“It’s strange how love works.”
‘We caught each other’s eye on the way to addiction recovery. Two hopeless addicts, from completely different sides of the world.’: Couple beat addiction together, ‘There is always hope’
‘I was shut upstairs, locked away. ‘There must be something wrong with me.’ Sex was learned from books. I felt unsafe.’: Woman leaves past life, walks 500 miles, ‘I let others love me’
“At 12, my grandmother looked me in the eye and said, ‘If you want to go to the gym, I’ll pay. I think you need it.’ I was the girl who drank 25 shots in a row and took her clothes off in a room full of people. I felt dead inside.”
‘I desperately tried to hide what was going on from the well-off families. Parents sensed something. Kids were no longer allowed at my house.’: Woman details candid reality of growing up with a drug-addicted parent
“I never got the chance to say goodbye, to tell her that I forgave her. She wasn’t always this way. Reading her journal entries brought me closer to her than I ever thought possible.”
‘Look at you! What’s WRONG with you?’ Ants were crawling under my skin. I lay on the cold cement floor of my jail cell.’: Woman overcomes felony charges and drug addiction, ‘You CAN recover’
“I had a spot on my shoulder, and MRSA entered my body. I remember the moment Dilaudid entered my IV. It felt like a warm pot of honey. That high was it. I wanted that forever. There was no soul left in me.”
‘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’
“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.”
‘His head hung, pajamas on from the night before. He forgot his bag. He never experienced forgiveness.’: Kindergarten teacher shares student’s act of kindness
“I walked over and found a gold pack of gummy bears, and a sticky note that read, ‘I love you.’ I burst into tears.”
‘Why don’t you get us some lottery tickets?’ I couldn’t imagine what he could be thinking. Tears streamed down my face.’: Woman details parents’ drug addiction and desire to break the cycle
“I was 19-years-old when I watched my parents shoot up heroin at our kitchen table. This is a picture of what I have left of my dad. I held my father’s hand as they told him there was nothing they could do.”
‘We rushed to go get our nails done but her reason ‘why’ struck me right in my heart.’: Mental Health counselor says, ‘you never know someone’s ‘why’
“Nail salons are finally open so, of course, I went to go get my little nails painted. As usual, I chatted with the person who was next to me. We laughed about how all of ‘us’ have rushed to go get our nails done but her reason for doing it struck me right in my heart.”
‘She said, ‘It’s your dad. There’s something wrong. The cops said they found him on the ground.’ We still had so many questions.’: Woman details life with drug-addicted father, ‘I’m not mad at you’
“‘You need to stop what you’re doing or you’ll end up dead.’ I’d see him drive by with another woman. When my mom decided to divorce him, he didn’t show up. We stood at the court house and looked out the window from the top floor. The doctor approached my brother and I. ‘You have to make a decision to let him off the machines.’ We still had so many questions.”
‘No one will pick you, look at your history.’ ‘No one will let me adopt a baby after what I’ve done.’: Woman gets clean, adopts baby from foster care, ‘My past doesn’t define who I am’
“‘This isn’t the way I’m supposed to live my life.’ I wanted so badly to be a mom. ‘Who will ever marry someone like me?’ I remember thinking, ‘Who would let me raise their baby? I am an awful human being.’”
