Category: Addiction/Substance Misuse

The forgotten population in this opiate epidemic

by Liz Darnell

Note from Anne Moss: There is a population suffering a lot of pain and swept up in this opiate epidemic, made to feel like they are doctor shopping for prescription pain mediations when they are seeking relief from pain from chronic disease. Further, this population is being left on their own with few resources to help getting detoxed and finding alternate pain management strategies. So I’m presenting this side of the epidemic, too. 

Forced tapered again.

I was diagnosed with Transverse Myelitis and Syringomyelia in 2008, and MS in 2010. First pain management doctor I went to … Read more...

Scarlet Draws

by Timothy Donald

Scarlet draws and fallen tears

With all my pain and all my fears

I’ve wasted oh so many years

How did I end up right back here

Please don’t leave me. Yes, I’m fiending

All so haunting are my demons

So I lived without a reason

On this track my soul starts bleeding

So I’m fighting and I’m trying

Said there’s lust that’s no denying

I get sick I’m trowing up

And then I start to feel like dying

Feel my heart and yes it’s crying

Needed you but b*tch I’m lying

Needed God now I’m not … Read more...

You are an emotionally naked badass if…

You talk openly (without whispering) on taboo subjects related to mental illness, addiction, suicide or grief

You lost a loved one to suicide and get out of bed every morning

You lost loved one to overdose and manage to brush your teeth daily

You lost a child to any cause of death and you joined a support group

Thoughts of suicide are something you live with and you have reached out for help

You survived a suicide attempt and went back to school or work

You have a mental illness and you have a job (any job)

You are in … Read more...

All this noise

Me: Some days I think, “How will I ever get through to people?” No one can hear me. I just feel drowned out.

Alter Ego: Everyone feels that way.  

Me: I know that. But I feel that way today, damn it. 

Alter Ego: So what do you want a pity party? 

Me: No. I just want to be heard. I keep pushing and pushing and pushing. I feel like I’m yelling but the crowd around me drowns me out and it makes me feel like my message is just not important. 

Alter Ego: You know there is so much noise … Read more...

Addiction Rehab Center Integrity Check: How to Spot a Sales Pitch

by Bill Maher

In your search for addiction treatment, you might encounter people who are happy to help you find a the right rehab center.

But these ‘addiction counselors’ are actually sales reps who earn a commission for every patient they bring into a treatment center. These are the people you’ll speak to if you call the Free Addiction Helpline you see listed on a web page.

I’ve even seen these sharks in sheep’s clothing loitering in hospital emergency rooms, brochures in hand, ready to prey on the families of overdose patients with offers of free airfare, if only they’d … Read more...

Review for the book, Mothering Addiction


Mothering Addiction: A parent’s story of heartache, healing, and keeping the door open– by Linda Harrison Hatcher (Full disclosure: the above is an affiliate link)

I am catching up on my reading since writing my own book. This one was on my list and it’s a page turner.

Lynda is emotionally naked, revealing the cracks in her marriage, her family, and her own mental health along the way. Watching our loved ones self destruct is agonizing and while our journeys are never identical, we can relate to the stories of others. And this one is definitely relatable.

I found … Read more...

How do you write your emotionally naked story?

I am often asked the question, “How do I write my story?”

People say they just can’t get started.

Just write from the heart. Write how you feel and just let it pour out without any thought about editing or anything else. That’s when the best happens. And most cleansing. I learned that trick years ago since I had to write for a living (wrote commercials).

You can always edit later.

I don’t believe there is such thing as writer’s block. You just put yourself in that spot where you feel and it will come. Know it will. Be sure … Read more...

I’d silently cry to myself at night

by Timothy Donald

HARP, Heroin Addicts Recovery Program

I can remember suffering from depression, feeling inadequate and unloved at the age of eight. My parents were young– mom was seventeen and dad was nineteen. My mom was a single parent who struggled, worked all the time and did the best she could. But I was pretty much on my own most of the time because she had to work so much. My father did the bare minimum, I barely saw him and most of his love came in the form of a child support check.

At age eight, my father

… Read more...

What did Richard think of my book?

Richard’s beach read was the manuscript about his brother. Andy dog and Uncle Reid are the supporting cast under the tent.

In addition to my first reader, a writer named Susan in Maine, I’m letting some of my family members read the manuscript of my first book. I asked Richard if he wanted to read it. He did. And he started in the car on the drive down to the Outer Banks vacation.

When we arrive in Duck, North Carolina we decide we have to have the legendary crab cakes from Blue Point for lunch. As soon we step … Read more...

I had to get comfortable making others uncomfortable

When I wrote this article in 2014, The Agony of a Child’s Mental Illness, I felt alone and naked on an island.

I was exposing my family’s ugly secret in public.  To have a child not thriving is the last thing a parent wants to admit because it feels like a failure.

I was supremely uncomfortable  sharing that article because I had no idea what the reaction would be. Turns out it was hugely popular and the follow up article after my son’s suicide went viral because others read their story in mine. And while I have become accustomed to … Read more...

Addiction Unmasked

Front of shirt. Note from Anne Moss. I highlighted Billy Derr’s name as well as Charles Rogers on this shirt

by Tim Alexander

Five days a week I’ve been training for the 43rd Marine Corps Marathon, my first ever. I chose to fundraise as a St. Jude’s Hero for the marathon yet I wanted to find a way to honor our loved ones lost to addiction after an amazing individual I met in recovery, Sean S., who died from overdose.

I thought about all the amazing people I’ve met on my journey who’ve lost their lives to to Substance Use … Read more...

How a special needs, ugly zombie cat helped me heal

by Andrea Giannini

I write this as a suicide attempt survivor, an addict in recovery, and a survivor of sibling suicide who also suffered addiction.

There was a point in time where I worked for a company full of empty promises and lacked any kind of empathy. During this time period, I lost my brother, Josh Giannini, to suicide because he could no longer live with his demons.

But this isn’t about Josh; he’s had his moment of fame through this amazing outlet of a blog. This is about the support I received during and after the death and … Read more...

I didn’t want Billy to be the ‘poster child’ for heroin addiction

by Jenny Derr

Note from Anne Moss: I wrote this post, Going to Jail, prior to my visit and presentation on hope to the HARP, heroin addicts recovery program, in Chesterfield, VA. On that post, Jenny, in addiction to some others, posted comments I made screenshots of and shared in my presentation to the ladies in the program. I wanted them to know they mattered and made a difference. 

A couple of weeks after Billy died I received a letter that was in a Hope Church envelope. Inside was another envelope with a department of corrections stamp. I was having … Read more...

The Never-Ending Race

by Timothy Alexander

The sun has yet to peek over the horizon. The air is still. My world is silent by choice; by focus. The streets are bare bones on the bed of the earth. I look past the atmosphere searching for it…Ahh! There’s one. A single star shimmers on its black velvet drop.

I smile slightly because I’m grateful that my eyes can still see the beauty of the universe. It’s funny, the things that I’ve taken for granted, and how they play an integral part of my life now. It hasn’t always been this way.

I have seen … Read more...

Grieving the loss of normal with a child who suffers

We have this picture in our minds. We wonder what our child will one day become and when it goes off the rails and doesn’t fit the scenario in our heads, we feel cheated out of our proud poppa or momma moments we had been expecting.

We may have missed seeing our child graduate from high school, go to prom, or kick the winning goal. Whatever it is, we didn’t get the satisfaction

While everyone else’s child seems to be succeeding at something, yours is struggling. It could be drugs or alcohol, learning differences, mental illness, autism, or all of … Read more...