If you subscribe to the idea that # addiction is a disease, it is startling to see how many of these children - paranoid, anxious, bruised, tremulous, withered, in some cases psychotic - are seriously ill, slowly dying. We'd never allow such a scene if these kids had any other disease. They would be in a hospital, not on the streets.
David SheffWhen I transformed my random and raw words into sentences, sentences into paragraphs, and paragraphs into chapters, a semblance of order and sanity appeared where there had been only chaos and insanity.
David SheffI'm not sure if I know any 'functional' families, if functional means a family without difficult times and members who don't have a full range of problems.
David SheffWhy does it help to read others' stories? It is not only that misery loves company, because (I learned) misery is too self-absorbed to want much company. Others' experiences did help with my emotional struggle.
David SheffOpenness is the first step toward recovery... addiction remains a secret because of the overwhelming shame associated with it.
David SheffAn alcoholic will steal your wallet and lie to you. A drug addict will steal your wallet and then help you look for it.
David SheffThis stigma associated with drug use--the belief that bad kids use, good kids don't, and those with full-blown addiction are weak, dissolute, and pathetic--has contributed to the escalation of use and has hampered treatment more than any single other factor.
David SheffHow can both Nics, the loving and considerate and generous one, and the self-obsessed and self-destructive one, be the same person?
David SheffAt my worst, I even resented Nic because an addict, at least when high, has a momentary respite from his suffering. There is no similar relief for parents or children or husbands or wives or others who love them.
David SheffWherever you be, wherever you may, seek the truth, strive for the beautiful, achieve the good.
David SheffWe deny the severity of our loved one's problem not because we are naive, but because we can't know.
David SheffThe hopeful part about that is when you do have that help, you will feel better. It still doesn't make this easy. Nothing makes this easy, but you can make better decisions.
David SheffAlong with the joy of parenthood, with every child comes a piercing vulnerability. It is at once sublime and terrifying
David SheffA world of contradictions, wherein everything is gray and almost nothing is black and white.
David SheffOnce and for all, people must understand that addiction is a disease. It’s critical if we’re going to effectively prevent and treat addiction. Accepting that addiction is an illness will transform our approach to public policy, research, insurance, and criminality; it will change how we feel about addicts, and how they feel about themselves. There’s another essential reason why we must understand that addiction is an illness and not just bad behavior: We punish bad behavior. We treat illness.
David SheffHere's a note to the parents of addicted children: Choose your music carefully...There are millions of treacherous moments.
David SheffAnyone who has lived through it, or those who are now living through it, knows that caring about an addict is as complex and fraught and debilitating as addiction itself.
David SheffThrough Nic's drug addiction, I have learned that parents can bear almost anything....I shock myself with my ability to rationalize and tolerate things once unthinkable. The rationalizations escalate....It's only marijuana. He gets high only on weekends. At least he's not using hard drugs.
David Sheff