Category: Addiction

Parents of Addicted Children

by Donna Marks

There’s a 12-Step program for just about everything. Adult Children of Alcoholics (ACA) has been around for a long time. It was a spin-off of Al-Anon (significant others of alcoholics), which evolved from Alcoholics Anonymous. ACA is a 12-step program that offers help to adult children who have been emotionally traumatized by a dysfunctional family.

According to Claudia Black, a dysfunctional family operates under specific rules: “Don’t think, don’t trust, don’t feel, and don’t talk about it.” The secrets and silence are generally related to shame-based behaviors, usually addiction-related. 

I’d like to see a 12-Step program for … Read more...

Numb me

Wish I could go back to the way it was
before I ever had a taste of the stuff
life wasted from drugs
powder replaced faith and got traded from love
hearts now decaying to dust
scratchin’ my face as I escape the hate with a buzz

–Numb me, by Charles Aubrey Rogers

If this is not a testament to never doing drugs, I don’t know what is. Once it sucked my child into depravity, shame moved in and took up residence.

I’ve been combing through Charles’ music and this is just a snippet of a song. He … Read more...

Should you kick your addicted child out of the house?

Fill in the blank here. Addicted spouse, sibling, friend.

Living with someone who is addicted is hard and you have had enough. The lying, manipulating is bad enough. Your loved one swears they are not using but you know the signs. They are not going to rehab as they said.

Why won’t they get help? Why are they lying? Why are they torturing you like this?

You think they are selfish and unkind but what you are seeing is the disease. Your loved one is buried under all that behavior. They have not surrendered to the fact they have a … Read more...

Unresolved grief can trigger later addiction

I met grief when the police officer uttered, “I have some sad news to share, your son Charles has been found dead this morning.” “Met” is probably too gentle a term. It was more like grief and I had a head-on collision. The news that my son Charles killed himself was a painful twist of the knife. At that moment I was assaulted by so many feelings at once.

Losses can be traumatic especially when it’s an early or unexpected death.

No one is born with directions on how to grieve and after it happens you crave a road map. … Read more...

Recording of Emotionally Naked with Ryan Hampton

See the recording
  • Shame keeps those in addiction sick and using
  • Ryan’s mom did set boundaries. He was not allowed in the house. No dropping off money or paying rent. Those were her boundaries.
  • She was always a phone call away. Always would listen no matter how absurd his conversation. Allowed him to vent and encouraged him to get help. Always willing to be there. Took him meals, met him for lunch. Always let him know he was loved and there to help him find recovery 
  • Recommends looking locally for treatment. Don’t go for Vacation Riviera setups. Ask to talk
… Read more...

P.K. Hill’s Letter of Gratitude

by P.K. Hill

6.9.2020 –If only book acknowledgments could be this long……💜💜

Dear Tara and Branka, and all the survivors who in different ways have helped me stay true on the healing path…

It is difficult to put into words how grateful I am to you. I have spent my entire life searching for a way to become whole and to heal from the violence of childhood sexual abuse and rape which fragmented my soul and messed with my spiritual balance changing the trajectory of my life forever. My childhood, family, and faith were taken from me in the dark … Read more...

Virtual Turning Pain into Purpose Recording

speaker for drugs and addiction

Click here to see the recording of the above event.

And for more drug, mental health, and suicide prevention educational events from Johnny’s Ambassadors, visit here. These GoToWebinars allow you to attend with more anonymity than zoom meetings or live events.

Since they are a nonprofit, here is the donation link. Laura also lost her son to suicide as a result of drug use. Laura’s story is below.

Does marijuana use increase teen suicide risk?
… Read more...

Mrs. Taylor

by P.K. Hill

Monday, I went to the park and sat on a bench and took photographs of anything that moved and quite a few things that did not move. The day was glorious. Seventy-seven degrees Fahrenheit and not a tinge of my arch enemy, humidity. The sky was as blue as a robin’s egg and dotted with occasional fluffy white clouds and a host of birds; birds that swooped, soared, and skimmed the surface of the ponds catching flies in midair. I needed the break. 

This is a good time to thank the followers of Pk for your support … Read more...

What if the opioid epidemic got the same amount of attention?

Covid-19 hit and the world stopped.

But a deadly epidemic has been raging for nearly a decade with millions of lost lives. Even since this virus hit, opioid overdoses and deaths have increased. After seeing the numbers go down, that’s been a devastating change. Those who struggle with substance use disorder have also died by suicide overall increasing deaths of despair.

The isolation has been deadly. Face-to-face support fell apart and for a lot of people, hope went with it.

The camaraderie between doctors, researchers have been unprecedented for Covid-19. Yet we don’t have nearly the data or working relationships … Read more...