenting with drugs. I continued on a rampage until I found heroin at age 15 with the help of an older boyfriend. ‘Please let me come home,’ I begged. I tried to stop many times. Then, one day, I found out I was pregnant. That little heartbeat was the sound of a chapter of my life closing forever.”
‘I hired a private detective. ‘For a few hundred more bucks, I can bring you face to face with your mother.’ Every time the phone rang, I hoped it was her missing me.’: Woman details life with addicted mother, ‘I vowed to be the best mom I can be’
“The doorbell rang at 6 a.m. I opened the door to see my mom standing between two policemen, muddy and handcuffed. She’d call me ‘Bucky,’ knowing I was self-conscious about my teeth. When I was 19 and getting married, no mom. When I was 20 and having my first baby, no mom. I had the same phone number for several years, but she never dialed it again.”
‘I don’t want to hurt you. I just feel so much pain all the time.’ I had to pick up his gun.’: Woman mourns little brother to suicide, ‘We will always grieve the loss of the man who kept us laughing’
“I sat alone in my car and screamed. ‘I’m sorry I couldn’t save you, buddy.’ That was my job throughout his entire life. I WAS SUPPOSED TO SAVE HIM. When I came back to myself, I was a different person.”
‘I watched as my mom was zipped up in a body bag and carried away. This is the end of us.’: Woman loses mom to Stage 4 colon cancer, ‘My mom would be angry if I didn’t make a beautiful life for myself’
“Instead of celebrating with pizza and cake on my 17th birthday, we sat in the hospital. My addict brother would steal my mom’s medication. A switch flipped in my brain. Suddenly, my wants and needs didn’t matter.”
‘An alert popped up from a woman named Dani. When I confronted him, he dropped the bomb. Dani was a man.’: Woman feels guilt over ex-husband’s infidelity and suicide
“Charles confessed that for years, he felt attracted to men and he thought getting married to me would make him normal. ‘It’s part of me, but I want you to stay.’ He said that he would try to ‘fix it,’ and that he loved me. I received a message from a Facebook friend. ‘Have you heard what happened to Charles?’ He was found in the woods.”
