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

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

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.

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.

How innocent we are of our mistakes and how we responsible we are for them.

How can both Nics, the loving and considerate and generous one, and the self-obsessed and self-destructive one, be the same person?

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