Helpline
Call 1.855.378.4373 to schedule a call time with a specialist or visit scheduler.drugfree.org
Helpline
Helpline
Call 1.855.378.4373 to schedule a call time with a specialist

Personal Stories

Get advice and perspective from families who have also been impacted by substance use or addiction.

When you lose a child, your life changes forever. There will always be an emptiness, and a missing piece at the family gatherings.
Thanksgiving, Christmas, birthdays or anything that was special to our family — our son who was using drugs found a way to bring heartache to the occasion. Here are my tips for dealing with it.
I learned that addiction hijacks the brain's ability to make rational decisions — and that I didn't cause it, can't cure it and can't control it.
The detective said to me, “If we had a 911 Good Samaritan law or a Narcan law, your son might very well be alive.”
When your child is in recovery, they may need a medical or dental procedure where the standard pain treatment is opioids. Here's how to deal with it.
I am working on my own recovery, so I am properly able to support his.
We have come to accept these truths. Today it's much easier to deal with the heartache. We have become more effective at helping our son with his addiction.
My son is a drug addict caught up in the vicious cycle of detox, treatment and relapsing perpetuated by the scheme of patient brokering. He's still in it.
There is no other word but grief when your child is lost in the haze of drug addiction. But your child is still there. There are paths to hope.
Just because someone you love is struggling does not mean you did something wrong or you didn’t love them enough.
In my family, addiction was treated with the same love and affection as if I had suffered from any other potentially fatal illness.
We need to change language like junkie, addict, and alcoholic if we are to lessen the stigma and negativity that saturates the perception of drug addiction.
“Tell them my story.” My 20-year-old daughter Casey said these words to me not long before she died of an accidental heroin overdose on January 15, 2017.
For this father, it took time to learn that relapse can be a natural part of addiction recovery.
Here are a few things I’d like parents to know so they can best help their child – and themselves – through treatment and recovery.
When my son became addicted, I embarked on a journey to learn about preventing and treating this disease. I wish I knew then what I know now.
Find out what Arianna Huffington, founder and CEO of Thrive Global, has learned from her daughter Christina's substance use disorder – including the importance of reaching out for help.
At face value, they sound so simple. Just seven words strung together. But in taking a moment to step back and find perspective, they become so much more.
The path to recovery is difficult. But please know you are not walking alone in addiction– hands of help are reaching out to you with your every step.
I am grateful for the responsibilities that life presents and, thanks to recovery, I am prepared to face them.
All of us — men and women alike, who contend with family members, especially children, suffering from substance use disorder, are haunted by loss.
These were men that drank and played hard during a time when there was less discrimination over a swing and a swig. Men whose substance use were denied or protected, sometimes even by the sportswriters who sat at the bar with them.
Dear Dad, I am grateful for all that you have done during my addiction and continue to do for me. I would not be alive and well today if it weren’t for you.