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.

Anyone 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.

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.

I didn't cause it. I can't control it. I can't cure it.

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

Along with the joy of parenthood, with every child comes a piercing vulnerability. It is at once sublime and terrifying