Openness is the first step toward recovery... addiction remains a secret because of the overwhelming shame associated with it.

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.

A world of contradictions, wherein everything is gray and almost nothing is black and white.

An alcoholic will steal your wallet and lie to you. A drug addict will steal your wallet and then help you look for it.

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.

Through 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.

Openness is the first step toward recovery... addiction remains a secret because of the overwhelming shame associated with it.