We deny the severity of our loved one's problem not because we are naive, but because we can't know.

Wherever you be, wherever you may, seek the truth, strive for the beautiful, achieve the good.

The 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.

I am becoming used to an overwhelming, grinding mixture of anger and worry.

Once 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.

Here's a note to the parents of addicted children: Choose your music carefully...There are millions of treacherous moments.

This 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.