“I had my first serious boyfriend. He was older. That is the night my destiny changed. I became very ill the next week. I had a severe fever, so physically exhausted I couldn’t even get out of bed.”
‘I found out I was pregnant. My ex-boyfriend refused to believe the baby was his. We tried to come to a resolution, but within a month, he was found dead in his bed.’
‘The ache in my heart starts around the holidays. I know I am being ‘watched.’ I’m actually afraid everyone will think I have moved on and forgotten my son.’
“Everyone asked if we were doing anything special in honor of Alex on the first anniversary of his death. I refuse, to this day, to call it an anniversary. It is the day our lives changed forever. Anniversaries are for celebrating. So I just call it the day Alex died.”
‘Gunner went out with friends Friday night. They came back and stayed up playing video games, like most 19-year-olds do. At some point, Gunner, and his friend, took a pill.’
“He has no history of drug use, has never been a ‘problem child’, was a star athlete, wonderful son and was extremely loved in his community. We don’t know why he decided to take ‘a pill’ that night. Both boys died immediately.”
‘Realizing I was gay gave me feelings I was trying to numb. I felt like I was doing something wrong and if people found out, I wouldn’t be loved. I spent 15 years in a downward spiral.’
“I hated drugs, but I also couldn’t be away from them. My family had no idea what to do. You name it, they tried it in hopes of getting their son back – but it got a lot worse before it got better.”
‘Dear Dad, that was shocking what you did. Please can you get help? I’m sorry drugs did that to you, but never do it again. I really miss the old you.’
“I remember sitting in that jail cell crying my eyes out, thinking my daughter, who was 9 at the time, would be in her 20’s before I saw her again. That was my true rock bottom. I can’t even begin to describe to you the utter defeat and sadness I felt that day.”
‘I overdosed. I woke up on the ground to paramedics and my mom in my face. I had failed at getting high. I no longer had any heroin.’
“This was insanity at its finest, because I continued to use knowing I had literally just died from the exact thing I was polluting my body with.”
‘Drug addict by day, mom/wife by night’: Woman’s journey from hiding pills in her bra to becoming ‘The Healing Junkie’
“I started experimenting with drugs at the age of 13 — smoking pot and drinking, until someone gave me a Percocet. I still remember the warmness that came over my body as the surge of dopamine flooded my brain… I was in love.”
