“Opiate use took years from my family and me, caused division, hurt, and unremovable memories to the whole family, including myself.”

“By sharing my story publicly it took away the power of this little secret I have carried for the last several years. Sharing it takes away all the power it had over me, and I now feel free and proud of my journey.”

Anyone who has ever been physically addicted to an opiate knows – once it’s on, it’s on. My entire life became about chasing heroin.

Opiates numbed it all. Made me feel okay. I believed I did my best in the chaos, one of those false beliefs in active addiction.

Mikael was the heart of our family. He never lost his kind spirit and always made family get togethers worth going to with his dancing, jokes, playfulness, and just the love he had for his family. He didn’t have a mean bone in his body. He treated his friends like family and would give you the shirt off his back if needed.

Today, my husband and I try to bring awareness to the problems that revolve around people with opioid misuse disorders. We do whatever we can to help erase stigma by opening conversations and speaking out to groups about our experiences. Our hope is to give Jacob a voice.

In his late teen years, Sam acknowledged his drug problem and realizing he needed help, took the lead in researching facilities to find a treatment program he thought would work for him. He signed himself up and went voluntarily.

He gave back to his community by working food drives at local businesses. He mentored a few of the neighborhood kids and took them under his wing to keep them out of trouble. This was all until Mikey became addicted to pain pills.

I found Al-Anon but Adam would have none of it. He refused help. He turned inward, his rage coming out at me more and more as he aged. He became violent.

Our mom had six children and four of us are left. Every single one of us struggles with addiction. Some of us have gotten sober, and sadly some of us haven’t.

I try to find my blessings like her sobriety and the fact that I was Blessed to have been her mother.

Tyler’s death has changed our family forever. Having to call his then 21 year old sister, who was in college across the country, to tell her that her brother was dead, was one of the hardest things I’ve had to do. To know that she would have to fly home alone, with a crushed heart, was unbearable. Having to tell his 16 year old brother, about Tyler’s death wasn’t much easier.

I remember picking up my year medallion of sobriety and him taking me home and shooting up heroin right next to me. I knew from that point on I lost my father.

The fateful day arrived on May 17, 2015. There will never come a day, hour, minute or second that I stop loving or thinking about my son. Child loss is a loss like no other. Theo was an incredibly loved young man.
Friends flew across the country to be at his funeral, and the incredible sadness about how his death could have been prevented just permeated the air. Because of the embarrassment he felt, he never asked his friends for help.

These are the drugs that were found in my son’s system after an accidental overdose on the morning of February 11, 2012: Meth, Heroin, Xanax, Ambien, and Ecstasy.

After almost one year of sobriety, Connor was offered drugs. He said “no” to drugs. He was then offered spice, k2, which unfortunately he said “yes” to! This yes, took Connor’s life.

I asked Chase why he got God’s Chosen tattooed above his cross and he said, “Because God has chosen me. I am going to reach out and help others with addiction because I have walked in their shoes.” I pray Chase continues to touch other people’s lives through his story.

I want to open the eyes and hearts of those who have not experienced addiction or watched it demolish the lives of loved ones. I want to provide some form of encouragement to those who struggle with addiction. I want to shine a beacon of hope and community to the families and friends who love an addict.

Sheena hated heroin, but heroin loved her.

After my ex passed away and I realized I had close friends who were addicts and hiding it, I gathered information from addicts who were in recovery.

As a parent of a child with substance abuse disorder (SUD), you always carry hope within your heart. This hope always lead me to believe that there was no hurdle that we could not overcome. I always took it one step at a time and began living life just that way. Approaching each problem as it came and knowing that somehow, we would fix things and life would eventually be okay.

I go back to the moment I opened his bedroom door over and over again. I will never forget anything. I had an outer body experience. I was screaming, punching holes in the walls and throwing kitchen chairs.

I will never see my son find the love of his life, and never have grandchildren. For that I am so sad. But I am equally grateful for the 22 beautiful years I got to spend with him.

We lost my son Cody, to a Heroin/ Fentanyl Overdose on August 1, 2016. Since then I have been out there helping to make a difference and help people.

. . . is so important to shout from the proverbial rooftop in order to remove the stigma from addiction. Cassidy didn’t “look” like what most people imagine a heroin addict might look.

We do not have any addiction history in our family, so we were blindsided by Kirby! Her story of addiction is heartbreaking and difficult to discuss.

Kyle was a sweet, sensitive, affectionate little boy and continued to be into his teenage and adult years.

Us Against The World Joshua. If your story saves one person I would be doing my purpose you always told me I would 💜

We had talked about him getting married and having beautiful children. He was finally starting to dream again.

As her mother I don’t think there will ever be a day that I don’t get that sinking feeling in my stomach and that pain in my heart when I think about her. Tears come so easily now. There are days her life seems like it was a dream and then I remind myself, she was here and she mattered and she was loved. Oh how she was loved.

His so called “friend” took him to live with him, and less than a month later (Oct.12,2012) my precious baby boy overdosed alone in that friend’s house.

“Once her addiction took hold, she went to detox multiple times, rehab more times than I can count, jail, and was Baker Acted here in Florida.”

“Hope was a good person and a beautiful soul; that part of her never changed.”

“Being a close community, we are all in a bubble, thinking our kids are safe and they won’t be approached or tempted.”

“The tragedy and travesty that took Hunter’s life shocked everybody. No one saw this coming!”

“Changing the opinions of this community has been a struggle, even when I present research and facts.”

“… more and more parents were contacting me about that doctor. I started collecting empty pill bottles and scripts from parents and worked with the DEA to arrest her.”

Onward, Ho, Jared! “You can’t go back and you can’t stand still, if the thunder don’t get ya then the lightning will.”

Funny, irreverent, talented, Jesus loving, rhyme spinning Joel – I’ll see you again. “I love you in a place where there’s no space and time.”

Thus began a journey of trying to find out what to do for a 16-year-old who is addicted to heroin, and how to find a program to help him recover that was not $50- $100,000.

“. . . I had to make a choice, either let his death destroy me or take it and grow as a person and be his voice, our voice and take initiative to help save lives and reduce the stigma that surrounds addiction.”

I would give anything for a do over. To rewind time knowing what I know now. I would have held on tighter and never let him go.